French tarot

Tarot is a card game played with a deck of 78 cards. Compared to a classic 52-card deck, there is an additional figure, the knight, placed between the queen and the jack, which gives 14 cards per suit. A special "trump" suit is also added, different and independent from the four basic suits (spades, hearts, diamonds, clubs), with 21 cards numbered from 1 to 21. Finally, there is also a very special card, the fool, which acts as a sort of joker

The following rules describe French tarot. There exist many other versions from various other countries and regions. The origin of the game is not absolutely certain, as it's a game that is already several centuries old.

Game rules

Tarot is both an individual and a team game. At the beginning of each round, the game begins with a betting phase on the contracts to be made. The winner of the bet, called the declarer or attacker, will play alone against the other players, called the defenders, and will try to achieve the contract he has bet, possibly with the support of other teammates in games with 5 or 6 players. But the attackers and defenders, and therefore the teams, change with each deal!

Dealing

Cards are usually dealt three by three. Each player receives 12, 15, 18 or 24 cards when playing with 6, 5, 4 or 3 players respectively. The undealt cards, between 3 and 6, form the kitty. The player who wins the betting phase can, depending on the contract chosen, eventually incorporate the kitty into their hand to improve it.

Contracts and betting

Once the distribution is finished, we proceed to the betting phase. In turn, each player can either pass, i.e. not play any contract, or take, i.e. choose to play a contract among those available. You can of course outbid another player by announcing a higher contract, as long as you have not already passed.

The contracts are as follows:

If no one takes a contract, the deck is reshuffled and goes to the next dealer.

The kitty

Once the betting phase is over, unless the contract that has been agreed is guard without or against, the attacker takes the kitty, shows it to everyone, then adds the cards it contains in their hand. Then they discard as many cards as they have taken and puts them back in the kitty. They can discard any card except kings, trumps and the fool, unless there is no other choice. They can, of course, discard one or more of the cards they have just drawn.

When ready, the game play can begin. At this point, no one can touch the kitty, and it will not be used again. Its contents will only be revealed at the end of the round.

When playing the guard without or guard against, this step is skipped completely. The kitty is only shown at the very end of the round.

Game play

The play of the hand is relatively classic compared to other trick taking games :

The winner of the trick starts the next one. The winner of the trick is the one who has played the highest trump card, or, if there is no trump, the highest card in the requested suit. The king is the highest card, the ace the lowest, and the knight is between the queen and the jack.

The fool acts as a joker and can be played at any time, regardless of whether or not one can follow or cut. It can never win a trick anyway.

The fool also has the additional feature of always staying with its owner, no matter who wins the trick at which it's played, unless it is played at the last trick, in which case it is lost.

In the case of leading with the fool, the suit is determined by the second card played.

A game of tarot is in fact based on three main cards that are called oudlers. They are the 21 of trump, the 1 of trump and the fool. They are worth a lot of points in themselves, but they also reduce the number of points required to make the attacker's contract if he has them. The 21 of trump is impregnable, and so is the fool as long as one does not make the serious mistake of playing it at the last trick. Only the 1 of trump, which is called the little one, is vulnerable. A good part of the strategies of the game is constituted around the little one, either to try to save it, or to make it fall from the opposite team.

Scoring

Scoring in tarot is quite complex. First of all, it is necessary to distinguish between the game points, which are the ones actually counted and saved, and the card points, which only serve to determine if the declarer's contract is successful or not, and its value in terms of game points.

A complete tarot deck contains 91 points distributed as follows:

To succeed in the declared contract, the attacker must obtain at least a minimum of points with their cards, defined according to the number of oudlers they have:

Points are counted to the nearest half. Thus if the attacker makes 35½ points with three oudlers, the contract is lost.

Each contract is arbitrarily worth 25 points, to which is added the difference between the card points obtained and those strictly required to make the contract. This score is then multiplied by the value of the contract chosen by the attacker. Then, finally, each defender wins or loses this number of points while the attacker wins or loses as many times this number of points as there are defenders. If the declarer has succeeded in the contract, he or she wins points while the defenders lose points, and vice versa. All this is done in such a way that the total of all the players is always equal to zero.

Multipliers vary depending on the contract played:

Here are some examples for a better understanding :

The little one brought to the end

A bonus occurs when the 1 of trump is played at the last trick: if the little one is played at the last trick, each player gives 10 points to the winner of the trick. This player is then said to have "led the little one to the end". The bonus is therefore 20 points for 3 players, 30 points for 4 players, 40 points for 5 and 50 points for 6.

This bonus is independent of the teams, and concerns only the player who plays the little one at the last trick of the round. If the little one was played before, no bonus is counted. These bonuses are never multiplied by the value of the contract.

Handles or poignées

If declarer has many trumps in the hand, he or she can announce a handle. He or she must then show the required number of trumps to the other players, including at least the smallest and largest of them. The fool can count as a trump, but if it is shown, it implies that the declarer does not have any other trumps that he or she has decided not to show.

If the declarer wins the round, he or she receives 20, 30 or 40 bonus points from each player. On the other hand, if the contract is lost, he or she is the one who will give 20, 30 or 40 points to each of the other players. It can therefore be risky to announce a handle if you are not really sure of winning the round.

The number of points (20, 30 or 40) is determined by the number of trumps required to announce a handle, because there are actually three kinds of handles: the single, the double and the triple, each of which requires a greater number of trumps than the previous ones. The number of trumps needed for each kind of handle also varies according to the number of players:

Call for the king

When playing with 5 players, the attacker is no longer always alone to make their contract. After the distribution but before revealing the kitty to everyone, the declarer chooses a king to call. The player who has the king will play alongside the attacker, but their membership in the attacking team will not be known until the called card is actually played. The attacker therefore never knows who owns the called card.

If the king called is in the kitty or in the attacker's hand, then the attacker will play alone against the other four players. It is not forbidden to voluntarily call a king that you have, either to confuse the defenders who will not know until late that they are all together, or because you think you have a good enough game to play alone. In case you have all four kings, you can call a queen or any other card besides the trumps and the fool. In any case, one is not allowed to lead with the called suit at the first trick, except to lead precisely from the called card.

When the attackers are two, the points won or lost by the offensive team are divided two thirds for the taker, one third for the called. If the taker is alone, the base score of the contract is multiplied by 4 instead of 3.

Examples :

Call for the queen

On the same principle as the call to the king with 5 players, a queen is also called in addition to the king when playing with 6 players. In the same way, you can voluntarily call cards that you have in your deck, and, similarly, you can call a knight or any other card if you have all four queens. However, it is forbidden to call a second king. It is also forbidden to start the first trick with one of the two suits called.

Depending on whether the two cards called belong to yourself, to the same player, or if one or both cards are in the kitty, you can end up playing three against three, two against four, or one against five.

When the declarer is alone, the base score of the contract is multiplied by 5 instead of 3. If the attackers are two, the points won or lost are shared 1/6-5/6, 2/3-1/3 or 1/4-3/4 depending on the cards called. If they are three, the declarer wins half of the points, the first person called wins a third, and the second called a sixth.

For example :

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