Belot rules

Players and teams

Belot is played by four players split into two teams of two. Partners sit opposite each other, so turns always alternate between the teams. On Belot Arena the seats are called North, East, South and West: North and South are one team, East and West are the other.

Partners may not show each other their cards or talk about them. The only legitimate way to tell your partner something is through your calls during bidding and through the cards you play. That is why Belot is a game of attention: every card played carries information.

The deck and card ranking

The game uses a 32-card deck, eight cards in each of the four suits (clubs, diamonds, hearts and spades): 7, 8, 9, 10, jack, queen, king and ace. Twos through sixes are not used.

Card strength is not fixed; it depends on the contract. When a suit is trumps, its jack and nine become the strongest cards. In non-trump suits and in a No trumps contract the natural order applies, where the ace is highest and the ten comes right after it.

An easy way to remember it: in trumps the jack and nine sit on top; everywhere else the ace and ten are in charge.

Cutting and dealing

Before every deal the deck is shuffled and the player before the dealer cuts it, choosing a point where the deck is split and the bottom part is placed on top. On Belot Arena shuffling is automatic, but the cut is kept as part of the ritual of the game.

Dealing starts with the player after the dealer and happens in two stages. First everyone receives three cards, then two, for five cards in hand. The bidding is held with these five cards. If a team wins the bidding, the remaining cards are dealt, three more per player, so everyone ends up with eight.

After each deal the dealer role moves to the next player, so everyone gets the same chance to speak first in the bidding and to lead the first trick.

1. The deck is shuffled and cut.
2. Each player receives 3 cards, then 2 (5 in total).
3. The bidding takes place.
4. If there is a contract, everyone receives 3 more cards (8 in total).
5. The player after the dealer leads the first trick.

Bidding in brief

The bidding decides the contract: which suit will be trumps, or whether the hand is played in No trumps or All trumps. It starts with the player after the dealer and continues in turn. On your turn you may pass, offer a higher contract or, if the last contract belongs to the opponents, say contra.

Contracts are ranked: clubs, diamonds, hearts, spades, No trumps and All trumps. Every new call must be higher than the previous one. The bidding ends when three players in a row pass after the last call (or two, if the last action was contra or recontra). If all four players pass without anyone calling a contract, the cards are dealt again.

Details on when a call is worth making, how contra and recontra work and how to read your partner's calls are in our separate bidding guide.

Playing tricks and obligations

A deal consists of eight tricks. The player after the dealer leads any card and the other three each play one card in turn. The trick is won by the highest card of the suit that was led, unless it contains a trump, in which case the highest trump wins. Whoever wins the trick leads to the next one.

Belot is a strict game: you cannot play whatever you like. Your obligations depend on the contract:

• You must always follow the suit that was led if you hold a card of that suit.
• In a suit contract: if trumps are led, you must play a higher trump if you can.
• In a suit contract: if you cannot follow suit and your partner is not winning the trick, you must trump. If there is already a trump on the table, you must overtrump if you can.
• If your partner is already winning the trick and you cannot follow suit, you may discard any card; you are not obliged to trump.
• If you have neither the led suit nor a trump, you may play any card.
• In All trumps: follow suit and, if you can, play a card higher than the highest card of that suit on the table.
• In No trumps: your only obligation is to follow suit. If you cannot, you may discard anything.

Example: hearts are trumps. East leads the ace of clubs, South (your partner) has played the ten of clubs and you have no clubs. The opponents are winning the trick, so you must trump with a heart. If South had led the ace and it was winning, you could have discarded any card you liked.

Declarations

Besides card points, teams can earn extra points for combinations in hand, called declarations. Sequences are formed in a single suit using the natural order 7, 8, 9, 10, jack, queen, king, ace, whatever the contract. Four of a kind uses four cards of the same rank; four sevens and four eights do not count.

Declarations are settled after the first trick. Only the team with the stronger declaration scores: four of a kind always beats a sequence, a longer sequence beats a shorter one, and between equal sequences the one with the higher top card wins. If they are still equal, in a suit contract a sequence in trumps takes priority. On a complete tie neither team scores declarations. The team that wins the comparison scores all of its declarations, not just the best one.

Declarations are not played in a No trumps contract.

Belot

Belot is the king and queen of the trump suit held by one player. It is worth 20 points and, unlike other declarations, it is not compared with the opponents' declarations: whoever announces it scores it.

Belot is announced during play, at the moment you play the first of the two cards. The condition is that you lead it or play it while following the same suit. If you play the king or queen on another suit (for example as a trump), the belot does not count. In All trumps every suit is trumps, so a belot is possible in any suit, and even more than one. There is no belot in No trumps.

Scoring

After the eighth trick each team adds up the points of the cards it has won. The last trick is worth 10 more points. If one team wins all eight tricks, it makes a valat (capot) and receives a 90-point bonus. Accepted declarations and belots are added to the card total.

On Belot Arena card points are doubled in No trumps: the ace is worth 22, the ten 20, the king 8, the queen 6 and the jack 4. The last-trick and valat bonuses are not doubled. So the total in one deal is 162 points in a suit contract, 258 in All trumps and 250 in No trumps (before declarations).

Made and failed contracts

The team that took the contract must collect strictly more points (cards plus declarations) than the opponents. If it does, the contract is made and each team records its own points.

If the declaring team collects fewer points, the contract fails. The defenders then record all the points of the deal, both their own and the declarers', and the declaring team records nothing.

If the points are exactly equal, the deal is hanging. The defenders record their own points, while the declarers' points are not lost but are held over and added to the next deal: they go to the team that makes the next contract (or to the defenders if the next contract fails).

Finally the raw points are turned into game points: they are divided by 10 and rounded to the nearest whole number. For example, 138 points become 14 and 64 points become 6.

Contra and recontra

Contra doubles the result of the deal and recontra quadruples it. The recorded points are multiplied whether the contract is made or fails. That makes contra a strong weapon but also a serious risk: if the opponents make their contract, they score double.

On Belot Arena contra and recontra affect only the game score. There are no stakes, money or tokens; it is only about points in the match.

End of the game

A match is played to 151 game points. The team that first reaches or passes 151 wins. If both teams are above 151 after the same deal, the one with more points wins. If the score is tied, play continues with more deals until one team is ahead.

A complete example deal

North calls spades, everyone else passes and the contract belongs to North and South. North holds the king and queen of spades (a belot), and South has a tierce of 8, 9 and 10 of diamonds. East and West only have a tierce of 7, 8 and 9 of clubs. Both tierces are worth 20 points, but South's has the higher top card (10 against 9), so only North and South score a declaration.

After eight tricks North and South have 98 card points (including the last trick) and East and West have 64. The declarers have 98 + 20 (tierce) + 20 (belot) = 138 points against 64. The contract is made: North and South record 14 game points (138 ÷ 10 ≈ 14) and East and West record 6.

If East had said contra, the result would have been doubled: 276 against 128, or 28 against 13 game points. And if North and South had collected only 70 card points with no declarations against 92 for the opponents, the contract would have failed and East and West would have recorded all 162 points, which is 16 game points.