Belote rules: how to play the French card game

In France belote is played in cafés, at home, in senior clubs and in tournaments run under federation rules. It has a reputation for being hard, but the basics are simple: a deal in two stages, a very short bidding round to decide the trump suit, and eight tricks in which you must follow suit, trump and overtrump according to fixed rules. What takes getting used to is that the card order changes completely when a suit becomes trumps. This guide explains the rules of classic belote as set out by the French Belote Federation, points out what varies from region to region and summarises the most popular variants, starting with coinche.

What belote is and where it comes from

Belote is a point-trick game: you don't win by taking the most tricks, but by collecting the most points inside them. It belongs to a European family that card game historians call the jack-nine family, or the jass family, because in all of these games the two strongest trumps are the jack and the nine. Its close relatives include Dutch klaverjas, Swiss jass and klaberjass, which has deep roots in Jewish communities. To see where it fits in the bigger picture, have a look at our list of card games by family.

The family originated in the Netherlands, and the first game of this type with surviving written rules appears in a Dutch book from 1821. Belote itself is much more recent: it appeared in France in the early 20th century and its first printed rules date from around 1920. It has since become the country's most popular card game.

Outside France it has very close relatives in the Balkans, with their own names and rules: in Croatia it is called bela, and in Bulgaria people play a bidding version known as bridge-belot. Today a French Belote Federation publishes official rules for classic belote, contrée and coinche, and sanctions tournaments.

The belote deck: 32 cards

Belote uses the short 32-card French deck, the same one used for piquet: ace, king, queen, jack, 10, 9, 8 and 7 in each of the four suits (spades, hearts, diamonds and clubs). There are no jokers. On French-made cards the court indices are R (roi), D (dame) and V (valet); on a poker deck you will see K, Q and J.

32 cards: 7 to ace in each suit, no jokers

If you don't have a 32-card deck, any poker deck will do once you remove the 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 of each suit. Our guide to how many cards are in a deck covers the other short decks used around Europe.

Belote card values and ranking

This is the first thing to memorise, because belote has two different rankings. In the three non-trump suits the order is almost the natural one, except that the ten rises to just below the ace. In the trump suit (atout in French), the jack and the nine jump above everything else and become the two most valuable cards in the game.

Trumps, from lowest to highest (example with spades as trumps):

Non-trump suits, from lowest to highest (example with hearts):

The maths works out like this: 62 points in trumps plus 30 in each of the other three suits gives 152 points in the cards. Add the 10 for the last trick and every hand is worth 162 points. It is a number worth remembering, because it lets you count only the smaller pile and subtract: if one team has 70, the other has 92.

Notice that the jack outside trumps is worth just 2 points and ranks below the queen: the same card is either the strongest in the game or almost the weakest, depending on which suit has been chosen.

How to deal

The first dealer is chosen by drawing: each team draws a card and whoever draws the lowest deals (for the draw, the normal order applies: ace, king, queen, jack, 10, 9, 8, 7). After that, the deal passes to the next player. Federation rules require a shuffle before every deal; in many home games the custom is not to shuffle between hands and simply cut, a tradition worth agreeing on before you start.

The player to the dealer's left cuts, and the deal is made in two stages:

1. First stage: 5 cards to each player, in two rounds of 3 and then 2 cards (or 2 and then 3). The remaining 12 cards are left face down in a pile and the dealer turns up the top card and places it on top, face up. This card (la retourne) proposes the trump suit. Nobody should pick up their cards until the deal is finished.
2. Second stage, after the bidding: the dealer gives the turned-up card to the player who took and completes the hands: 3 cards to each player and 2 to the taker. Everyone ends up with 8.

Under the official rules, dealing, bidding and play go anticlockwise, starting with the player to the dealer's right, which is the traditional custom in France. Many tables play clockwise, and some printed rules describe it that way. Both work the same as long as everything (deal, bidding and tricks) goes in the same direction.

Bidding: how the trump suit is chosen

In classic belote the bidding is very short, with a maximum of two rounds. The player after the dealer (to their right in the official direction) speaks first.

First round: accepting the turned-up suit

Each player in turn can say "je prends" ("I take"), making the suit of the turned-up card trumps, or "je passe" ("I pass"). As soon as someone takes, the bidding ends and the deal is completed. The player who takes is the preneur ("taker") and their partnership are the takers.

