Tarot

1.Setup

• A 78-card deck: four suits of 14 cards, 21 numbered trumps and the Excuse.
• With four players, each receives 18 cards in packets of three. Six cards form the dog (kitty), set aside during the deal.
• With three players, 24 cards each. With five players, 15 cards each.

2.How to play

• Bidding in order: Pass, Small (Petite), Guard (Garde), Guard without the dog, Guard against the dog. Each bid must be higher than the previous one.
• For Small and Guard, the taker turns up the dog, adds it to their hand, then discards six cards. They may discard neither an oudler nor a king.
• For Guard without, the dog goes to the taker unseen. For Guard against, it goes to the defence.
• With five players, the taker calls a king: whoever holds it becomes their partner, without saying so.
• Tricks are then played: you must follow the suit led, trump if you cannot, and play a higher trump when you can.
• The Excuse never wins the trick but stays with the side of the player who played it.

3.Scoring

• The oudlers are the 1 of trumps (the Petit), the 21 of trumps and the Excuse.
• The target depends on the number of oudlers won: 56 points with none, 51 with one, 41 with two, 36 with three.
• Cards are counted in pairs: king and a low card 4.5 points, queen 3.5, knight 2.5, jack 1.5, two low cards 1 point.
• Taker's score: 25 points plus the difference from the target, all multiplied by the contract's multiplier — 1 for Small, 2 for Guard, 4 for Guard without, 6 for Guard against.
• Each defender loses this amount, and the taker collects the defenders' total. The game is zero-sum.
• Bonuses: each goes to one side, which is not necessarily the taker's.
• Petit au bout is worth 10 points times the contract's multiplier, i.e. 60 under a Guard against. It goes to the side that led it to the last trick, attack or defence, whether the contract is made or not.
• The handful (poignée) — single 20, double 30, triple 40 — is added as is, without multiplier, to the side that wins the deal, whoever showed it.
• Slam (chelem): 400 if announced and made, 200 if made without announcing, a 200 penalty if announced and missed; if made by the defence, it scores 200 for them. It is not multiplied.

4.End of the game

• Play a number of deals that is a multiple of the number of players, so everyone deals equally often.
• The winner is the player with the best cumulative total, often far from zero.

House rules and pitfalls

• Petit au bout — playing the 1 of trumps in the last trick and winning it — scores 10 points times the contract's multiplier.
• A bare Petit (the only trump in your hand) calls for a redeal under most club rules.
• A frequent mistake with five players: forgetting that the called partner is only revealed when the called king is played.
• With six players, the dealer sits out the deal: they are the dummy. They receive no cards, score zero, and the other five play as with five, calling a king.

Variants

chosen when starting, the scorer follows

Frequently asked questions

The box

Age

Ages 12+

Origin

Traditional game, with no specific designer or publisher

Mechanics

EnchèresEn équipesPlis

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