trick-taking
A trick-taking game is a card game, card- or tile-based game in which play of a ''Hand (card games), hand'' centers on a series of finite rounds or units of play, called ''tricks'', which are each evaluated to determine a winner or ''taker'' of ...
tarot card game
Tarot games are card games played with tarot packs designed for card play and which have a permanent trump suit alongside the usual four card suits. The games and packs which English-speakers call by the French name tarot are called tarocchi i ...
from
Piedmont
Piedmont ( ; ; ) is one of the 20 regions of Italy, located in the northwest Italy, Northwest of the country. It borders the Liguria region to the south, the Lombardy and Emilia-Romagna regions to the east, and the Aosta Valley region to the ...
, Italy. It is a simple tarot game which can serve as an introduction to more complex tarot games. The name comes from the discarded cards that were exchanged with the stock, which is also the origin of the name for the Skat card game.
Deck
The 78-card Italian suited
Tarocco Piemontese
The Tarocco Piemontese (''Tarot of Piedmont'') is a type of tarot deck of Italian playing cards, Italian origin. It is the most common tarot playing set in northern Italy, much more common than the Tarocco Bolognese. The most popular Piedmontese Ta ...
is used to play this game but the French suited
Tarot Nouveau
The Bourgeois Tarot deck is a mid-19th century pattern of tarot cards of German origin that is used for playing card games in western Europe and Canada. It is not designed for divinatory purposes.suits each with ten ranks of
pip cards
Pips are small but easily countable items, such as the dots on dominoes and dice, or the symbols on a playing card that denote its suit and value.
Playing cards
In playing cards, pips are small symbols on the front side of the cards that de ...
and four ranks of
face card
In a deck of playing cards, the term face card (US) or court card (British and US), and sometimes royalty, is generally used to describe a card that depicts a person as opposed to the pip cards. In a standard 52-card pack of the English pattern, ...
s plus a suit of 21
trump
Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who is the 47th president of the United States. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, he served as the 45 ...
s and one suitless card, the Fool.
The order of the long (swords and batons) or black (spades and clubs) suits goes from King, Queen, Cavalier, Jack, 10 ... 1 while the round (cups and coins) or red suits (hearts and diamonds) goes from King, Queen, Cavalier, Jack, 1 ... 10. Trump 20 also outranks 21 as in most Piedmontese tarocchi games.
Card Points:
* Kings and Trumps 1 and 20: 5 points
* Queens and the Fool: 4 points
* Cavaliers (Knights): 3 points
* Knaves (Jacks): 2 points
* All others: 1 point
Rules
The dealer hands everyone 25 cards with three remaining cards as the stock. The dealer can exchange cards with the stock. The discarded cards (''scarto'') will join his trick pile. The dealer cannot discard any card worth 5 points or the Fool. Trump 1 can be discarded if the dealer has no other trump (including the Fool).
Play is counter-clockwise; the player to the right of the dealer leads the first trick. Players must follow suit otherwise they must play a trump if possible. The winner of each trick leads to the next until all cards are played.
The Fool can be played at any time. It is not part of any suit but excuses the player from following suit; it cannot win any tricks or be captured. If the Fool leads the trick, the next player's card sets the trick's suit. When using the Fool, the player simply shows the card and puts it in his own trick pile. Unlike in more advanced tarot games, the player does not need to exchange the Fool with a worthless card.
After the hand has been played, the player's trick pile cards are counted in threes. Add up the points in each trick won then subtract 2 points from it.Scoring in tarot games at
Pagat.com
Pagat.com is a website containing rules to hundreds of card games from all over the world. Maintained by John McLeod, it contains information for traditional, commercial, and newly invented card games from all over the world. It has been describ ...
The Fool is counted separately; the player who won the trick that had the Fool should have two remaining cards. An extra point is added to this, then subtract two as usual. There should be 78 points divided between the three players so each player will have to subtract 26 from their total point count to get their game score. The player to the right of the dealer is the next dealer; the game continues until all players have dealt. The loser is the one with the lowest cumulative score and has to pay the winners, traditionally with a drink.