Second round: naming another suit

If all four pass, there is a second round in the same order. Now anyone who wants to take names the suit they prefer as trumps ("pique", "cœur", "carreau" or "trèfle"), which must be different from the turned-up card's suit. A player passing for the second time traditionally says "deux" ("two"). Whoever takes in the second round still receives the turned-up card, even though it is no longer a trump.

If nobody takes in either round, the hand is cancelled: the cards are gathered and the next player deals.

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How tricks are played: do you have to trump in belote?

With 8 cards in hand, the player to the dealer's right (in the official direction) leads any card; that first card is called l'entame and its suit is the suit led. The others each play one card in turn. The trick (le pli) is won by the highest trump played or, if there are no trumps, the highest card of the suit led. The winner of the trick leads to the next one. A hand has 8 tricks of 4 cards.

What makes belote interesting are its playing obligations, much stricter than in Spanish games such as brisca:

• Follow suit (fournir): if you have cards of the suit led, you must play one of them.
• Go higher in trumps (monter): if trumps are led, besides following suit you must play a higher trump than the highest on the table whenever you can.
• Trump (couper): if you can't follow suit and your partner is not winning the trick, you must play a trump.
• Overtrump (surcouper): if an opponent has already trumped and you also have to trump, you must play a higher trump than theirs.
• Undertrump (pisser): if you can't beat the opponent's trump, in classic belote you must still play a lower trump.
• Discard (se défausser): if you have neither the suit led nor any trumps, you play any card you like, which cannot win the trick.

There is one exception to be very clear about: if your partner is winning the trick (they are said to be maître) and you can't follow suit, you don't have to trump. You can discard any card, including a trump lower than theirs.

An example. Diamonds are trumps. The opponent on your right leads the ace of clubs, your partner follows with the 7 of clubs and the other opponent, who has no clubs, trumps with the 8 of diamonds. You have no clubs and hold the 9 and queen of diamonds:

You must overtrump, and both cards beat the 8, so you get to choose. The normal play is the queen, keeping the 9, the second-highest card in the game. If you only had the 7 of diamonds, in classic belote you would have to play it even though it wins nothing.

Belote and rebelote: meaning

A player holding the king and queen of trumps has "the belote", worth 20 points to their team. To score them you have to announce it properly: you say "belote" when playing the first of the two cards and "rebelote" when playing the second. Under federation rules it doesn't matter which one is played first, but if you forget either word, the belote doesn't count. Some tables require the king to be played before the queen.

In classic belote these 20 points can't be lost: the team that announced them keeps them even if it loses the hand. The idea is similar to the 20 and 40 declarations of Spanish tute, with one difference: in belote only the king-queen pair in trumps counts, and it is not declared on winning a trick but as the cards are played.

Dix de der and capot

The team that wins the last trick scores a 10-point bonus: this is the dix de der, short for dix de dernier ("ten for the last"). It is what takes the hand total from 152 to 162. That is why the last trick is so hard-fought: it is often worth more than the card played in it.

If one team wins all 8 tricks, it makes capot. In that case the last trick is worth 100 instead of 10, and the team scores 252 points (152 in cards plus 100), not counting the belote. That is the official value; some house and printed rules round capot to 250.

Belote scoring: how a hand is counted

After the 8 tricks, each team counts the points in the cards it has won, adds the dix de der if it took the last trick and the belote if it announced it. What happens next depends on whether the taker has succeeded:

• Contract made: if the takers score more points than the other team (belote included), each team scores what it made. Without the belote, that means reaching at least 82 points.
• Contract lost (in French the takers are dedans, "inside"): if they score less, they get nothing and the other team takes all 162 points. The belote still goes to whoever announced it.
• Tie (litige): at 81 each, the team that didn't take scores its 81 and the taker's 81 are held in suspense; they go to the team that wins the next hand. Federation rules let each tournament decide whether to apply this rule or treat a tie as a lost or made contract.

Some tournaments round each score to the nearest ten (84 becomes 80, 85 goes up to 90); if so, it is announced before play begins. Look at the second example: the belote is added to the taker's points to decide whether the contract is made, so it can save a hand that would be lost on cards alone.

