Overview

Écarté is a two-player trick-taking game of 18th-century French origin. It is a member of the five-card family of traditional trick-taking games, along with games such as Euchre and Nap. It is played with a 32-card deck: a standard 52-card deck minus the 2–6 of each suit.

The name (French for “discarded”) refers to the phase that precedes the trick play, where players may discard cards and draw new ones, seeking to improve their hands.

Object of the game

The object of the game is to be the first to reach the target score, which is traditionally 5 points, but can alternatively be 7 or 11 points on BGA.

Card ranking

Ace ranks between ten and jack, so that the ranking in each suit (from low to high) is 7, 8, 9, 10, A, J, Q, K.

Structure of a game

A game consists of a number of deals, with the dealer alternating, and ends as soon as a player reaches the target score.

Each deal starts with the dealer dealing 5 cards to both players. The remaining 22 cards are placed face-down to form the stock. The top card of the stock is turned over and put to one side; its suit becomes the trump suit for the deal.

Once the trump suit has been determined, the non-dealer may propose an exchange of cards. If the dealer accepts this proposal, then the non-dealer must discard at least one card and then draw the same number from the stock, and the dealer must then do likewise (but need not exchange the same number of cards as the non-dealer did). Once such an exchange has been done, the non-dealer may propose another exchange, which, if accepted by the dealer, proceeds in the same way. Further exchanges may ensue, until the non-dealer decides not to propose (or cannot propose, due to insufficient cards remaining in the stock), or the dealer declines a proposal.

Once any exchanges have been done, the trick play begins, with the non-dealer leading to the first trick. Unusually strict rules of trick play apply, as described in the next section.

Rules of trick play

The player who leads to a trick is free to play any card in their hand. The other player must follow a number of rules:

• They must play a higher-ranking card of the suit led if they have one.
• If they have no higher-ranking card of the suit led, they must play a lower-ranking card of that suit if they have one.
• If they have no card at all of the suit led, they must play a trump if they have one.
• If they have neither a card of the suit led nor any trump, they are free to play any card they do have.

The trick is won by the highest trump played to it, or by the highest card of the suit led if there was no trump. The winner of a trick leads to the next trick of the deal (if any).

Scoring

Points are scored for winning the most tricks in a deal, and for the king of trumps.

Usually, winning 3 or 4 tricks in a deal scores 1 point, while winning all 5 tricks (called a vole) scores 2 points. But if the hands were played without an exchange of cards, then the player responsible for this lack of exchange - the non-dealer if no proposal was made, or the dealer if it was declined - is said to be vulnerable, and the other player scores 2 points even for winning just 3 or 4 tricks.

Scoring for the king of trumps occurs as follows (although BGA provides an option to omit this scoring). If the card turned to determine the trump suit is a king, then the dealer scores 1 point. A player who has the king of trumps in hand (after any exchanges have been made) may declare it (called marking the king) before playing to the first trick, and then scores 1 point. (On BGA, marking the king seems to be done automatically, without giving the player a choice over whether to do so.)