Rules for the Brisk Card Game

Learning how to play brisk (briscola) is quite easy. It's fun for all ages.

Card Values

Brisk (briscola) is a trick-taking Mediterranean card game played with two to six players. It is played with the standard Italian deck of cards. The deck consists of 40 cards. It is very important to keep track of what the cards are worth because each card has a different value, and if you don't remember the values, you will be giving away points like there is no tomorrow! The most important are:
La Donna = 2 points
Il Cavallo = 3 points
Il Re = 4 points
Threes = 10 points
Aces = 11 points (most valued card)
Other cards = Pointless

Rules

The rules for a two-player game is quite simple. First you shuffle the deck and deal each player nine cards. Take the next card and place it face up in the middle of the table or the playing surface, and place the remainder of the deck face down. The face-up card becomes the "brisk" (briscola) and represents the trump suit for the remainder of the game.

Play

The first person to play is the person to the right of the dealer. She places one of her cards face up on the playing surface. The next player then plays one of his cards. The person with the highest card takes the set and then takes a card from the top of the deck. Then the person who lost takes a card from the top of the deck. The winner of the last hand plays another card from her hand again. The game continues like this until all the cards have been played.

Three Big Rules

There are three big rules to the game of brisk:
1. High card wins (if both players play the same suit, the higher card wins).
2. Try to follow suit, although players are not required to follow suit, which is unlike any other trump card game. If you don't have any cards of that suit, you can throw down any other card. If you do not have a higher card of that suit or brisk card to beat that card, then the set goes to the player who played that the original suit.
3. Brisk always wins!

Determine the Winner

At the end of the game, players count their points. There is a total of 120 points to be had, and at the end of the game whomever has the most points wins.

Resources

• Card Games website