Bisca (card game)

Bisca is a Portuguese version of the Italian trick-taking game Briscola, played with the 40-card Italian deck. It is normally dealt from the ordinary 52-card French pack with the eights, nines and tens of every suit taken out, which leaves exactly forty cards. It suits two players, or four players who either play singly or as partners. Each player holds three cards. A card turned face up after the deal fixes the trump suit, called the trunfo, and it is tucked partly visible at the bottom of the stock. Players take turns laying cards, and the higher card of the led suit wins the trick unless a trump appears, in which case the highest trump takes it. Cards carry points: the ace is worth eleven, the seven (the bisca, also called manilha or seta) ten, the king four, the jack three and the queen two. The aim is to collect more points than the opponent from the captured cards, and since the whole deck is worth 120 points, sixty or more is enough to be ahead.