Belote

Four players play in two partnerships, partners sitting opposite: you and North against West and East. The pack has 32 cards, sevens up to aces, and play goes counter-clockwise.

Each player is dealt five cards, and the next card is turned face up. Starting on the dealer's right, each player may take that card's suit as trump, or pass. If everyone passes, there's a second round in which a player may name any other suit as trump. If everyone passes twice, the cards are redealt. The taker gets the turned-up card and two more; everyone else gets three, so each player has eight.

In trumps, the jack (20 points) and the nine (14) are the highest cards, followed by ace 11, ten 10, king 4, queen 3, eight and seven. In the other suits the order is ace 11, ten 10, king 4, queen 3, jack 2, then nine, eight and seven. The last trick earns 10 more, making 162 points in a hand.

• Follow suit. When trumps are led, you must beat the highest trump if you can.
• If you can't follow suit, you must trump, overtrumping if you can, unless your partner is currently winning the trick.
• Belote-rebelote: holding the king and queen of trumps earns 20 points.
• Declarations: sequences of 3, 4 or 5+ cards score 20, 50 or 100; four jacks 200, four nines 150, four aces, tens, kings or queens 100. Only the side holding the best declaration scores its declarations.
• If the taking side scores fewer points than the defenders, it is 'dedans' and the defenders score all 162 plus the declarations. Winning every trick is 'capot', worth 252.
• The first side to 1000 points wins.

• Auction: tap Take (the turned-up suit, or in the second round any other suit) or Pass.
• Play: tap a highlighted card. The trumping and overtrumping rules are applied for you, and cards you can't play are dimmed.
• After each hand, a table shows card points, declarations, belote and the running score.

• Daily: everyone gets the same deals each day.
• New Game: a fresh random game with North as your CPU partner.

• Count the jack and nine of trumps before you take. Holding both, plus an ace or two on the side, is usually enough.
• As the taking side, lead trumps early to pull the defenders' trumps, then cash your side aces and tens.
• When your partner is winning a trick, load it with your tens and aces. That's 21 points in one throw.
• Watch out for dedans: a marginal take that fails hands the opponents the whole 162.
• Keep track of which trumps have fallen. There are only eight, and the one that's left often decides the last tricks.

Belote appeared in France around 1900, and it is a close relative of klaberjass (also called bela) and the Dutch game klaverjas. Within the game, belote is the name for the king and queen of trumps held together, which may be where the game gets its name.

It is considered the national card game of France. Similar games are played across central Europe, in Saudi Arabia (baloot) and in Cyprus (pilotta). The rules here follow the classic French game as described by pagat.com.

Belote is a free browser version of the classic French card game, with a CPU partner and opponents, a new daily deal every day and online leaderboards. There's nothing to download and no sign-up.

A free, original browser game on PlayPendium. No download, no install.