· Card Room · Trick game
French Tarot: play free online, bids, oudlers and strategy
78 cards, 21 trumps and the Excuse. Bid, take the dog and play alone against Zip, Buffer and Skip, or team up to stop the taker.
What is French Tarot?
France's favourite trick game for four: 18 cards each and 6 in the dog. Bid to play alone against Zip, Buffer and Skip, win enough card points for your oudlers, and lead the standings after 4 deals. No Petit au bout, handfuls or slam here.
French Tarot, the jeu de tarot, is a trick-taking game played with a special 78-card deck: four suits of 14 cards, 21 numbered trumps and the Excuse. Each deal, one player, the taker, plays alone against everyone else and must win enough card points to make the contract.
Tarot cards were first made for card games in 15th-century northern Italy, and tarot games spread across Europe long before the cards were linked with fortune-telling. Today France is where the game is most played, with a national federation, the Fédération Française de Tarot, and official rules. People search for it as French Tarot, jeu de tarot, tarot à 4 or tarot à 5, and related games such as Tarock are still played in Austria and other parts of Europe.
On SkillXGames you play four-handed against Zip, Buffer and Skip over four deals. The bids show their French names (Petite, Garde, Garde sans, Garde contre), the table counts the taker's oudlers and points at the end of each deal, and the standings carry over from deal to deal. Petit au bout, handfuls and slams are left out to keep things clear.
At a glance
- Category
- Card Room
- Difficulty
- Hard
- Play time
- 20–30 min
- Price
- Free, in your browser, sign-up optional
How to play
- Bid
- Small ×1, Guard ×2, Guard without the dog ×4, Guard against the dog ×6, or pass. With Small or Guard, the taker takes the dog and sets 6 cards aside: no kings, no trumps.
- Follow and trump
- Follow suit. Void? You must trump, higher than the best trump played if you can. With neither, play anything.
- The Excuse
- Play it any time instead of following. It never wins: its owner keeps it and gives half a point in exchange, except on the last trick.
- Oudlers and score
- The 1, the 21 and the Excuse set the target: 56, 51, 41 or 36 of 91 points. Each defender pays (25 + the gap) × the bid.
Scoring
Each deal, 25 plus the gap between the taker's points and the target is multiplied by the bid (×1, ×2, ×4 or ×6) and paid by each defender, so the taker wins or loses three times that.
After 4 deals your score is your total plus 300, never below 0.
What it trains
- Hand evaluation
- Weighing oudlers, trumps and Kings before you bid.
- Card counting
- Following 21 trumps as they fall.
- Shifting roles
- Playing alone as taker, then cooperating in defence.
Strategy and tips
- Count oudlers before you bid
- Your oudlers set your target. With two of them and a good number of trumps, Petite or Garde becomes reasonable. With none, you need a very strong hand.
- Trumps are your engine
- As taker, more trumps means more control. Many players look for around six trumps or more, plus at least one oudler, before they bid.
- Hunt the Petit
- If you take without the Petit, play high trumps early. Its holder must keep playing trumps and may be forced to drop the Petit on your trick.
- Discard for points or a void
- With Petite or Garde you set six cards aside. Choose Queens and Knights you'd likely lose, or empty a suit so you can trump it later. Kings and trumps can't go in.
- Feed your fellow defenders
- As a defender, when another defender is winning a trick, drop your Kings, Queens and Knights on it. Those points count for the whole defence.
- Use the Excuse as a shield
- Play the Excuse on a trick you're going to lose, to keep a valuable card or a trump for later. It always comes back to you, unless you leave it for the last trick.
- Bid to your risk
- Each step up multiplies the score: Garde ×2, Garde sans ×4, Garde contre ×6. A big bid on a shaky hand can cost more than three good deals earn.
Why play French Tarot?
French Tarot trains counting and judgement. The taker has to value a hand of 18 cards, plan a discard and keep track of 21 trumps, while the defence has to cooperate without a fixed partner.
Because the taker changes from deal to deal, you play both sides: the bold solo player and the patient team defender. That variety is what keeps tarot tables busy in France.
Frequently asked questions
Is French Tarot free?
Yes. It is free and runs in your browser, with no download. Signing up is optional.
How many points are there in French Tarot?
91 card points in the whole deck. The taker needs between 36 and 56 of them, depending on how many oudlers they win.
What are the oudlers in tarot?
The three key cards: the 1 of trumps (the Petit), the 21 of trumps and the Excuse. Each is worth 4.5 points, and the more of them the taker wins, the fewer card points they need.
What do Petite, Garde, Garde sans and Garde contre mean?
The four bids, from smallest to biggest: Small, Guard, Guard without the dog and Guard against the dog. In the last two the dog stays face down and counts for the taker (sans) or for the defenders (contre).
Why does the taker win or lose three times as much?
Because one player faces three. Each defender pays, or receives, the same amount, so the taker's score moves by three times that.