Briscola: Big Cards Offline

Briscola is the card game of Italy, the one played in every bar and at every kitchen table. Here it is in English, on your phone, with no internet needed to play.

Classic briscola, 1 vs 1 against the computer. There is also a four-player mode, 2 vs 2 (briscola in 4, a coppie — two against two), with your partner sitting opposite you. Your partner and both opponents are the computer; there is no play against other people. Choose a single mano, best of three (the default) or best of five. This is not the five-player version with a called partner. If you know the game as brisca, briscas, briskula or bisca, you will recognize it at once.

THE RULES, IN SHORT
Forty cards: A, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 and three court cards in each suit. Three cards to each player, then the top card of the mazzo, the deck, is turned face up: its suit is the briscola, the trump, and it beats the other three suits for the whole mano, the deal.
• Strength is not the numerical order. It runs A, 3, K, Q, J, 7, 6, 5, 4, 2 — the 3 beats the king, which is what trips up players arriving from other trick-taking games.
• Only five cards in each suit carry punti, the points: the A is worth 11, the 3 is worth 10, the K 4, the Q 3 and the J 2. The A and the 3 are the carichi, the heavy cards; a card worth no punti is a liscio. There are 120 punti on the table, and 61 of them win the mano. 60-60 is a patta, a draw, and neither side moves ahead.
• You never have to follow suit. Any card in your hand is always legal — this is what surprises people who know other card games.
• While the mazzo still has cards, everyone draws after each presa, the trick: the winner first, then the others in order. The face-up briscola is the last card to leave the mazzo.
• Taking all 120 punti in one mano is a cappotto.

BIG CARDS
Suits and numbers read at a glance, across the table or under a kitchen light. It is the reason this app exists. Card size is adjustable and starts large.

PLAY ANYWHERE
On a plane, on the subway, in a basement with no signal: you need no connection to play a full match.

THE COMPUTER PLAYS THE CARDS IT CAN SEE, THE SAME AS YOU
The mazzo is shuffled at random every mano, and the computer is given only what a player at the table could observe: its own cards, the face-up briscola and the cards already played. It never sees your hand — that is not a promise, it is how the game is built.
The statistics screen shows how often each suit has turned up as briscola across your own deals, so you can watch it even out yourself.
The three levels really do differ in playing strength, not only in how fast they move. On Hard, in the one-on-one game, once the mazzo is empty the computer works out what you must be holding from the cards already gone and plays the ending out exactly.

ITALIAN OR FRENCH SUITS
Denari, coppe, spade and bastoni with re, cavallo and fante — or the French suits, which are the default. The cards are drawn specifically for this app.

SETTINGS
• Players: 2, or 4 in pairs
• Match: single mano, best of 3, best of 5
• Card suits: Italian or French
• Difficulty: Easy, Normal, Hard
• Big Cards: on or off
• Game speed: slow, normal, fast
• Classic green table or midnight blue, four card backs
• Language: 12 languages

ALSO IN THE APP
• How to play: the full rules, inside the app
• Hints: three per game, for when you cannot pick a card
• Statistics: mani played and won, patte, average punti, cappotti made and conceded
• An online leaderboard, weekly and all time, under a nickname you can change. It keeps a score and nothing else; with no connection the game plays exactly the same.

A traditional Italian card game, 2 players or 4. A mano takes a few minutes — the length of a bus ride, a coffee break, an afternoon on the sofa. Enjoy.

Recent changes:
Briscola the way it is played at home in Italy, against the computer.

Two players, or four in 2v2 pairs. One mano, best of 3, or best of 5.

Big, clear cards you can size to your own eyes. That is the whole reason this app exists.

Italian suits (denari, coppe, spade, bastoni) or French. Three difficulty levels that really differ. Full rules inside, in 12 languages.

No connection needed to play, from the first launch. No sign-up, no account.