Briscola

"Briscola" is the popular Italian card game played with a 40-card deck. After the deck is shuffled, three cards are dealt to each player. The next card is placed face up on the playing surface, while the remaining deck is placed face down, sometimes covering half of the face-up card. This card is the Briscola and represents the trump suit for the game. At the beginning of the game or the first round, if a player has two trumps, they can withdraw the "briscola". Before starting the game, players in a team can show each other their cards. The dealing and gameplay proceed counterclockwise. The player to the right of the dealer leads the first round (or trick) by playing a card face up on the playing surface. Each player subsequently plays a card in turn until all players have played a card. The winner of the trick is determined as follows: - if a Briscola (trump) was played, the player who played the highest trump wins - if no Briscola was played, the player who played the highest card of that round wins. Winning by suit In contrast to other trump card games, players are not required to follow suit, meaning they can play any suit regardless of what the leading player played. Once the winner of a trick is determined, that player collects the played cards and places them face down in a pile. Each player keeps their own pile, although variations for four and six players may have one player collecting all tricks won by their partners. Then, each player draws a card from the remaining deck, starting with the player who won the trick and proceeding counterclockwise. Note that the last card drawn in the game should be the overturned Briscola. After all cards have been played, players calculate the total value of the points from the cards in their own piles. There is no need for scorekeeping in Briscola.