French Belote - Card Game

Four hands, thirty-two cards, one suit that changes everything

Belote is the card game French families argue over on Sunday afternoons. The pack is short, sevens up to aces, eight cards each, and before a single trick is played somebody has to commit to a trump suit. That commitment is the game. Name trump and the jack of that suit becomes the strongest card on the table, worth twenty points, with the nine right behind it at fourteen, while the ace you were counting on drops to third place.

You pick your partner from three characters, Loulou, Marcel and Viktor, each playing at a different level, and the two of you face the opposing pair. Your partner faces you and you never see their hand, so half the skill is reading what their choices are trying to tell you.

Two ways to bid
Classic Belote deals five cards each, turns one card face up, and asks the table in turn whether to take that suit as trump. If everyone declines, a second round opens every suit, plus a no-trump option in which the jack loses its crown and falls back to two points.

Coinche uses the official three-two-three deal and open bidding instead. Announce a suit and a contract, eighty to a hundred and sixty in steps of ten, then capot at two hundred and fifty and générale at five hundred, and hear the opposition double you with a coinche, or double them back with a surcoinche. Miss the contract and the whole hand goes the other way.

A trump hand is worth a hundred and sixty-two points, ten of them for the last trick. King and queen of trump together add twenty and are announced aloud. Taking all eight tricks is a capot.

Also in the app
- Targets of 1000, 2000 or 5000 points, or a single hand
- An interrupted game waiting where you left it
- Complete rules and a tutorial built in
- Card backs, table colours, light and dark themes
- 33 languages, no account, no connection needed

Contact: sbecker.app@gmail.com