See also: The Brusquembille family

Brusquembille for two, four and five players
Brusquembille played for points

1. Number of players and deck of cards

Brusquembille is played by three, with a 32-card deck reduced to 30 after removing 2 sevens – the two red ones or the two black ones, to make it easier to remember.

The descending order of the cards, assuming the black sevens have been removed from the deck, is as follows :

Ace, 10, king, queen, jack, 9, 8, 7
Ace, 10, king, queen, jack, 9, 8

2. The game, the bank, the stake

The game is played over a number of rounds, determined at the outset by the players. A round is finished when the three players have each successively been the dealer. The period of play corresponding to a single dealer is called a hand. When play passes to another dealer, one moves to another hand. Thus in the game of Brusquembille, a round corresponds to three hands.

Each player receives, at the start of the game, a quantity of chips (rectangular plaques) corresponding to three times the number of rounds to be played, as well as twenty counters – one chip is worth twenty counters in this game. This stock is generally called the bank. For example, for a game of two rounds, each player will receive a bank of six chips and twenty counters, i.e. the equivalent of 140 counters. In addition, a separate pool held aside will provide a supply of counters for exchanging, if necessary, the players' chips.

At the start of each hand, the players must place in some container (a plate, a small basket, etc.) one of the chips from their bank. This total stake of three chips forms the pot for the hand.

3. Deal, trump

Each player draws a card at random from the deck spread out, faces down, on the table, and the one who gets the highest – in the hierarchical order of Piquet, i.e. A, K, Q, J, 10, 9, 8, 7 – is the first dealer of the game. He shuffles the cards and gives them to be cut by the player on his left, then deals, going to the right, 3 cards to each player, one at a time. Dealing and playing cards are always done counterclockwise.

The 21 remaining cards form the stock, which must be placed, face down, in front of the dealer and to his right.

The dealer then turns over the first card of the stock, and places it face up half covered under the stock. The suit of this card is the trump.

When a hand is finished, all thirty cards having been played, one moves on to the next, and the new dealer is the player seated to the right of the previous one. The dealer must always shuffle the cards before giving them to be cut by the player seated to his left.

4. Play of the cards, the stock

Brusquembille is a trick-taking game.

The first to play is the player seated to the right of the dealer : he plays the first card of the hand, and will be the dealer for the following hand. After each trick, the one who won it has the lead, that is to say plays the first card for the following trick.

The first to play, or, after the first trick, the one who has the lead, plays one of his three cards, and the other players, following in turn to the right, play in their turn the card they wish without any obligation, neither to follow suit, nor to trump. Anything is possible, even trumping when one holds the suit that was led.

The one who takes the trick is the player who, if no one has played a trump, played the highest card in the suit led by the first player. In the case where one or more players have played a trump, it is the one who played the highest one who takes the trick.

The cards of the trick are stacked, face down – the trick then takes the name of a pile –, next to its winner who then takes the top card of the stock, followed by the player to his right, then by the last player, so that each player again ends up with three cards in hand. It is mandatory to respect this order for drawing from the stock.

The player who took the trick has the lead. He plays first, and play continues in this way until the stock is completely exhausted. The last player able to draw takes the turned-up card, which is necessarily a trump.

When the stock is exhausted, the players continue to play in the same way, but no longer being able to replenish their hand with cards from the stock, they have only three tricks left to play, with three, then two, and finally one card in hand.

5. Winner of the pot, scoring points

Once all the cards have been played, each player adds up the points won during the tricks, counting in their piles : 11 points for an ace, 10 points for a ten, 4 points for a king, 3 points for a queen, 2 points for a jack and no points for the other cards.

The player with the most points in his piles wins the initial stake. In the event of a tie for the highest points between two players, they split the pot.

6. The brusquembilles

The aces and the tens are called brusquembilles.

An ace is worth 2 counters, and a ten 1 counter.

During the tricks, the brusquembilles are paid between the players in the following manner:

– the one who loses a brusquembille pays each of the two other players the value in counters of that brusquembille ;

– the one who plays a brusquembille, and wins the trick, is paid by each of the two other players the value in counters of that brusquembille.

7. The winner of the game

At the end of the number of rounds agreed at the outset between the players, each counts up the chips and counters he has in his possession in order to know his winnings or losses. This allows a ranking of the players to be established.

8. Remarks

In order to play Brusquembille well, it is good to bear in mind :

– that the last to play is the only one, especially at the start of the hand, to play with full knowledge ;

– that the turned-up card from the stock goes to the player to the left of the one who took the trick when only three cards remained in the stock ;

– that the whole deck of cards contains 120 points (44+40+16+12+8) ;

– that the last three tricks of each hand are often decisive.

9. Playing with two or four

To play Brusquembille with two or four players, a full 32-card deck is used.

With four players, it is possible to play individually, or two against two.

When playing two against two, the players of the same team sit side by side, may show each other their hands and advise each other on the card to play, but without exchanging cards. To determine the first dealer of the game, the player farthest to the right in each team draws a card from the deck spread on the table, and the one who gets the highest – in the hierarchical order of Piquet, i.e. A, K, Q, J, 10, 9, 8, 7 – deals the cards. For the following hand, the deal is made by the player farthest to the right of the other team. As a result, for the first trick of a hand, it is always the two players of the same team who play first, followed by the two players of the opposing team. For subsequent tricks, it is the player who has the lead.

With two players, or with four, two against two, brusquembilles are not paid.

With four individual players, brusquembilles are paid as with three players.

With two players the stock contains 26 cards, and with four players 20 cards.

10. Playing with five

To play Brusquembille with five players, one proceeds in the same way as with three players, but the stock contains only 15 cards.

11. Playing the game for points

To play Brusquembille for points (a practice not described in the old rules), the brusquembilles are never paid, regardless of the number of players.

The players will agree at the start of the game on how many points it will be played to.

The game could, for example, be played to 300 or 500 points.

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Reference

Académie universelle des jeux, Legras, Paris, 1718

Page information

Published on 25 October 2003
Revised on 6 December 2021

Author : Philippe LALANNE

Le Salon des jeux - Académie des jeux oubliés

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