In French Tarot, one player takes on the other three. Whoever wins the auction becomes the taker, and the score the taker needs is not fixed, dropping from 56 points to as little as 36 depending on how many of the three oudlers (the 1 and 21 of trumps and the Excuse) end up in their tricks. Here you sit down with three computer players for the four-player game under the French Tarot Federation (FFT) rules, and each game is a single deal scored on its own, with no running total to carry over.
The 78 cards are four suits of fourteen, twenty-one numbered trumps and the Excuse. Each suit (♠ ♥ ♦ ♣) runs from 1 up to 10, then Valet (jack), Cavalier (knight), Queen and King, with the King highest. The trumps act as a permanent fifth suit that beats every suit card. The 21 is the top trump and the 1, called the Petit, is the lowest. The Excuse belongs to no suit at all.
The Petit, the 21 and the Excuse are the oudlers, called Bouts in the side panel and on the result screen. They are worth the most points and they decide the taker's target.
| Card | Points |
|---|---|
| Each oudler (Petit, 21, Excuse) | 4.5 |
| King | 4.5 |
| Queen | 3.5 |
| Cavalier | 2.5 |
| Valet | 1.5 |
| Every other card (trumps 2–20, suit cards 1–10) | 0.5 |
The whole deck adds up to 91 points. In the last-trick record in the side panel, face cards carry their French initials, with R for Roi (King), D for Dame (Queen), C for Cavalier and V for Valet, while trumps show as T followed by the number.
No. Only the four-player game is played here, under the current FFT rules with a free auction. Three- and five-player tables, which deal and score differently, are not offered, and neither is misère.
Each player gets 18 cards, dealt in packets of three, and six cards go face down to the middle as the chien (the dog). Play runs counter-clockwise, as it does in France, so the player on your right acts after you. If a hand holds the Petit as its only trump, with no Excuse beside it (a petit sec), the deal is cancelled and redealt automatically, and a notice in the side panel says why every hand has changed.
Starting with the player to the dealer's right, everyone has exactly one chance to bid by passing or naming a contract above the highest one so far. The last contract named stands, and the player who named it becomes the taker.
| Contract | Multiplier | What happens to the chien |
|---|---|---|
| Prise | ×1 | Turned face up for everyone, then added to the taker's hand; the taker sets six cards aside, and those count for the taker |
| Garde | ×2 | Same as Prise |
| Garde sans | ×4 | Stays face down and unseen, but its points count for the taker |
| Garde contre | ×6 | Stays face down and unseen, and its points go to the defenders |
If all four players pass, the hand is void and the next dealer, the player to the old dealer's right, deals again.
With the chien in hand the taker holds 24 cards and has to put six face down as the écart. Kings and oudlers are never allowed there. A trump may go only when there aren't six other cards left to discard, and every trump you are forced to bury is shown to the table.
Once the contract is settled, the taker chooses whether to announce a Chelem, a promise to win all 18 tricks. Announcing gives the taker the opening lead. Without an announcement, the player to the dealer's right leads the first trick.
Just before your first card, you may show a Poignée of 10, 13 or 15 trumps (single, double or triple). The Excuse can fill the last place in the set, but only when every other trump you hold is in it too. The 20, 30 or 40 points go to whichever side wins the deal, not to the player who showed the trumps, so a defender who shows ten trumps against a taker who goes on to make the contract has just added 20 to what each defender pays the taker.
The player who leads may play any card. Everyone after that is bound by four rules:
The highest trump takes the trick, and if no trump was played, the highest card of the led suit does.
The Excuse can be played on any trick in place of a legal card, whether or not you could follow, and it never wins. If the other side takes the trick, your side keeps the Excuse anyway and gives them a half-point card in exchange, so its 4.5 points stay with you. When the Excuse is led, the next card played sets the suit everyone has to follow. Played to the 18th trick, though, it changes sides and goes to the opponents. The only exception is a slam, where a taker who has won the first 17 tricks and still holds the Excuse must play it last, and in that case it wins the final trick.
When the last trick is in, the taker's cards are counted, combining their tricks plus the écart after a Prise or Garde, or the unseen chien after a Garde sans. The number of oudlers among them sets the target.
| Oudlers in the taker's cards | Points needed |
|---|---|
| 3 | 36 |
| 2 | 41 |
| 1 | 51 |
| 0 | 56 |
While cards are being played, a quick reference in the side panel shows the scale, and when you are the taker it is titled "What you need" and counts the oudlers you hold so far.
The deal is then scored as one figure:
Each defender pays that figure to the taker, or collects it when it is negative, so the taker's result is three times the figure and every deal sums to zero. Two examples:
Count oudlers and trumps before you count points. Each oudler is worth 4.5 points and also lowers the bar, as two of them put the target at 41 and one puts it at 51. The 21 and the Excuse are safe in any hand because nothing beats the 21, and the Excuse is lost only if it is played to the last trick. The Petit is the risky one. With only two or three small trumps beside it, it is likely to fall once the defenders lead trumps, because you will have to play it when your other trumps run out. With a long trump suit you can keep it to the end and perhaps win the last trick with it.
Prise and Garde let you see and use the chien, whereas Garde sans and Garde contre are judged on your 18 cards alone, since nobody looks at it.
The six cards you set aside after a Prise or Garde count for you at the end, so the écart is the one place where points are already safe. Burying a Queen or a Cavalier banks 3.5 or 2.5 points that the defenders can no longer take from you.
Use it to empty a suit, too. Suppose the chien leaves you holding the 3 and 7 of clubs and the Cavalier of clubs. Put all three in the écart and every club lead from then on can be trumped. Kings can never be buried, so a King left alone in a short suit is worth cashing early, before the defenders are void and can trump it.
With the high trumps, lead trumps early so the defenders run out and can no longer trump your Kings. From the first card played, the trump counter in the corner marks each of the 21 trumps and the Excuse as yours, played, or still out, with a running total such as "12 trumps still out". Once it shows that the 21 and the trumps just below it are gone, your own high trumps are winners.
Keep the Excuse for the moment it saves something. If the taker leads a suit and the only card you hold in it is the King, you must play the King, unless you play the Excuse instead and keep the King for later. If you suspect the taker's Petit is short of protection, lead trumps, since each round strips another trump from the taker, and the Petit is caught when it is the last one left.
Bid Petite, Garde, Garde Sans, or Garde Contre; manage the Dog and the three Ouds; then obey strict follow, trump, overtrump, Excuse, and Petit-au-bout rules in the mainstream four-player French game.
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