The rules of contrée
The rules of the contrée
The players
The contrée or belote contrée is a variant of the game of belote.It is played by four players with a deck of 32 cards.
The four players are divided into two teams north/south against east/west.
The value of the cards
The value of the cards varies depending on whether it is the trump suit or not.
A trump is always stronger than a non-trump. For example: an 8 of trump (value: 0 points) is stronger than a non-trump ace (value: 11 points).
The deal
For the first game, the dealer is drawn at random, he distributes eight cards per player in three rounds.
The cards are never mixed between deals except after 4 deals without a take, the program automatically shuffles them.
The auctions
The players take turns speaking, starting with the player to the right of the dealer. Each player can:- pass their turn, while being able to speak in the next round if a bid has been made in the meantime.
- make a bid by announcing the number of points they hope to achieve in the trump suit of their choice. The bid must be at least 80 points or higher than the previous bid by a multiple of 10.
- counter the opponent's previous bid if he thinks that the opponent will not fulfill his contract; the points will then be doubled. The opponent then has the possibility of overcounter, which will have the effect of quadrupling the points.
Capot: you can ask for the Capot by specifying the color. You then agree to take all the tricks. The contract amount is 250 points but no player can outbid on a capot.
End of the auction: each player must speak at least once, the auction ends after 3 consecutive "Passes". A player cannot therefore outbid himself if all the other players have passed.
The card game
After the bidding round, the team that made the highest bid will try to fulfill the contract. The player to the right of the dealer plays the card of his choice; the color of this card determines the requested color.The others play each in turn by providing the requested color.
If he does not have a card in the requested suit, two cases arise:
- his partner is master (strongest card on the table), so he can play any card (discard) or he can also cut.
- his partner is not master or has not yet played: he is required to cut if he has a trump, otherwise he discards by playing any card.
When a player plays a trump, the others are required to put a stronger trump than the one already on the table. If this proves impossible, he must choose a weaker trump. When an opponent cuts, it is not obligatory to cut if one is unable to overcome his trump: one can then discard.
The start of the next trick is made by the player who has just won the last trick. When all the cards have been played, the points are calculated.
Calculating the points
Each team adds up the value of the cards won.A bonus of ten points is added to the team that wins the last trick.
If a player has the king and queen of trumps, he scores 20 additional points, this is the "belote", "rebelote".
If the team that won the auction achieves:
- more or the expected number of points, each of the two teams scores the points corresponding to the sum of the value of the cards plus the bid for the taking team.
- less than the expected number of points, it does not score any points unless it had the "belote", "rebelote". Defenders score 160 points plus the opposing team's bid.