When everyone passes, the Goulash variant turns the deal into a game where each player plays for themselves and tries to collect as few points as possible.
The Goulash in French Tarot is a variant that lets you play a deal when no player takes a contract. Rather than abandoning the deal, the players play it anyway, with no taker and no partner: each player plays for themselves and tries to collect as few points as possible.
The Goulash therefore reverses the usual objective of Tarot. It is no longer about fulfilling a contract or winning the most points: the best result goes to the player who collects the fewest points.
The Goulash is a house variant of French Tarot and is not part of the official rules of the Fédération Française de Tarot. The rules presented here match the version used by TarotMate: each player plays individually, the player who wins the last trick takes the dog, and settlement is made through cross-payments between the players.
Depending on the table, this variant is also known as Vachette or "loser wins", and its rules vary from one group of players to another. In some circles, the word "Goulash" even refers to a completely different practice borrowed from bridge: the cards are redealt without shuffling to create very strong hands, and a normal deal is then played. Make sure everyone agrees on the version before you start.
A Goulash occurs when no player has announced a contract during the bidding phase. In a classic game, the deal would then not be played and a new deal would be dealt.
With the Goulash, players instead decide to play the deal that has just been dealt. There is no taker: each player keeps their cards and plays for themselves.
There is therefore neither contract, nor taker, nor defending side. Tricks are won individually, and each player only counts the points of the cards they themselves have won.
Once the Goulash is triggered, each player plays independently of the others. There is no longer a taker's side or a defending side: each player simply tries to limit the number of points they will collect.
Card play follows the usual rules of Tarot: players must in particular follow suit when they can, and apply the usual rules regarding trumps and tricks.
The fundamental difference lies in the objective: winning a trick is not necessarily a good thing. When a trick contains several valuable cards, the player who wins it increases their own point total.
In a Goulash, the usual logic of Tarot is reversed. A player who collects many points gets a bad result, while one who manages to keep a low total has the advantage at settlement.
You must therefore try to avoid tricks that contain a lot of points. Valuable cards thus become cards you try as much as possible not to inherit.
The strategy consists in particular of letting the other players win the heaviest tricks whenever the situation allows it.
In a Goulash, the dog stays face down for the entire deal. No player looks at it, and no one takes it before the end of the deal.
The dog is systematically given to the player who wins the last trick. The points of all the cards in the dog are then added to their own total.
This rule makes the last trick particularly important: winning it can be heavily penalizing if the dog contains a lot of points.
There is therefore no choice to be made regarding the dog: in a Goulash, the winner of the last trick takes it, no matter what.
The Fool keeps its usual role during play. When played in a trick, it does not win that trick and stays with the player who played it.
On the last trick, its role becomes particularly interesting: if a player plays the Fool on this final trick, it does not let them win the trick. The player who actually wins the trick therefore takes the dog.
The Fool thus allows its owner to avoid winning the last trick and avoid taking the dog.
A convention to agree on between players: this is the rule TarotMate recommends, but some tables play the Fool differently, for example by letting it win the last trick. Agree on it before you start. The app does not check how the cards are played: it only records each player's points at the end of the deal.
The Petit, the 21, and the Fool keep their usual point value when they end up in a player's tricks.
But since there is no contract, the Bouts no longer have any special function in the game: they are simply counted along with the other cards won.
A player who picks up a Bout therefore increases their point total, which is exactly what they are trying to avoid.
At the end of the deal, each player counts the points in their own tricks. The player who won the last trick also adds the points of the dog's cards to their total.
The resulting score is then used directly for settlement between the players.
The principle is simple: each player pays every other player a number of points equal to their own total.
For example, with four players who collected 10, 20, 30, and 31 points respectively:
The player who collected the fewest points is therefore best off: the fewer points they have, the less they pay.
This system keeps the total for the whole table at zero: the points lost by some players are exactly those won by the others.
In practice, there is no need to work out every payment: a player's net result equals 91 minus the number of players multiplied by their own points. With four players, a player who collected 10 points therefore scores 91 − 4 × 10 = +51.
With the previous example (10, 20, 30 and 31 points with four players):
| Points collected | 10 | 20 | 30 | 31 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Net score | +51 | +11 | −29 | −33 |
The score therefore depends directly on the gap in points: a player who collects no points at all wins 91 points, and the more points a player piles up, the heavier their loss.
Some tables that call this variant "Vachette" score it differently, for example with a fixed scale based on the ranking. TarotMate uses the points-based scoring described here, which is the most widespread.
The Goulash calls for a very different approach from classic Tarot. Since each player plays for themselves and tries to limit their total, winning a trick can sometimes be bad news.
As much as possible, you should avoid picking up tricks that contain the most valuable cards. The difficulty therefore lies in getting rid of your dangerous cards without being forced to win the corresponding tricks.
The last trick can also be particularly important, since its winner is forced to take the dog.
The Fool can then become a valuable strategic card: played on the last trick, it lets its owner avoid winning that trick and therefore avoid taking the dog.
In a Goulash, the goal is no longer to win points but to avoid them: the player who collects the fewest pays the least.
When you create a game, TarotMate offers two types of game.
The game is played with the usual bidding. If a player takes, the deal is played normally, with a taker and a defending side. For the case where everyone passes, you decide in advance what the table does:
Every deal is played directly as a Goulash, without bidding: each player plays for themselves and tries to collect as few points as possible.
In both cases, you simply enter the points collected by each player, including the dog for the winner of the last trick. TarotMate checks that the total is 91 points and calculates everyone's score automatically.
With TarotMate, you can play Classic Tarot, play a Goulash when everyone passes, or play a whole game as a Goulash.