Partita is a simple tarot card game from Italy. It’s actually as simple as they come when it comes to tarot games, but you can complicate it as much as you want by adding signals. Yes, unlike most other tarot games, you can signal your partner what to do, the only rule is that all signals are clear and visible to all players, and agreed upon before the game starts.
The game is played between four players in fixed teams with a 54 card tarot deck consisting of:
- Trumps from I to XXI
- The Fool
- Spades and Clubs: King, Queen, Cavalier, Valet, Ten to Seven
- Diamonds and Hearts: King, Queen, Cavalier, Valet, Ace to Four
Card strength
Trumps:
Trumps are the strongest and always take the trick when played. By strength they go from XXI(the strongest) to VI, and trump I, II, III, III and V are all of equal strength. In case that any of the trumps from I to V are played in the same trick, the last one played wins the trick.
Suits:
Suits go from strongest to weakest in this order:
- Spades and Clubs: King, Queen, Cavalier, Valet, Ten to Seven
- Diamonds and Hearts: King, Queen, Cavalier, Valet, Ace to Four
The Fool:
The Fool is an excuse. He can be played at any time as an excuse to not play a card. The team that played the Fool takes him into their trick pile.
Teams, the game and the dealer
Partita is played in fixed teams for an entire game. One game usually consists of four deals, but if you want you can change that, so that you can play the entire night in fixed teams.
Teams are formed in regards to the dealer. Dealer of the next game is always the partner of the player who dealt the last hand of the previous game. The first dealer is chosen at random by card draw.
The deal
Each player is dealt 13 cards and the dealer takes the last two, so he has 15 cards. The dealer then discards two cards into his teams trick pile. He can not discard Kings, Trump I or XXI and the Fool. He can only discard trumps if he has no other option, but he has to announce it and show them to the other players.
Gameplay
The game itself is played like any other tarot trick taking card game. The dealer leads the first trick and other players must follow suite, if they can’t, they have to play a trump, if they don’t have a trump, they can play any card(but it doesn’t win). The player that took the previous trick always leads the next trick. Play continues this way until players run out of cards.
Scoring
Scoring is done is done by counting two cards at a time. Each pair of cards is worth 1 point, plus the value of any court cards or the I and XXI of trumps that it might contain. Value of these cards is as follows:
- Trump XXI = 4 points
- Trump I = 4 points
- Kings = 4 points
- Queens = 3 points
- Cavaliers = 2 points
- Valets = 1 point
The Fool is always counted separately and is worth 5 points.
If a team has an odd number of cards, the odd empty card is also worth 1 point.
If a team scored below 40 points, it gets a negative score equal to the difference between 40 and their score.
If a team scored above 40 points, it gets a positive score equal to the difference between 40 and their score.
That’s it, have fun playing Partita!