Tressette

Players and equipment

Four players in two fixed partnerships, partners sitting opposite each other, and a 40-card pack. The traditional pack carries the Italian suits — swords, batons, cups and coins — and ranks each suit 3 (highest), 2, ace, king, cavallo, fante, 7, 6, 5, 4 (lowest). It is possible, though not usual, to play with an ordinary 52-card pack with the 10s, 9s and 8s set aside, which gives the same forty cards under the French suits: the king, queen and jack stand in for the king, cavallo and fante. Play runs anticlockwise, the Italian way round, so check that before you deal.

The deal

Ten cards to each player, five at a time, dealt anticlockwise. The deal passes to the player on the right after every hand — right, not left, the same anticlockwise direction as the play.

Play

Nothing beats a card just for being a different suit: there are no trumps. Whoever sits to the dealer's right opens the first trick with any card they like, and you must match the suit led if you can — out of it entirely, throw whatever you want. Whoever played the highest card of the suit led takes the trick and leads the next one.

Certain cards in your hand score points on their own, win or lose, and you declare them once the first trick has been played:

Four aces, four threes or four twos

4

declared after trick one

Three aces, threes or twos

3

declared after trick one

Napoletana — the 3, 2 and ace of one suit

3

declared after trick one

Say which suit is missing when you declare three of a kind, and which suit you hold when you declare a Napoletana. The same card can count twice: holding the 3, 2 and ace of cups and all four twos lets you declare a Napoletana in cups and four twos together, for seven points at once. These points score the moment you declare them, whatever becomes of the cards afterwards.

When you lead to a trick, and only then, you may signal to your partner: a knock on the table or on the led card asks your partner to play their highest card of that suit and lead it back if it wins, a card thrown so it glides onto the table says you have no more of that suit, and, where your table allows it, a card slid onto the table says you hold low cards of the suit as well. Nothing else may be said about your hand. None of that reaches the app — it is table talk between two people who can see each other, and SquareScores only ever sees the number a deal comes to.

Scoring

When all ten tricks are played, each side adds up the value of the cards it has won:

Each ace

1

won in a trick

Each 3, 2 or court card

⅓

won in a trick

Winning the last trick

1

whoever took it

Between them the forty cards are worth eleven and two-thirds points a deal, but a side's own fraction is dropped rather than shared — so the two sides' card points between them come to eleven, not eleven and two-thirds, once the thirds are thrown away. Any points declared for threes, twos, aces or a Napoletana are added on top of that, in full, with no rounding.

A deal's running score on the sheet is one number per side: its card points, plus the last-trick point if it won it, plus whatever it declared. The line on the sheet is 21, and the side that reaches or passes it first wins the match. There is no minus to enter — a side's deal score only ever adds to its total, even on a deal it loses outright.

A worked deal

Alice and Carla are one side, Beppe and Dino the other. Alice holds the 3, 2 and ace of cups before the first trick and declares a Napoletana in cups once it is played.

Napoletana in cups

3

declared after trick one

Alice and Carla's tricks

7

cards worth 7⅓ points, the third dropped

Last trick

1

won by Alice and Carla

Beppe and Dino's tricks

3

cards worth 3⅓ points, the third dropped

Alice and Carla's deal score is 3 for the Napoletana plus 7 for their tricks plus 1 for the last trick, which is 11. Beppe and Dino's is 3. Whoever is entering for each side types 11 against Alice and Carla's line and 3 against Beppe and Dino's, and the sheet adds both onto the running total toward 21.

Ending

Deal after deal, each side's score only climbs, until one side's total reaches or passes 21 and the match is over — tap End match to bank it. The rules do not say who wins when both sides reach 21 on the same deal, and tables differ: agree before you start, for instance that the higher total takes it and a tie plays another deal. Any player at the table may end the match once a side is there, not only the one who got them there.

A side that wins every one of the ten tricks in a deal — a cappotto — or every card point in a deal (the point for the last trick does not count here) while the other side wins at least one trick — a stramazzo — wins the whole match on the spot, whatever either side's running total says; the old multiplied stakes (two games for a cappotto, three for a stramazzo) are a matter for the table, not for the sheet. The app has no way to see that happening either. It only ever reads the number you enter for a deal, so for the side that swept, enter whatever takes their total to 21, enter the deal's card points for the other side as usual, and tap End match to bank it.

The rules let a player halt a deal early to claim 21 already secured from the tricks won so far, rather than finishing it out: call it correctly and that side wins the whole match on the spot, whatever the other side's total; call it wrongly and the other side wins instead. The app has no way to see that claim happening at the table — it only ever reads the number you enter for a deal — so agree as a table whether you play with it, and enter the deal's score to match whatever you decided at the table.

