- Play Belote with 4 players split into teams of 2 and a 32-card deck consisting of aces, kings, queens, jacks, 10s, 9s, 8s, and 7s.
- Take turns playing cards from your hand. Play the same suit as the first card if you can. The player with the highest card wins all of the played cards.
- Score points for each card you won from tricks plus any combo declarations you made at the start of the round.
- The first team to reach the target score of 501 or 1,000 wins the game.
Setup
Form a 32-card deck by removing the 2–6 of each suit. Belote only uses the aces, kings, queens, jacks, 10s, 9s, 8s, and 7s of each suit for a total of 32 cards. Take a standard 52-card deck and set aside all the 2s, 3s, 4s, 5s, and 6s since you won’t use them for the game.
Split into 2 teams of 2 players. Belote is primarily a 4-player game, so play with 3 other friends. Choose 1 player to be your teammate. Sit so the members of the other team are to your left and right and your teammate is across from you. You could also deal out cards to determine teams. Shuffle the deck and give each player 1 card. The players with the highest-value cards form one team and the players with the lowest values form the second team.
Determine the first dealer by drawing the lowest card. Shuffle the 32 cards together and have each player draw 1 card from the top. Check who has the card with the lowest value and give them the deck so they start the game as the dealer. If you dealt cards to determine teams, you can use the same cards to determine who starts the game as the dealer.
Dealing and Bidding
Shuffle the deck and deal 5 cards to each player. Shuffle all the cards and have the player to the right of the dealer cut the deck. Starting with the player to the dealer’s right and going counterclockwise around the table, deal 3 cards at a time to each player. Then, give each player 2 additional cards so they have a total of 5 cards. You can look at the cards in your hand, but don’t show them to your teammate or the other players.
Flip the top card of the deck. Take the top face-down card on the deck and put it face-up in the middle of the table. This card determines the potential trump suit, which means the suit of the card would be stronger than any other suit for the current round. For example, if the flipped card was a 7 of spades, then spades would be the trump suit and win against hearts, diamonds, and clubs during the round.
Take turns deciding if you want to take the face-up card. Starting with the person to the right of the dealer, players check their hands to see if they want to accept the flipped card as the trump suit. If a player wants to accept the trump, they take the card and add it to their hand. Otherwise, they say “pass” and the next player to their right gets to accept or pass. If you’re holding the jack or 9 of the trump suit, accept the trump since those cards are the strongest cards in the suit. Accepting the trump card means you think your team will earn more points than the other team at the end of the round.
Let a player choose a trump suit if no one takes the trump card. If none of the players want to accept the face-up card as the trump suit, then the player to the right of the dealer can choose any suit they want as trump or pass again. Whatever player chooses a new trump suit takes the face-up card into their hand. You may pass again if you don't have the jack or 9 in any suit. Keep a piece of paper nearby so you can write down the trump suit for the round. If all the players pass a second time, collect all the cards to shuffle and deal them out again into new hands.
Deal the rest of the deck so players each have 8 cards. Deal the cards counterclockwise around the table. Give the player who took the face-up card 2 cards and every other player 3 cards so everyone has a hand of 8 cards.
Make declarations for combos of cards you have in your hand. A declaration is a specific combination of cards that can earn you extra points at the end of the round. Before anyone takes a turn, look at your hand and declare any combinations you have. Only the team that has the highest-scoring combo earns points from their declarations at the end of the round. The declarations from highest to lowest are: Four jacks - 200 points Four 9s - 150 points Four aces, kings, queens, or 10s - 100 points Quinte (5 cards of the same suit in sequential order) - 100 points Quarte (4 cards of the same suit in sequential order) - 50 points Tierce (3 cards of the same suit in sequential order) - 20 points Belote/Rebelote (king and queen in trump suit) - 20 points You can play Belote without making declarations if you want a more strategic game.
