Game: Briscola

Thread: Re: Who takes the Briscola?

drunkenKOALA — 2008-09-14T10:36:45+00:00

I thought this was a parody of Agricola.

Thread: Re: Who takes the Briscola?

Foozle — 2008-09-14T10:21:54+00:00

I think the best variant is to make the last three tricks follow suit. This really goes a long way to negate any advantage of having the ace or trey as the briscola. I have been learning the game from scratch and this makes the end-game easier to follow for a 500's trained card player.

Thread: Re: Who takes the Briscola?

dorakeen — 2008-08-07T15:19:37+00:00

rossum wrote:
Yes, the last player does take the face-up briscola when it is their turn to draw in the last hand.
That's correct.

rossum wrote:
We also play with an apparently common convention to shuffle and re-flip briscola if the Ace or Three is turned up before dealing.

That's wrong. Simply let it there.

Ciao!

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chaosbreaker — 2007-03-12T04:48:21+00:00

Briscola by Brian Friesen (Freezerware)

Thread: Who takes the Briscola?

rossum — 2006-12-13T17:01:08+00:00

For some reason, this rule was absent in the Hoyle rules for Briscola, so the first hand or two I played we didn't know what happened to the face-up briscola card. Hitting the net provided the needed clarification: Yes, the last player does take the face-up briscola when it is their turn to draw in the last hand.

We also play with an apparently common convention to shuffle and re-flip briscola if the Ace or Three is turned up before dealing.

Hope this helps!

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MikeKn — 2006-01-28T13:44:55+00:00

Thread: Game Review

Betote — 2005-12-13T01:51:42+00:00

The Brisca is, with Mus and Tute (which is, in fact, an Advanced Brisca), one of Spain's most played card games. It's a basic trick-tacking game that is played with a standard 40-card Spanish deck. The objective of the game is to score the most points, which are awarded by winning certain cards on several manos.

The deck

An Spanish deck consists of 4 suits (Oros -coins-, Copas -cups-, Espadas -swords- and Bastos -clubs-) numbered 1-7 plus 3 figures for each suit (Sota -Jack-, Caballo -Horse- and Rey -King-), which total 40 cards. In the Brisca numbers 2 and 4-7 doesn't score anything (their values count only for the purpose of winning the tricks). The rest of the cards score like this:

Ace - 11 points
Three - 10 points
Jack - 2 points
Horse - 3 points
King - 4 points

The game

First, the deck is shuffled and each player is dealt a hand of 3 cards. Then, the top card is laid face up on the table. That card is the brisca, and its suit will be the trump of the game. The remaining deck is put face down partially covering the brisca. The game goes counterclockwise, beggining with the player to the right from the dealer, who will be the lead of the first hand.

The lead plays a card face up on the table, and then, counterclockwise, each player plays a card (they can play any card from their hand; there's no need to follow the lead's suit). When each player has played a card, the winner of the trick is determined using these rules:

- The lead player wins, unless any player plays a higher value card of the same suit as the lead's.
- The player who played the highest value card of the lead's card's suit wins, unless any player plays a card of the same suit as the brisca.
- The player who played the highest value card of the brisca suit wins.

For trick winning purposes, the card values are, from lower to higher, 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, J, Q, K, 3, A.

The player who wins the trick takes all the cards and puts them aside near him, draws a card (followed, counterclockwise, by the other players) and leads the next hand.

At the end of the game, each player counts his score. The player whith the most points is the winner.

Variants

As any tradictional game, the Brisca has a lot of variants. Some of the most widespread in Spain are the following:

- The brisca card can at any moment be swapped for the 7 of its suit. If the brisca card is a 7 (even if it was because of swapping the former brisca), it can at any moment be swapped for the 2 of its suit.

- When the last card of the deck (which will be the brisca card) is drawn, the last 3 hands are played as usual, but now players must follow the suit played by the lead. If they have no cards of that suit, they must play a card of the brisca suit. If they neither have cards of this suit, they can play any card they want.

- When played by 4 or 6 players, each player plays as a couple with the player in front of him. Tricks won by any of them are added to their total as a couple.

Valoration

I'd say that Brisca is to trick-tacking games what For Sale is to auction games: the fastest, simplest and more streamlined of its class. Worth a try in family reunions as an after dinner game.

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Genghis — 2005-09-15T12:21:49+00:00

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chaosbreaker — 2005-05-09T17:35:16+00:00

Free PC Briscola by Don Neeper. http://www.mindspring.com/~dneeper/

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megamau — 2005-03-13T12:38:58+00:00

The two main decks used in italy for playing briscola

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megamau — 2005-03-13T12:38:45+00:00

One of the original italian deck for playing briscola

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2004-05-19T10:30:04+00:00