The Story
Where it came from, and why it turned out this way.
LineageFrance · early twentieth century · Jass family
A French member of the Jass family
Belote took shape in France around the early twentieth century from the broader Jass family of central-European games. Its signature is the promoted trump jack and nine: two otherwise modest cards become the masters and carry the largest point values whenever their suit is chosen.
Partnership information is part of the rules
Partners sit opposite and cannot expose their hands, yet every legal obligation depends on the table’s current winner. A player void in the led suit must often ruff for the partnership, but is released when the partner already controls the trick. Belote therefore makes silent cooperation a formal property of card legality.
Classic selection and Coinche contracts
Classic Belote chooses trump through the turned card and a second round of alternate suits. Coinche deals all eight cards up front and replaces that selection with numerical contracts, then adds a defensive Coinche and an answering Surcoinche. The same 32 cards and trick duties produce a sharper, higher-stakes auction.
A family with local scoring customs
Belote tables differ over combinations, rounding, targets, and the exact lower-trump obligation. This implementation freezes two mainstream partnership modes, publishes every adjudication, keeps Belote–Rebelote, and explicitly labels its no-additional-announcements choice rather than blending incompatible customs.
- The trump jack and nine are worth 20 and 14 points, the two largest single-card values.
- Belote–Rebelote names the trump king–queen pair and survives even when its partnership’s contract fails.
- A complete Capot contains 252 points: the usual 152 card points plus a 100-point all-tricks bonus.
Complete Rules
Start with what a turn allows and how the game is won.
- Table
- 4 players · fixed opposite partnerships · 32 cards · 8 each after the contract
- Trump order
- J > 9 > A > 10 > K > Q > 8 > 7
- Plain-suit order
- A > 10 > K > Q > J > 9 > 8 > 7
- Classic begins with five cards each and one turned card. In round one, players clockwise from the dealer’s left may take that card’s suit as trump or pass. If all pass, round two permits any other suit. A second four-pass round causes a fresh deal by the next dealer. The taker receives the turned card and the remaining cards are dealt until everyone has eight.
- Coinche deals all eight cards immediately. Bids name both a trump suit and 80–160 points in steps of ten, or Capot at 250. Every bid must exceed the current contract. Three passes after a bid end the auction; four opening passes redeal. An opponent may Coinche on turn, freezing the auction at ×2. The contract partnership then chooses Surcoinche ×4 or accepts ×2 and starts play.
- The player left of the dealer leads the first trick; later tricks are led by their winner. You must follow the led suit when able. When trump is led, you must overtrump the current highest trump if possible; otherwise any trump is legal.
- If you cannot follow and your partner is currently winning, you may discard any card. If an opponent is winning, you must trump when possible. If an opponent has already trumped, you must overtrump when possible. Classic still requires a lower trump when you cannot overtrump; Coinche applies its official no-pisser exception and lets you discard instead.
- Trump J, 9, A, 10, K, Q score 20, 14, 11, 10, 4, 3. In plain suits A, 10, K, Q, J score 11, 10, 4, 3, 2. Other cards score zero. The last trick adds 10; taking all eight tricks replaces that bonus with a 100-point Capot bonus, making 252 trick points.
- Holding trump K–Q creates Belote–Rebelote. The first of the pair played announces Belote, the second completes Rebelote, and the partnership receives 20. It is detected automatically and is never confiscated when a contract fails.
- In Classic, the taker must finish strictly above the defense. At 81–81 the defense scores its 81 and the taker’s 81 carries forward as litige. A failed taker keeps only Belote; the defense receives 162 plus its Belote and any pending litige. Otherwise each side scores what it captured, with a 252 Capot adjustment.
- In Coinche, the contract team must reach the bid and also outscore the defense; a 250 bid additionally requires all eight tricks. Successful plain contracts add the contract to captured totals. Failed plain contracts award the defense 160 (or 250 for a defensive Capot) plus the contract. Coinche and Surcoinche multiply the fixed contract settlement by two or four; final hand scores are rounded to the nearest ten.
Your First Game
Use this order of thought to get through a complete game quickly.
- Learn the unusual trump order first. The trump jack and nine beat the ace, and the ten beats the king in every suit.
- Count trump length as well as high cards before taking or bidding. Four or five trumps, especially J–9, are far safer than one isolated high trump.
- Watch whether your partner is already winning before you ruff. Belote explicitly rewards partnership awareness by releasing you from the trump duty in that situation.
- Keep the trump K and Q long enough to play both when practical. The 20-point Belote–Rebelote is protected, but it is earned only after both cards are played.
- In Coinche, bid from realistic trick points. A 100 bid needs at least 100 captured points and still must beat the defenders; equality is not enough.
Practical Strategy
Move from knowing the rules to playing with a plan.
- The two trump masters are worth 34 points and usually two controls. A long suit headed by J–9 is a natural contract even when its ace is elsewhere.
- Lead trump to remove defensive ruffs when your side owns the masters. With weak trump, preserve it for mandatory ruffs and lead side-suit aces and tens toward your partner.
- Track the 152 card points plus the final ten. Once enough high counters are visible, you can estimate whether a contract is already safe or whether a Coinche remains live.
- In Coinche, the no-pisser release matters: when an opponent’s higher trump already wins and you cannot overtrump, discard a dangerous side-suit counter rather than automatically spending a low trump. Classic would still require the low trump.
- A Coinche ends bidding immediately. Use it only when your hand and the auction make the named trump genuinely vulnerable; the contract side gets one explicit Surcoinche response.
Winning and Special Rules
Details that are easy to miss but can change the result.
- Classic and Coinche are frozen as separate rule modes. Switching the sidebar selector restarts the table with that mode’s deal, auction, target, and scoring.
- This release deliberately uses the mainstream sans-annonces family in both modes: tierce, cinquante, cent, and carré are disabled. Belote–Rebelote remains active. It therefore does not claim full equivalence with FFB tournament Coinche, whose published competition rules include other combinations.
- Classic follows partner-winning relief but still requires a lower trump when an opponent has ruffed and you cannot overtrump. Coinche instead uses the FFB no-pisser ruling and lets you discard in that exact case.
- Capot is both an achieved all-trick result and a Coinche bid of 250. A numerical 250 contract succeeds only by taking all eight tricks.
- In Coinche, a partnership that is Capot or set cannot win the match by crossing 2,000 solely through its protected Belote. Play continues until that side validates the target with at least one later trick.
- There is no undo after a bid, Coinche, declaration, or played card becomes public. Hidden-information opponents cannot be made to forget it.
Common Mistakes
The traps new players fall into most often.
- Reading ranks as poker. Trump J–9 are the two highest cards, while every ten beats its king.
- Discarding while void although an opponent is winning and you can legally ruff or overruff.
- Wasting a trump when your partner already wins; partner-winning relief allows any discard.
- Treating an 81–81 Classic hand as a successful take. It is litige: the defense scores and the taker’s points carry forward.
- Expecting tierces or four-of-a-kind to score. Only Belote–Rebelote is enabled in these explicitly labelled sans-annonces modes.