How to Play Piquet Cards

The card game of Piquet is an English game for two players that has been played since the 15th century. It is played in five different parts with only 36 cards in a deck. There are several variations to this card game and the following steps will show you how to play the basic version of Piquet.

Things You'll Need

• 36 playing cards
• 2 players

Instructions

Setting up the Game

1. Take a deck of cards and remove all cards except Aces, Kings, Queens, Jacks, tens, nines, eights, sevens and sixes.

2. Shuffle the remaining cards in the deck.

3. Draw a card to see who is the dealer or the "younger." Low card is the "younger" and high card is the "elder" who goes first.

4. Shuffle again and deal out the cards if you are the younger. Deal the cards in increments of two until you have dealt out 12 cards to each player. Place the remaining 12 cards face down in a stack on the table.

Blanks and Discards

1. Discard as many as eight cards from your hand, replacing each card you throw out with a card from the deck. You must discard at least one card.

2. Declare "blank" if you are the elder and have no face cards in your hand. Declare how many you will discard and show your hand to the younger.

3. Discard your cards and draw the replacements if you are the younger and do not have a blank hand. If you do have a blank hand, declare it at this time.

4. Discard your declared number of cards and draw the replacements if you are the elder (if the younger did not have a blank hand) and receive 10 points for having a blank hand. If the younger also had a blank hand, no points are awarded and the elder would discard and draw first.

Ruffs

1. Count the cards you have in each suit. The total number of cards in each suit are called "ruffs."

2. Declare the points in the largest ruff in your hand if you are the elder. Aces are worth 11 points, all face cards are worth 10, and number cards are worth the number on the card.

3. Declare the points in the largest ruff in your hand if you are the younger and your points are higher or equal to the elder's points.

4. Add up the total value of your hand if you have the largest ruff.

5. Take your score if you have the largest ruff. One point is scored for each 10 points in your total hand. 1 to 4 points are rounded down and 5 to 9 points are rounded up.

Sequences

1. Group all your cards in numerical order by suit. These groups are called sequences.

2. Declare the number of cards in your largest sequence if you are the elder.

3. Declare the number of cards in your largest sequence if you are the younger and have more cards in your sequence than the elder has declared or the same amount of cards.

4. Receive your score if you have the largest sequence, which is the value of all the sequences in your hand. No one receives a score if there is a tie. Sets of three sequences receive 3 points, sets of four receive 4 points, sets of five or more receive 10 points plus the number of cards in the sequence.

Sets

1. Notice how many sets you have in your hand. A set is three or more tens, Jacks, Queens, Kings or Aces.

2. Declare the number of cards in your largest set if you are the elder.

3. Declare the number of cards in your largest set if you are the younger and have an equal or higher set.

4. Take your score if you have the largest number of cards in a set. If there is a tie, the player with the largest card in their largest set takes the score. Sets of three take a score of 13 and sets of four take 14.

Tricks

1. Lay down a card if you are the elder.

2. Lay down a card next to the elder's card if you are the younger. Try to play a higher card in the same suit.

3. Take the "trick" or both cards on the table if you have laid down the high card.

4. Place another card of your choice on the table if you were the winner of the round and continue on in this manner until all cards are played.

5. Keep track of your score as you are playing this part of the game. You receive 1 point each time you lead a round with a card with a value of ten or more and 1 point for each winning trick.

6. Add up your final score at the end of the Trick part of this game. You receive 2 points for winning the last trick if you won with a card with a value of ten or more, 1 point for winning the last trick if you won with a card with a value of nine or less. If you have seven-to-eleven tricks, add on an extra 10 points and if you took all twelve tricks (called a capet) you receive 60 additional points.

Total Scores

1. Add up all your scores for all five parts of the Piquet card game.

2. Take an additional 30 points if you reach a score of 30 during the tricks before your opponent has scored anything. This is called a "pique." You must declare this or you don't get credit for the pique.

3. Take an additional 60 points if you reach 30 points during the first four parts of the hand when your opponent has zero points. This is called a "repique." You must declare this or you don't get credit for the repique.

4. Win the game if you have the most points at the game's end.