Declarations in café belote

Federation classic belote is played without declarations, but in many informal games players declare combinations during the first trick for extra points. Only the team with the highest declaration scores its declarations (the belote is separate and always counts). The usual combinations are:

Sequences follow the order 7, 8, 9, 10, jack, queen, king, ace, whatever the trump suit. Four eights and four sevens don't score. Some tables don't play with declarations at all, so it is best to agree beforehand.

How many points to win at belote?

Hands continue until one team reaches the agreed total. The most common target is 1,000 points, although any table can agree on a shorter game. If both teams pass the target in the same hand, the one that passes it by more points wins; if they are level, another hand is played.

Tournaments often use a fixed number of hands instead of a points target, so that all tables finish at the same time; whoever has the most points at the end wins. Hands in which nobody takes don't count.

Main belote variants: coinche, contrée and more

Classic belote is the foundation, but several versions are played side by side in France. These are the most common:

Basic strategy for beginners

Belote is learned by playing, but a few ideas will save you a lot of lost hands:

1. Before taking, look at the jack and nine of trumps. Together they make up 34 of the suit's 62 points and they are the two cards that beat everything else. Taking without either of them puts the hand in the hands of whoever holds them.
2. Count the trumps. There are 8 in total. If you know how many have been played, you know when your non-trump aces are safe from being trumped.
3. Cash your non-trump aces early. They are worth 11 points and, while the opponents still hold that suit, they can't trump them. The more rounds go by, the more likely it is that someone has run out of the suit.
4. Feed your partner when the trick is theirs. If your partner is winning and you can't follow suit, use the fact that you don't have to trump to give them a ten or an ace of another suit: those are guaranteed points.
5. Don't throw away the ten lightly. It is worth 10 points but only the ace of its suit beats it. If the ace is still out, playing the ten is a gift to whichever opponent holds it.
6. Think about the last trick. The 10 points for dix de der decide many close hands. Saving a high trump for the end is often worth more than spending it early.
7. Announce the belote correctly. "Belote" with the first card and "rebelote" with the second. Forgetting costs 20 points and can cost you the hand.

Belote vocabulary

If you play with French players or in a French-language app, these are the words you will hear at the table:

As in every trick-taking game, it helps to know the suit names: in French they are pique, cœur, carreau and trèfle, and in English spades, hearts, diamonds and clubs. You can read about their origins in our article on poker deck suits.

How much does a deck of cards cost?

From €5 to over €100. The 52 cards and the rules stay the same; this is what changes.

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Frequently asked questions

How many points are there in belote?

162 per hand: 152 in the cards and 10 for winning the last trick. If one team wins all 8 tricks (capot), it scores 252. The belote (king and queen of trumps) adds another 20.

How many cards are dealt in belote?

Eight to each player, in two stages: first 5 (in batches of 3 and 2), a card is turned up to propose trumps and, after the bidding, 3 more to each player and 2 to the taker, who also keeps the turned-up card.

What is the highest card in belote?

The jack of trumps, worth 20 points. Next comes the nine of trumps, worth 14. Outside trumps the highest card is the ace, worth 11, followed by the ten.

What does belote rebelote mean?

It is the king and queen of the trump suit in the same hand. It is worth 20 points and must be announced: "belote" when playing the first of the two cards and "rebelote" when playing the second.

Do you have to trump in belote?

Yes, if you can't follow suit and an opponent is winning the trick. If your partner is winning it, you can discard whatever you like.

How many points does the taker need?

More than the other team. Without the belote, that means at least 82 out of 162. If the taker fails, the opponents score all 162 points of the hand.

What is the difference between belote and coinche?

In belote, trumps are chosen with a turned-up card and a two-round bidding, and you only need to outscore the other team. In coinche all the cards are dealt and you bid a number of points you must reach; you can also double ("coinché") and redouble.

Can you play belote with a poker deck?

Yes. Just remove the 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 of each suit and the jokers. You are left with the 32 cards used in belote.

To start playing you only need three other people and a 32-card deck, or a poker deck with the low cards removed. If you are looking for a new deck for the table, our playing cards section has poker decks from a range of brands and styles.

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• Card games: the complete list by type
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