Brisca

The Spanish pack has 40 or 48 cards distributed in four suits: oros (golden coins), copas (glasses), espadas (swords) and bastos (sticks); the picture cards are sota (jack,10), caballo (horse,11), and rey (king,12). Most games are played with the 40 cards pack (pictures and cards from ace to seven), but some of them need also eights and nines.

Brisca is one of the tute family games, in which the purpose is always to take tricks according with certain card values and using a trumps suit.

Brisca is a game for a variable number of players, normally between 2 and 4; when the number of players is 4, it is possible to play in pairs.

The version here offered is available for 2, 3 and 4 players

Though the length of the game may vary according with the number of hands necessary to achieve the game, agreed by the players before starting, brisca games tends to get shorter than other games of the same family.

The version offered by Ludoteka.com allows to fix the number of hands to win in 1, 3 or 6

Since the number of cards must be always a multiple of the number of players, the twoes are not used when the number of players is 3

Objective

The main objective is to be the first to achieve the agreed number of hands; and the objective in every hand is to get the highest amount of points with the cards taken through all the tricks.

How the game goes on

Start of the game and each of the hands

Randomly players decide who is the dealer; the next player on the right will start the game.

At the start of every hand the player at the left of the dealer must cut the pack; cards are dealt one by one, and finally another card is put face up to show which are the trumps.

In every hand all the cards are played once, so the number of tricks to take is given by the result of dividing the number of cards between the number of players. In every trick all the players throw one card; always one of the players wins the trick and takes thrown cards.

Playing the cards

The leader throws any card, and the other players, from left to right, throw everyone another card, the one that they want, without any restriction about the number or suit of the card.

Pick up the tricks

The trick is obtained by the player who has thrown the highest trump and, if there is no trumps on the table, by the player who has thrown the highest card of the opening suit.

This is the hierarchy between the cards of every suit, from highest to lowest: Ace, Three, Rey(King,12), Caballo(Knight,11), Sota(10), Seven, Six, Five, Four, Two.

In the rest of the tricks of the hand the start is made always by the player who obtains the previous trick.

Before playing a new suit, while the pack does not run out of cards, every player take a new card from the pack, starting by the one who has won the last trick; so, players always may choose between 3 cards to throw, except during the last two tricks. When the pack runs out of cards, the last player must take the card that shows the trumps.

Scoring the tricks

After playing all the cards, the amount of points got by every player is counted.

These are the values of the cards, according to their numbers: Ace (11 points), Three (10 points), Rey (4 points), Caballo (3 points) and Sota (2 points). The remaining cards do not have any value. The total number of points played is always 120.

The player who gets the highest score wins the hand. When two or more players make the same highest score, the hand is awarded by all of them.

Changing the cards

When one player has the seven of the trumps, it may be changed by the card that points out the trumps if this card has some value (Ace, Three, Rey, Caballo or Sota). The change can be done only after winning one trick and before taking a new card from the pack. The same king of change may be made also between the Two and the remaining cards with no value (Four, Five, Six or Seven).

You can click on the card to get as soon as you get the necessary card; the program changes it when it is possible.

End of the game

The game finishes when some of the players get reaches the number of hands agreed before starting the game; if two or more players reach that number of hands at the same time, the game continues until the draw is broken.

Playing by pairs

When 4 players take part in the game, it is possible to play by pairs. In this case, the players of both pairs are placed in alternate positions.

The rules are the same; the only aspect that has to be taken into account is that, in order to determine the pair that wins every hand, the scores got by each pair will be the sum of the scores got by both players.

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