Briscola

"Briscola" is the popular Italian card game played with a 40-card deck. Once the deck is shuffled, each player is dealt three cards. 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 Briscola and represents the trump suit for the game. Before starting the game, if a player has two trumps, they can call "briscola." This move can only be made at the beginning of the game or at the first hand. Before playing the first hand (in a game with four players), teammates can show each other their cards. The dealing and the game itself proceed counterclockwise. The player to the right of the dealer leads the first hand (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 that hand is determined as follows: - If a trump was played, the player who played the highest trump wins. - If no trump was played, the player who played the highest card of the respective suit wins. Unlike other trump card games, players are not required to follow suit, meaning they don’t have to play the same suit as the leading player. 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 versions for four and six players may have one player collect all the tricks won by their partners. Then, each player draws a card from the remaining deck, starting with the player who won the trick, proceeding counterclockwise. Note that the last card drawn in the game should be the face-down Briscola. After all cards have been played, players calculate the total value of the points of the cards in their own pile. There is no need to keep a record of the overall standings.