Piquet

Full rules

1. Overview
2. The cards
3. Setup
4. Carte blanche
5. The exchange
6. Declaring
7. Playing the tricks
8. Pique and repique
9. Scoring a deal
10. Winning the game
11. Tips for beginners
12. Variants

Overview

Piquet (say "pee-KET") is one of the oldest card games still played, and one of the best for two. Each deal has three parts: you exchange some of your cards for new ones from the stock, you declare (announce) the best combinations in your hand for points, and then you play tricks. A game, called a partie, lasts six deals; whoever has more points at the end wins.

These rules follow Rubicon Piquet, the standard form described by pagat.com, based on the rules published by Cavendish in 1882.

• Players: exactly 2.
• You need: one standard 52-card deck and paper and pencil. Scores are counted out loud during the deal and written down at the end of it.

The cards

Piquet uses 32 cards: the 7, 8, 9, 10, J, Q, K and A of each suit. Take out all 2s to 6s and the jokers. In every suit the cards rank from high to low:

A – K – Q – J – 10 – 9 – 8 – 7

There are no trumps. Face cards (also called court cards) are the Kings, Queens and Jacks.

Setup

1. First dealer: both players cut; the one with the higher card chooses who deals first. After that the deal alternates. Dealing first is better, because the non-dealer has a slight advantage on the sixth, decisive deal.
2. Deal: the dealer shuffles and deals 12 cards to each player, face down, in packets of 2 or 3 (the same way for the whole partie).
3. Stock: the remaining 8 cards go face down in the middle as the stock.
4. The non-dealer is called elder hand, the dealer younger hand.

Carte blanche

A player who is dealt no face card at all (no K, Q or J) may announce carte blanche straight away and scores 10 points. The hand must be shown to prove it, before you make your own exchange (younger hand shows after elder has exchanged).

The exchange

Now both players improve their hands with cards from the stock.

1. Elder hand puts 1 to 5 cards from their hand face down aside (this is the discard) and takes the same number from the top of the stock. Elder almost always exchanges all 5. If elder takes fewer, they must say so first, and may then look at the cards they left from their five.
2. Younger hand then discards at least 1 card and at most as many as are left in the stock (usually 3), and takes the same number from the stock. Any cards younger leaves in the stock may be turned face up for both to see once elder has led to the first trick; otherwise they stay unseen.

Each player keeps their own discard beside them and may look at it during the deal.

Declaring

Now the players compare three kinds of combinations. In each category, only the player with the better combination scores; the other scores nothing in that category.

1. Point

Your point is your longest suit. It scores 1 point per card: a point of 5 scores 5.

If both have the same number of cards, add up the values of those cards (Ace 11, face cards 10, the rest face value); the higher total wins. If they are still equal, nobody scores for point.

2. Sequence

A sequence is a run of at least 3 cards in the same suit in rank order, such as 10-J-Q.

A longer sequence beats a shorter one. Between two of the same length, the one with the higher top card wins (A-K-Q beats K-Q-J). If they are exactly equal, nobody scores for sequences. The winner may also score all other sequences they hold.

3. Sets

A set is three or four cards of the same rank – but only Aces, Kings, Queens, Jacks or Tens count.

• Quatorze: four of a kind – 14 points.
• Trio: three of a kind – 3 points.

Any quatorze beats any trio. Between two of the same kind, the higher rank wins. The winner may also score all other sets they hold.

How declaring works

Elder hand declares first, category by category, and younger hand answers each time:

• "Good" – elder's combination is better; elder scores it.
• "Not good" – younger has something better.
• "Equal" – then elder gives more detail (the card total, the top card), and younger answers again "good", "not good" or "equal".

Example: Elder: "Point of five." – Younger: "Equal." – Elder: "Making 49." – Younger: "Good." Elder scores 5. Elder: "Quart to the King." – Younger: "Not good." Elder: "Three Aces." – Younger: "Good." Elder scores 3 and says "Eight".

Then elder leads the first card, and only now does younger declare and score the categories they won. Either player may ask to see a combination that was scored.

You don't have to declare everything. Keeping a combination secret to hide your hand is called sinking it – but you can't score what you didn't declare.

Playing the tricks

A trick is one round in which each player plays one card; the higher card wins both.

1. Elder hand leads to the first trick. After that, the winner of each trick leads.
2. You must follow suit (play the suit that was led) if you can. If you can't, play any card.
3. The higher card of the suit led wins. A card of another suit never wins.

You score in play as you go:

• 1 point each time you lead a card.
• 1 point when you win a trick your opponent led.
• 1 extra point for winning the last trick.

At the end of the deal:

• The cards: whoever won more tricks (7 or more) scores 10. At 6–6 nobody scores.
• Capot: whoever won all 12 tricks scores 40 instead of 10.

Players say their running total out loud each time they score ("24 … 25 …").

Pique and repique

These two big bonuses are the heart of the game.

• Repique (+60): you reach 30 points from carte blanche and declarations alone before your opponent has scored anything. For this, the scores count in a fixed order: carte blanche, then point, then sequences, then sets.
• Pique (+30): you reach 30 points from declarations and play before your opponent has scored anything. Here the scores count in the order they actually happen. Since elder scores 1 for leading before younger declares anything, only elder hand can make a pique.

Points for the cards (10) and capot (40) never count towards a pique. A category that ended "equal" does not stop a pique or repique.

Example: Elder hand declares a point of 5 (5), a quint (15) and a quatorze of Aces (14), and all are "good": 34 points before younger has scored – repique, so 34 + 60 = 94.

Scoring a deal

At the end of each deal, write down both players' totals. After six deals, add them up. The higher total wins the partie. If the totals are equal, play two more deals; if still equal, it's a draw.

The Rubicon: reaching 100 points in a partie is called crossing the Rubicon.

• If the loser has 100 or more, the winner scores the difference + 100.
• If the loser has less than 100, the winner scores both totals added together + 100.

Example: After six deals Anna has 120, Ben 99. Ben didn't reach 100, so Anna scores 120 + 99 + 100 = 319. Had Ben made 101, Anna would score 120 − 101 + 100 = 119.

Winning the game

The winner of the partie wins the game. For a longer match, play several parties and add up the Rubicon scores.

Tips for beginners

• Elder hand: take all five. Your position is strong – go for the best possible hand and don't worry about defence.
• Keep your longest suit. It wins the point, may make a sequence and takes tricks in play.
• Younger hand: keep stops. A card like K-x or Q-x-x in elder's likely long suit can stop elder running off tricks.
• Remember the discards. From what is declared (and what isn't), you can often work out almost every card in your opponent's hand.
• Winning the cards is worth 20. You get 10 and your opponent doesn't – fight for the seventh trick.

Variants

Optional – agree before playing.

• Piquet au cent: instead of six deals, play until someone reaches 100. Reaching 100 before the opponent has 50 counts as a double game. A partie is won by the first to win three games, a double game counting as two.
• Cards towards pique: some players score the 10 for the cards as soon as a player has won seven tricks, and count it towards a pique.
• Carte rouge: 20 extra points if every card in your hand is part of a "good" combination.