Belote - Classic Card Game

Belote is the card game France plays. Four players, two fixed teams sitting opposite each other, thirty-two cards, and a hundred and sixty-two points a deal. This is the classic version — turn a card, take it or pass, and play out the hand.

PLAYED PROPERLY

Everything the real game does, this does:

• The trump order that catches every newcomer out — the Jack and the Nine leap over the Ace, and only in trump.
• Two rounds of bidding. Take the turned card's suit, or pass; if all four pass, name any other suit. If nobody wants it, the hand is thrown in and the deal moves on.
• The obligations that make Belote what it is: follow suit, trump when you are void, and over-trump when you can — unless your partner already has the trick.
• Declarations. Tierce, quarte and quinte, and carrés of Jacks, Nines, Aces, Tens, Kings and Queens. Only the best combination's team scores, and ties break on length, then on the higher card, then in favour of trump.
• Belote and rebelote — the King and Queen of trump, twenty points, and it counts even in a deal you lose outright.
• Capot for all eight tricks, dedans when the contract goes down, and points held over when a deal finishes dead level.

THREE LEVELS OF OPPONENT

Easy bids on anything and plays loosely. Medium plays sound cards. Hard counts what has gone and leads the winners it knows it holds.

MADE TO BE READABLE

Your hand is sorted the way you would hold it — trump on the left, in its own order. The cards you are allowed to play are highlighted, and you can turn that off when you would rather be held to the rules. Trump sits on screen at all times, because in Belote it decides everything.

Every card is drawn in code rather than scanned, so the faces stay sharp at any size on any screen.

PLAYS ANYWHERE

No account, no sign-in, no connection needed. Belote runs entirely on your phone, and nothing about your games leaves it.

Also available in French — with the vocabulary the game was written in: atout, preneur, dix de der, dedans, capot.