BRISCOLA RULES

General Rules:

Briscola is a card game played with a 40 card deck , which contains 4 suits of 10 cards each. Each deck has got 120 points. 
To win the game a Player or Team must score at least 61 points; if they are 60 then the game ends in a draw.

How to Play:

The classical game follows basic and simple rules:
Each Player holds 3 cards in his hands. The first card of the deck is placed, face up, on the playing table. It identifies the Master suit for the Round: this card is called “Briscola”.
This card is placed under the deck with all the other cards on top of it without being obscured so that everyone is be able to see it and, therefore, it will be the last card to be taken. After the distribution of the cards, the Round with its series of hands begins.

The Hands:

The Player sitting on the Dealer’s immediate right, starts the Round in a counterclockwise way. Each Player will choose and play the most proper card in order to win the hand or to score the highest number of points. In a Team game, points will be added up among Players of the same Team.
The winner of a hand is determined by some simple rules:
The Player who starts the hand, is called “The Lead Player”. He places one card, face up and he temporary leads the hand and determines the leading suit. There is no obligation for other Players to play the leading suit, as it happens in other games, that means they can decide to play a different suit than the lead Player did. The hand can be temporary assigned to another Player who plays the same suit as the leading one, but of higher rank, or just playing any card of the suit of Briscola, even of a lower rank.
At the end, the hand is assigned to the Player who played the Briscola of highest rank.
In case there is no Player satisfying this situation, the winner is the Player who played the leading suit of higher rank, and finally, in case of lack of Briscolas or cards of the leading suit, the winner is the very first Player of hand, as he is the one who played the leading suit.
It is important to take care because the leading suit in a hand can incidentally coincide with the suit of Briscola. This is due to the fact that it is determined each time by the first card played in the hand. In this case the winner is the one who played the highest ranking Briscola. Once the winner of a hand is determined, he has to collect the cards that have been played, facing them down in front of the Players. 
After that, starting from the winner of the hand and in a counterclockwise way by the other Players in turn, another card will be taken from the deck so that all Players will have three cards to start the new hand. The first Player will also open the next hand and will decide, therefore, the new leading suit of the hand.

Cards by Rank (11 Highest - 2 Lowest) and Point value:

ACE - Rank 11 - Points 11
THREE (3) - Rank 10½ - Points 10
KING - Rank 10 - Points 4
KNIGHT - Rank 9 - Points 3
JACK - Rank 8 - Points 2
7 – Rank 7 – Points 0
6 – Rank 6 – Points 0
5 – Rank 5 – Points 0
4 – Rank 4 – Points 0
2 – Rank 3 – Points 0


Last Hand and End of the Round:

The Round consists in a succession of different hands which end when the cards of the deck are over. At this point the last hand must be played without drawing cards from the deck, since cards are over. In the last hand there is usually the highest number of points.
It is allowed for Players of the same Team to show each other their cards in order to decide how to develop their strategy. This is only possible during a Team game, immediately after the final cards are drawn.

The Winner:

To determine the winner of a Round, the total number of points must be added up according to the point values of the cards. The person or the Team wins the Match by winning the highest number of Rounds. (in case of a 1 Round Match the winner is the one who wins the single Round, instead, in a 3 Round Match the Player or the Team need to win 2/3 of the Rounds and in 5 Round Match the Player or Team need to win 3/5 of the Rounds) .The maximum number of points for each Round is 120. To win the Round, the Player or the Team must score at least 61 or more points. In case of an even score (60 points each) the Round will be invalidated and another one will be added.