 Italian playing cards from a deck of Napoletane by Modiano | |
| Origin | Italy |
|---|---|
| Type | Trick taking |
| Players | 2-6 |
| Skills | Tactics, memory |
| Cards | 40 cards |
| Deck | Italian |
| Rank (high→low) | A 3 R C F 7 6 5 4 2 |
| Play | Counter-clockwise |
| Playing time | 25 min |
| Chance | Medium |
| Related games | |
| Brisca • Calabresella | |
Briscola (Italian: [ˈbriskola]; Lombard: brìscula; Sicilian: brìscula; Neapolitan: brìscula) is one of Italy's most popular games, together with Scopa and Tressette. A little-changed descendant of Brusquembille, the ancestor of briscan and bezique,[1] Briscola is a Mediterranean trick-taking ace–ten card game for two to six players, played with a standard Italian 40-card deck.
The game can also be played with a modern Anglo-French deck, without the eight, nine and ten cards (see Portuguese variations below). With three or six players, twos are removed from the deck to ensure the number of cards in the deck is a multiple of the number of players; a single two for three players and all four twos for six players. The four and six-player versions of the game are played as a partnership game of two teams, with players seated such that every player is adjacent to two opponents.
- ^ Oxford Dictionary of Card Games, David Parlett, pg. 47 – Oxford University Press 1996 ISBN 0-19-869173-4