PIEDICAVALLO TAROCCHI

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OBJECTIVE OF PIEDICAVALLO TAROCCHI: The objective of Piedicavallo Tarocchi is for your team to have the most points at the end of the game.

NUMBER OF PLAYERS: 4 players

MATERIALS: A modified Tarocco Piemontese deck, a way to keep score, and a flat surface.

TYPE OF GAME: Trick-Taking Card Game

AUDIENCE: Adult

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OVERVIEW OF PIEDICAVALLO TAROCCHI

Piedicavallo Tarocchi is a trick-taking game for 4 players. The goal is for your team to have the most points at the end of 4 rounds.

Players will form 2 teams of 2 and sit opposite their partner.

SETUP

The deck is modified by removing the 1s, 2s, 3s, and 4s of the swords and batons, and the 10s, 9s, 8s, and 7s of the cups and coins. This will leave you with a 62-card deck.

The first dealer is chosen at random and passes to the right for each new deal. Each player will deal once. 사설토토

The dealer will shuffle the deck and allow the player to their left to cut. Then the dealer will deal each other player 15 cards, starting with the player to their right and continuing counterclockwise. The dealer will be dealt 17 cards.

The dealer will then pick up their hand, and discard 2 cards from their hand face down. They may not discard any cards worth 5 points (discussed below). The dealer may only discard trumps if they have no other options or if after discarding, they have no other trumps in hand. They must announce if and how many trumps they discarded. These discarded cards will be scored by the dealer’s team, but only if they win at least 1 trick during the round.

Card Rankings and Point Values

The ranking of cards depends on what suit they belong to.

For the trump suit or the tarocchi, there are 21 cards that rank in numerical order from 21 (high) to 1 (low).

For the cups and coins suits the ranking is King (high), Queen, Horse, Jack, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 (low). These are known as the red suits.

For the swords and batons suits the ranking is King (high), Queen, Horse, Jack, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, and 5 (low). These are known as the black suits.

There is also the fool card which belongs to no suit.

There are point values associated with cards as well. The Kings, the fool, trump 1, and trump 21 are all worth 5 points each. Queens are worth 4 points. Horses are worth 3 points each. Jacks are worth 2 points each, and all other cards are worth 1 point each. There is a total of 114 points available per round.

GAMEPLAY

The player to the dealer’s right leads the first trick. They may lead any card, and all following players must follow suit if able. If they cannot follow suit a player must play a trump if possible. If they cannot, they may play any card to the trick.

The trick is won by the highest trump played. If not applicable, the trick is won by the highest-ranked card of the suit led.

The exception to the above rules is when a player plays the fool. It can be played to any trick. It will never win a trick, but the card is not captured by the winner of the trick, either. Instead, the fool, when played, is put into the scoring pile of the team who played it. It will be scored only if that team wins at least one trick during the round. If the fool is used to lead a trick, the second card played to the trick will determine the suit that must be followed by the remaining players.