Bestia

Full rules

1. Overview
2. The cards
3. Setup
4. Play or drop out
5. Playing the tricks
6. Settling the pot
7. Winning the game
8. Tips for beginners
9. Variants

Overview

Bestia ("the beast") is played all over Italy. Everyone gets just 3 cards, and there are only 3 tricks in a deal. Each trick you win earns you one third of the pot. But if you choose to play and win no trick at all, you go in bestia: you must pay as much as the whole pot, and that money makes the next pot bigger. If your cards look weak, you can drop out instead, or swap your whole hand for three unseen cards.

Bestia is the living member of an old family of games. Its relatives are Loo, once England's favourite gambling game, and the French Mouche. The regional cousins – Julepe, Mauscheln, Mousel and Tippen – are described under Variants.

• Players: 3–10; best with 5–7. Everyone plays for themselves.
• You need: one standard 52-card deck and chips (or counters, matches) – about 50 per player. Play for chips only.

The cards

Take out all 8s, 9s and 10s and the jokers. You play with 40 cards: A, K, Q, J, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2 in each suit.

In every suit the cards rank from high to low like this – the same order as in Briscola, with the 3 just below the Ace:

A – 3 – K – Q – J – 7 – 6 – 5 – 4 – 2

A trick is one round in which every player who is in the deal plays one card; the best card wins it. Trumps are the cards of one suit that beat every card of the other suits in this deal.

Setup

1. Stake: agree on the basic stake before you start. It must divide by 3 – for example 3 chips.
2. Direction: in Italy, dealing and play go to the right (anticlockwise). The deal also passes to the right after each hand.
3. Pot: the dealer always puts the basic stake into the pot (the chips in the middle). Chips left over from the last deal stay in it.
4. Trump card: the dealer shuffles, the player on the left cuts, and the dealer turns the top card face up and lays it on the table. Its suit is trumps for this deal. The trump card belongs to nobody.
5. Deal: the dealer gives each player 3 cards in one packet, starting with the player on the right. The rest of the cards stay face down as the stock.

Play or drop out

Look at your cards. Starting with the player to the dealer's right and ending with the dealer, each player says what they will do:

• Knock on the table: you play with your cards and promise to win at least one trick.
• Pass: lay your cards face down in front of you.

New cards ("going to the doctor"): when everyone has spoken, the dealer offers the players who passed, in the same order, three fresh cards from the stock. If you accept, you put your old hand aside and play with the new cards without seeing them first – and you, too, must win at least one trick. If you refuse, you are out of this deal and can neither win nor lose.

If the stock runs out, the dealer gathers the hands thrown away by players who are out, shuffles them and deals from those.

• If only one player is in, they win all three tricks without playing and take the pot.
• If nobody plays, the pot stays where it is for the next deal.

Playing the tricks

The first player to the dealer's right who is in the deal leads (plays the first card). Then, going to the right, every player who is in plays one card:

• Follow suit: if you have a card of the suit led, you must play one.
• Trump: if you can't follow suit, you must play a trump if you have one.
• Only if you have neither may you play any card.

The highest trump wins the trick. If no trump was played, the highest card of the suit led wins. The winner leads to the next trick. Leave your tricks face up in front of you, so everyone can count them.

Example: Hearts are trumps. Ben leads the K♠. Carla has no spades, so she must trump: she plays the 4♥. Dan has no spades either and plays his last trump, the 7♥. Dan wins the trick – his 7♥ is the higher trump – and leads next.

Settling the pot

When the three tricks are over:

• Every trick is worth one third of the pot. Take your share.
• Anyone who played and won no trick goes in bestia: they pay as many chips as were in the pot into a new pot for the next deal.

The next dealer then adds the basic stake as usual. So after a deal in which somebody went in bestia, the pot is bigger – and it can grow very fast.

Example: The basic stake is 3 chips. The pot holds 9 chips. Anna and Ben knock, Carla takes new cards, the others pass. Anna wins two tricks (6 chips), Ben one (3 chips). Carla wins none and goes in bestia: she pays 9 chips. With the next dealer's 3 chips, the next pot holds 12 – worth 4 chips a trick.

Winning the game

There is no fixed end. Play until everyone has dealt the same number of times, or until most players want to stop. Whoever has gained the most chips wins. If the pot is still full at the end, a common way out is to keep going until a deal ends with nobody in bestia.

Tips for beginners

• The trump Ace always wins a trick, and the trump 3 wins unless another player holds the Ace. Either one is a safe reason to knock.
• Watch the pot: when it is big, going in bestia is expensive. Pass with weak hands, or take new cards only when the pot is small.
• Late players know more: the dealer speaks last and sees how many are in before deciding.
• Agree a limit before you start – for example, nobody pays more than 30 chips for going in bestia. Without one, the pot can grow out of control.

Variants

Bestia is played differently from town to town. Agree on the rules before you start.

• House rules on leading: many tables make good play compulsory. The leader must lead the trump Ace if they hold it; after the first trick, the leader must lead a trump if they have one; and a player who has to play a trump must play their highest one. Breaking one of these rules costs the pot.
• Forced round: if nobody went in bestia, the next deal is compulsory – everyone must play.
• Bestia col buco: the dealer lays a spare face-down hand of three cards (the buco) across the trump card. Instead of knocking or passing, you may play "with the buco": throw in your cards and play with the spare hand. Whoever looks at it must play.
• Five-card Bestia: around Rome, pagat.com describes Bestia with 5 cards each, for 4–6 players, in which everyone pays a stake to the pot. In turn, players fold, play (exchange up to 5 cards for new ones from the stock) or knock (no more exchanges; the knocker leads), going round until someone knocks. Each trick is worth one fifth of the pot. You must follow suit and beat the highest card in the trick if you can; if you can't follow, you must trump and overtrump if you can. A knocker who wins no trick pays one and a half times the pot.
• Julepe (Spain): 5 cards each from the 40-card deck (often without the 2s when fewer than six play). You must win at least 2 tricks ("make the julepe"), and you may first exchange as many cards as you like. The dealer, if they play, takes the trump card and discards one. Whoever makes the julepe wins the pot, split if two players do. Anyone who fails pays as much as the pot.
• Mauscheln (Austria, southern Germany) and Mousel (Denmark): 32 cards (7–A in normal order, A high) for 3–6 players, all 52 for more; play goes clockwise. The dealer pays 4 chips and deals 4 cards each, turning a trump after the first two. The first player who says "I play" (the Mauschler) promises 2 tricks and leads. The others may join or pass. If nobody joins, the Mauschler takes the pot without play. Everyone in may exchange up to 4 cards once. You must follow suit, trump if you can't, and beat the trick if you can. Each trick is worth a quarter of the pot. A player who joins and wins no trick pays the pot, and so does a Mauschler with only one trick; a Mauschler with no trick pays double.
• Tippen or Dreiblatt (Germany): 32 cards (7–A), 3 each, clockwise; the dealer pays 3 chips and turns a trump. When the pot holds only the basic stake, everyone must play; otherwise you tap the table ("tippen") to play or pass. Follow suit or trump. Each trick is worth a third of the pot; anyone who plays and wins no trick pays the amount in the pot. Later rule books allow exchanging up to 3 cards.