Remember what has gone

Threes and twos outrank aces and are worth less, which catches new players out all night: a bare three is often your best card in a suit, not your worst. Keep a running count in your head of which threes, twos and aces have been played in each suit — with forty cards and four players, a suit empties fast, and knowing it is gone is what lets you lead your own small cards in it safely.

Remember what you have given away

You declare your combination at the end of the first trick, and naming your suit for a Napoletana, or the suit you are missing for three of a kind, tells the whole table — your partner included — exactly what you are holding. The points are yours regardless, but the information is not: your partner can use it, and so can the side you are playing against, so keep track of what you and everyone else has given away as the deal goes on.

Play for your partner's hand, not just your own

A trick you cannot win is still worth something if it feeds your partner a card they can use, and a trick you can win cheaply is sometimes worth losing on purpose so your partner's higher card stays live for later. Watch which suits your partner has shown strength in through the table talk and steer tricks toward them rather than always taking what you can.

Keep your aces for the right moment

An ace is worth a whole point and nothing beats it but a three or a two, so an ace led early into a long suit is often an ace thrown away on a trick nobody was fighting for. Hold your aces until a suit is running out, when a three or two is unlikely still to be sitting in somebody's hand, and they are far more likely to stand up.

Count before you claim

If your table plays the stop-and-claim rule, add up what you have actually won before you call it — not what you think you are owed. A wrong claim hands the whole match to the other side no matter how close your own count was, so only call it on a total you can account for card by card.

A French-suited pack

Plenty of Italian tables deal from an ordinary deck of hearts, clubs, spades and diamonds rather than swords, batons, cups and coins, with the king, queen and jack standing in for the king, cavallo and fante. Nothing about the ranking or the scoring changes — it is the same forty cards under different pictures.

The international 52-card pack

Where only a standard pack is to hand, deal from it with the 10s, 9s and 8s set aside before the deal, leaving exactly the forty cards the game needs. The ranking from 3 down to 4 carries over unchanged.

The southern swap

In parts of southern Italy the queen and jack trade places in the ranking, so a suit runs 3, 2, ace, king, jack, queen, 7, 6, 5, 4 instead of the usual order. Agree before you deal, since it changes which of two court cards beats the other.

Calling the three

Tressette con la Chiamata del Tre does away with fixed partnerships: on each deal the player to the dealer's right calls a three, and its holder becomes their partner for that deal. Because the sides change from deal to deal, a side's running total no longer means anything, and it is played as a game of its own.

A fuller signal code

Beyond the knock and the slide or glide, some tables add "ribusso" for the second-highest outstanding card of a suit, "la meglio" to ask your partner for their highest card in a suit, and "tutto fuori" to say you are long in a suit but hold none of its top three cards. All of it stays out loud at the table; the app only ever sees the points a deal comes to.

How many cards do you deal in Tressette?

Ten cards to each of the four players, five at a time, dealt anticlockwise from the dealer. The whole forty-card pack is used up in the deal, so there is no stock or pile left over to draw from during play.

What is a Napoletana in Tressette?

It is the 3, 2 and ace of one suit, all three held by the same player, worth 3 points the moment it is declared after the first trick. You name the suit when you declare it, and it is only yours to claim if you hold all three cards at once.

Can you talk to your partner during Tressette?

Yes, but only when you are leading to a trick, and only through a fixed signal code, never open conversation. A knock on the table asks your partner to play their highest card of the suit you led and lead it back if it wins, and a card thrown so it glides onto the table says you have no more of that suit. None of it goes through the app, which only ever records a deal's score once it is counted.

What is a cappotto in Tressette?

A cappotto is winning every one of the ten tricks in a single deal; its twin, the stramazzo, is winning every card point in a deal while the other side keeps at least one low trick. Either wins your side the whole match outright, whatever either side's running total says — the old multiplied stakes (two games for a cappotto, three for a stramazzo) are a matter between players, not something the sheet tracks. The app has no way to see a sweep happening at the table, so for the side that swept, enter whatever takes their total to 21, enter the other side's card points as usual, and tap End match to bank it.

Do threes and twos really beat aces in Tressette?

Yes. The ranking in every suit runs 3 (highest), 2, ace, king, cavallo, fante, 7, 6, 5, 4 (lowest), so the three is the master card of its suit and the two the second-best, with the ace sitting below both despite being worth the most points. New players lose tricks for hand after hand by treating the ace as their top card.

How do you win Tressette?

By being the side to reach or pass 21 points first, counted across as many deals as it takes — or by sweeping a deal outright, a cappotto or stramazzo, which wins the match on the spot whatever either side's total. Each deal is worth the card points your side wins in tricks, a point for the last trick, and anything you declared for threes, twos, aces or a Napoletana — add it all up, enter it for your side, and the first side over the line wins the match, unless a sweep has already settled it.