Not to be confused with divinatory tarot, the game of tarot probably comes from Italy. It is played with a deck of tarot cards where you find 14 cards in the four regular suits (there is a fourth figure/face card - the cavalier - inserted between the jack and the queen). Add to those 56 cards 21 trumps and a special card which is called the excuse (l'excuse), or fool, for a grand total of 78 cards.
In the most popular tarot game, called French Tarot in most English-speaking countries, one of the players will be the taker and he will be playing against all the other players. The takers' goal is to make a certain amount of points in order to fulfill the contract he bid on at the beginning of the game. The goal of the other players (called the defence) is to stop him achieving his score. The defence plays as a team against the taker.
After receiving their hand, the players will one by one bet on a contract if they think they can achieve the number of points required. The last player to place a bet will become the taker.
A large number of European card games are played with either the full tarot deck or a subset of it, often re-faced in Germanic or other Eastern European motifs.
Online Play
Record a Play
Submit Corrections
Customize View
Subscribe
RSS Feed 
