Tressette

Full rules

1. Overview
2. The cards
3. Setup
4. Playing a trick
5. Signals
6. Declarations
7. Scoring
8. Winning the game
9. Tips for beginners
10. Variants

Overview

Tressette is one of Italy's classic card games: a trick-taking game for two teams of two, with no trumps and a strict duty to follow suit. The 3s are the highest cards, followed by the 2s and Aces – but the Aces are worth the most points. Each team tries to win tricks containing valuable cards, and players with certain combinations in their hand can score extra points by declaring them. The first team to reach 21 points wins.

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

The cards

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

In every suit the cards rank from high to low exactly in this order – note that the 3 and 2 are the highest cards:

3 – 2 – A – K – Q – J – 7 – 6 – 5 – 4

Some cards are worth points:

Setup

1. Dealer: choose a dealer at random; after each deal, the turn to deal passes to the right.
2. Direction: as in most Italian games, dealing and play go anticlockwise (to the right).
3. Deal: the dealer shuffles and deals 10 cards to each player, 5 at a time. No cards are left over.

Playing a trick

A trick is one round in which each player plays one card face up; the best card wins all four.

1. The player on the dealer's right leads (plays the first card). Any card may be led.
2. The others play in turn, anticlockwise. You must follow suit – play a card of the suit led – if you can. Only if you have no card of that suit may you play any card.
3. The highest card of the suit led wins the trick. There are no trumps: a card of another suit never wins, however high it is.
4. The winner takes the cards (a team keeps one pile together) and leads to the next trick.

Example: Anna leads K♠. Ben plays 3♠ – the highest spade. Carla plays A♠ (she has to follow suit), and Dan, who has no spades, throws in 5♦. Ben wins the trick with the 3♠: the King, Ace and 3 give his team 1⅔ points.

Signals

When you lead to a trick, you may give your partner one of these signals – by saying the word or by the matching gesture.

• Busso ("I knock"), or knock on the table: partner, win this trick with your highest card of this suit if you can, and then lead the suit back to me.
• Volo ("I fly"), or let the card glide onto the table: this is my last card of this suit.
• Striscio ("I stroke"), or slide the card across the table: I still hold one or more low cards (King or lower) of this suit. Not every table allows this signal.

Declarations

Some combinations score points when one player holds them in their hand:

You declare a combination after the first trick and score it at once – even if you have played one of its cards to that trick. For a napoletana, say which suit; for three of a kind, say which suit is missing. One card may count in two combinations: with the 3, 2 and A of clubs plus all four 2s you score 3 + 4 = 7.

Scoring

When all 10 tricks have been played, each team counts the points in its tricks, and the team that won the last trick adds 1 point. Fractions are dropped: 7⅓ counts as 7, 4⅔ as 4. So there are 11 card points in each deal. Add any declarations and write the scores down.

Example: Anna and Carla's tricks hold three Aces and ten other ⅓-point cards, and they won the last trick: 3 + 3⅓ + 1 = 7⅓, which counts as 7. Ben and Dan have one Ace and ten ⅓-point cards: 1 + 3⅓ = 4⅓, so 4. Ben had declared a napoletana in hearts, so his team scores 4 + 3 = 7 in all.

Winning the game

The first team to reach 21 points wins. This usually takes several deals. If both teams pass 21 in the same deal, the higher total wins; if they are level, play another deal.

Claiming: you may stop the play at any moment, even in the middle of a deal, and claim that your team has reached 21 with the tricks and declarations it has so far. If you are right, your team wins at once; if you are wrong, your team loses.

Big wins (count as several games, e.g. in a match):

For stramazzo and stramazzone, the point for the last trick doesn't count: the opponents' tricks must hold less than one point in cards.

Tips for beginners

• Aces are the prize. A lone Ace is easy prey for a 3 or a 2; try to play it when those are gone or when your partner can win the trick.
• Lead from a strong suit. A suit headed by the 3 and 2 lets you win tricks and pull out the opponents' Aces.
• Count the 3s and 2s. Keep track of which high cards in each suit have been played – then you know when your Ace or King is safe.
• Use signals sparingly. The opponents hear them too.
• Fight for the last trick. It is worth as much as an Ace.

Variants

All optional – agree before you start.

• 31 or 41 points: in many regions the game is played to 31 or 41 instead of 21.
• Other signals: at some tables "busso" means "I hold the highest card still out in this suit", "ribusso" the second-highest, "la meglio" asks partner to play their highest card of the suit, and "tutto fuori" means "I have many cards in this suit but none of the top three".
• Two players (Spizzichino or Tressette in due): each player gets 10 cards and the rest form a face-down stock (draw pile). After each trick, the winner draws the top card and shows it, then the other player does the same; the winner then leads. You must still follow suit.
• Queen and Jack swapped: in southern Italy, some players rank the Jack above the Queen: 3 2 A K J Q 7 6 5 4.