Coinche (Belote contrée)

Full rules

1. Overview
2. The cards
3. Setup
4. Bidding
5. Playing the tricks
6. Declarations
7. Belote and rebelote
8. Scoring
9. Winning the game
10. Tips for beginners
11. Variants

Overview

Coinche, also called Belote contrée, is the bidding form of Belote and today the most played version in France. Four players in two teams hold 8 cards each. Instead of accepting a turned-up trump, the players hold an auction: they bid how many points their team will make and which suit will be trumps. The opponents can coinche (double) a bid they think will fail. Points come from the cards won in tricks, the last trick, declarations and the belote. The first team to reach 2000 wins.

• Players: exactly 4, in two teams of two. Partners sit opposite each other.
• You need: one standard 52-card deck, and paper and pen for scoring.

These rules follow the official rules of the French Belote Federation (FFB); where pagat.com differs, see Variants.

The cards

Take out all 2s, 3s, 4s, 5s and 6s and the jokers. You play with 32 cards: A, K, Q, J, 10, 9, 8, 7 in each suit.

The trump suit is the strongest suit in a hand: any trump beats any card of another suit. In the trump suit the Jack and the 9 jump to the top.

Both columns run from the highest card to the lowest. The cards are worth 152 points; with 10 for the last trick (dix de der) there are 162 points in every hand.

Setup

Dealing, bidding and play go anticlockwise (to the right).

1. Dealer: pick the first dealer at random. After each hand the deal passes to the right.
2. Deal: the dealer shuffles, and the player to the dealer's left cuts. The dealer deals all 32 cards, starting with the player on the right: 3 to each, then 3, then 2 (or 3-2-3, or 2-3-3). Everyone has 8 cards; nothing is turned up.

Bidding

The player to the dealer's right speaks first; then each player in turn to the right. On your turn you may:

• Pass ("pass"). A player who has passed may still bid later.
• Bid a number of points and a trump suit, e.g. "90 hearts". The lowest bid is 80; bids go up in steps of 10 and must be higher than the previous bid. The usual top bid is 160.
• Bid capot – your team promises to win all 8 tricks. Nothing is higher; the opponents can only pass or coinche.
• Coinche ("coinche!") – only against a bid of the other team, and only on your turn. It doubles the score of the hand, and nobody may bid any more.
• Surcoinche – after a coinche, the bidding team may answer with a surcoinche. It quadruples the score and ends the bidding at once.

Bidding ends when three players in a row pass after a bid (or after a coinche). The last bid is the contract. The player who made it is the taker; the taker and partner are the takers, the others are the defenders. If all four pass without a bid, the cards are thrown in and the next player deals.

Playing the tricks

A trick is one round in which each player plays one card, face up; the best card wins all four. The player to the dealer's right leads (plays the first card) to the first trick; the winner of each trick leads to the next.

1. Follow suit: you must play a card of the suit led if you can.
2. Can't follow: if your partner is winning the trick, you may play any card. Otherwise you must trump.
3. Overtrump: whenever you play a trump – because trumps were led or because you must trump – you must play a trump higher than any trump already in the trick, if you can, even over your partner.
4. Exceptions: if an opponent has already trumped and you only have lower trumps, you may throw any card instead. If your winning partner has trumped and you have only trumps left, you may play a lower one.

Who wins: the highest trump, or if no trump was played, the highest card of the suit led.

Declarations

A declaration is a set of cards in your hand that scores extra points. Either team may declare:

A sequence is a run of one suit in the order A K Q J 10 9 8 7. One card can't be used in two declarations. Four 8s or 7s don't count.

• When: say what you have ("a tierce", "four Kings") as you play your card to the first trick.
• Who scores: when the first card of the second trick is played, compare the best declaration of each team. Only the team with the best one scores – but then all its declarations. A four of 100 beats a sequence of 5. Between equal sequences, the higher top card wins, then one in trumps. If it's still equal, nobody scores declarations.

Belote and rebelote

Holding the King and Queen of trumps scores 20 points for either team. Say "belote" when you play the first of them and "rebelote" with the second. The belote always stays with its team, even when a contract fails.

Scoring

Each team adds up its card points, the last trick, its declarations (if it had the best) and belote.

The contract is made when the takers' total is at least the bid and more than the defenders' total.

• Coinche: the winning team scores (160 + the bid + all declarations + its belote) × 2 (250 instead of 160 if the takers made capot); the losing team scores only its belote. Surcoinche: × 4 instead.
• Capot: a team that wins all 8 tricks gets 100 for the last trick (252 in all) and also scores the other team's declarations. A capot that was bid counts 250 as the bid: made, it scores about 500; failed, the defenders score 160 + 250 = 410 (plus declarations).
• Rounding: round each score to the nearest 10; 5 rounds up (85 → 90, 84 → 80).

Example: North bids 100 hearts; East and West pass. North–South win 102 card points plus the last trick (112) and have the belote (20): 132. East–West have 50. The contract is made: North–South write 132 + 100 = 232 → 230, East–West 50. Had East coinched, North–South would score (160 + 100 + 20) × 2 = 560 and East–West nothing. Had North–South only reached 90 + 20 = 110 against a bid of 120, East–West would write 160 + 120 = 280 and North–South 20 for the belote.

Winning the game

Write both teams' totals after every hand. The first team to reach 2000 points wins. If both reach it in the same hand, the higher total wins.

Tips for beginners

• Bid what you can make with your partner. Count the tricks you expect to win and remember that your partner's cards will add points too.
• Use the bidding to talk. A partner who raises your suit usually has trump honours or Aces.
• Coinche carefully. A coinche stops the bidding – and doubles your loss too if the takers make it.
• Lead trumps as taker to pull the defenders' trumps before your Aces are ruffed.
• Put points on your partner's winning trick – a 10 or an Ace.

Variants

• No trumps / all trumps: many tables also allow bids in sans atout (no trumps; A 10 K Q J 9 8 7, Ace worth 19) and tout atout (every suit ranks like trumps with lower values: J 14, 9 9, A 6, 10 5, K 3, Q 1).
• Higher bids: the FFB rules put no ceiling on the bid, since declarations count towards the contract.
• Target: 1000, 1500 or 3000 points instead of 2000.
• Without declarations: at some tables, only the belote counts – no other declarations.
• Générale: at some tables, an even higher bid is allowed, in which one player alone must win all 8 tricks.
• pagat.com rules: according to pagat.com, the takers need only their bid, not more points than the defenders – so a bid of 80 needs 82 (more than half of 162). A bid capot scores 500 (plus belote) whether it is made or lost and cannot be coinched, and a coinche may be said at any time, not only on your turn.
• Belote not doubled (pagat.com): according to pagat.com, the belote is left out of the doubling and added afterwards – (160 + 100) × 2 + 20 = 540 in the example above.