Gameplay
Note the point values of the cards in the trump suit and other suits. Unlike many other card games, the point values of the cards are not the same as their face value. Cards in the trump suit also have different point values than all the cards in the other suits. The order of the suits and their point values are: Trump: Jack (20 pts), 9 (14 pts), Ace (11 pts), 10 (10 pts), King (4 pts), Queen (3 pts), 8 (0 pts), and 7 (0 pts) Non-trump: Ace (11 pts), 10 (10 pts), King (4 pts), Queen (3 pts), Jack (2 pts), 9 (0 pts), 8 (0 pts), and 7 (0 pts)
Let the starting player play 1 card to start the trick. The player to the dealer's right leads the first trick, which is 1 turn during a round. To start a trick, the starting player chooses a card from their hand and plays it to the middle of the table face-up.
Play a card with the same suit on your turn if you can. Take turns going counterclockwise around the table. Every player has to follow and play a card in the lead suit if they’re able to. If the lead card was in the trump suit, then you must play a trump card with a higher value if you have one. Otherwise, you can play a lower value. If the lead suit was a non-trump suit and you don’t have any in the same suit, you must play a trump card. If you can’t follow the lead suit but your teammate already played the highest-value card, you can choose any card from your hand. If you don’t have any card matching the lead suit or the trump, you can play any card from your hand.
Win the trick if you played the card with the highest value. If anyone played a trump card during the round, then the player who had the highest-value trump wins the trick. If there aren’t any cards in the trump suit, then the card with the highest point value in the lead suit wins. Take all of the cards played during the trick and put them in a face-down pile in front of you. Example: Trump is hearts. The lead card was a queen of spades. Players followed with a king of spades, ace of spades, and 9 of spades. Whoever played the ace of spades wins the trick since it’s the highest value in the lead suit. Example: Trump is spades. The lead card was a king of diamonds. Other players played a jack of diamonds, seven of spades, and ace of diamonds. The seven of spades wins the trick since it’s in the trump suit.
Play tricks until you’ve used all the cards in your hand. Whoever won the previous trick gets to play the lead card for the next trick. Continue playing tricks until you’ve played all 8 cards in your hand. You earn points based on the cards you win in tricks, so keep track of what cards have already been played. That way, you can deduce if other players have cards that are of a higher value.
Scoring
Count the total value of declarations and cards your team won from tricks. Look through all of the cards that your team won from tricks and add up their point values. If your team made the highest-valued declaration at the start of the round, count the total points of any declarations your team made. Example: Trump is hearts. Your team won 1 trick with the jack of hearts, king of hearts, queen of spades, and ace of spades. The trick is worth 38 points total (20 + 4 + 3 +11). If a team wins all 8 tricks, add 90 points to the total. When a team wins the last trick of the round, add 10 points to the total. If your team didn't make the declaration with the highest value, then the only declaration you're able to score is Belote/Rebelote.
Gain the points if the team that took trump earned more than the other team. Compare the total points from cards and declarations between the teams. If the team that accepted the trump at the start of the round earned more points, then both teams earn the amount that they scored for the round. If the team that accepted trump scored less than the other team, the other team gains 162 points, which is the total value of all the cards plus the 10 bonus points for the last trick. The team also earns points for any declarations both teams made. If the team that picked trump didn’t win any tricks, known as a Capot, then the opposing team earns 252 points plus both teams’ declarations instead.
Save points until the next round if there’s a tie. If both teams have the same score at the end of the round, write the number of points down. No teams earn points this round and the score will be added to the score at the end of the next round instead.
Finishing the Game
Pass the dealer role counterclockwise to the next player. Collect all the cards into a deck again and pass them to the player to the dealer's right. Rather than shuffling, the person on the right of the new dealer cuts the cards so they’re ready to use for the next round.
Deal out a new hand of cards to start bidding for the next round. Start the next round by dealing out 5 cards to each player and revealing the top card of the deck to determine the next trump suit. Go around the table to accept the trump or choose a new suit so you can play through the next round.
Play rounds until a team reaches the target score of 501 or 1,000. While most people play Belote until a team earns 1,000 points, you can opt to play a shorter game up to 501 points. Check the total points at the end of each round, and whichever team hits or exceeds the target score is the winner! If both teams cross the target score on the same round, whoever has the most points wins. If teams have the same score, then the game ends in a tie.
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