The rules of belote
In brief
Four people play in two teams: North and South against East and West, with a 32-card deck. One player takes the contract and chooses the trump suit; after 8 tricks, their team must have more points than the other. A deal is worth 162 points in a trump suit.
The cards and the teams
The deck has 32 cards: from the seven to the Ace in each of the four suits, spades, hearts, diamonds and clubs. Partners sit facing each other. In the app, you are South and your partner is North; West and East are your opponents.
Card values and ranking
Trump is the suit that beats all the others. Its cards have their own ranking and value: the Jack becomes the strongest card, the nine the second strongest.
In trump
| Card, from strongest to weakest | Points |
|---|---|
| Jack | 20 |
| 9 | 14 |
| Ace | 11 |
| 10 | 10 |
| King | 4 |
| Queen | 3 |
| 8 | 0 |
| 7 | 0 |
Non-trump
| Card, from strongest to weakest | Points |
|---|---|
| Ace | 11 |
| 10 | 10 |
| King | 4 |
| Queen | 3 |
| Jack | 2 |
| 9 | 0 |
| 8 | 0 |
| 7 | 0 |
The 32 cards are worth 152 points in total. The last trick earns 10 more points, the "dix de der" (10 for the last trick): so a deal is worth 162 points. In no-trump, the scale changes: see the variants.
The deal
In Trump-suit games, each player first receives 3 cards, then 2. The next card is turned face up in the middle of the table: it proposes the trump suit. After the bid is taken, the declarer picks up the turned-up card and receives 2 others; the other three players receive 3 each. Everyone then has 8 cards.
In No-trump and in Coinche, there is no turned-up card: each player receives all 8 cards at once, in packets of 3, 2, 3.
How a trick is played
Each player plays one card in turn. You must follow suit, that is, play the suit that was led. Without that suit, you must generally trump with a trump card. The trick goes to the highest trump, or, if there is no trump, to the highest card of the suit led. The winner of the trick leads the next one.
The specific cases (going up in trump, overtrumping, partner winning the trick) are explained trick by trick on the card play page.
Belote-rebelote
A player who holds the King and Queen of trump in the same hand says "belote" when playing the first one and "rebelote" when playing the second. The app does this for you. These 20 points stay with their team, even if it loses the deal. There is no belote in no-trump.
The capot
A team that wins all 8 tricks has made a capot. It receives a bonus of 90 points: the deal earns it 252 points, and the other team scores nothing.
The goal
The declarer's team must finish the deal with strictly more points than the defense, declarations and belote included. Otherwise it has failed its contract and the defense scores the whole deal. The game ends when a team reaches the chosen target: 1000, 2000, 5000 points (1000 by default), or after "1 round". Details are on the scoring page.