Tarot Rules

The deck

French Tarot is played with a 78-card deck made up of two distinct groups:

• 4 suits (Hearts, Diamonds, Spades, Clubs) of 14 cards each: King, Queen, Knight, Jack, then 10 down to 1 (the Ace counting as 1, with the 10 being the highest card in the suit).
• 21 trumps, numbered from 1 (the “Petit”) to 21 (the “21” or “World”), which beat all suited cards.
• The Excuse, a special card that belongs to neither a suit nor the numbered trumps: it can be played at any time without ever being required to follow suit, but it never wins a trick.

The Petit (trump 1), the 21 and the Excuse are collectively known as the oudlers (or “bouts”), the most valuable cards in the game when scoring.

The deal and the dog

The deal — and the composition of the dog, the pile of cards set aside before play — varies according to the number of players:

The dog goes to the taker once bidding is over (except with Garde sans and Garde contre, see below), who may add it to their hand before setting aside the same number of cards — excluding Kings and trumps, unless there is no other option.

The contracts

Bidding determines who will be the taker and the level of commitment, from the most cautious to the riskiest:

Each player must either bid at least as high as the previous contract or pass. The highest contract announced wins, and its bidder becomes the taker; with 5 players, the taker also calls a partner by naming a King.

Playing the cards

The player to the dealer’s right leads the first trick. The rules for following suit are strict:

• Follow the suit led if you have a card of that suit.
• If not, trump (play a trump) if you do not have the suit led.
• If an opponent has already trumped, overtrump with a higher trump if possible.
• If you have neither the suit led nor the ability to trump usefully, you may discard any card.

The trick is won by the highest card of the suit led, or by the highest trump if a trump has been played.

The oudlers

At the end of the hand, the number of oudlers (Petit, 21, Excuse) in the tricks won by the taker’s side is counted. This number determines the number of points the taker must reach to fulfil the contract, out of a total of 91 points in play:

The fewer oudlers you have, the higher the target score: the oudlers are therefore the most fiercely contested cards in the entire game.

Bonuses

Poignée

A player holding a large number of trumps in their initial hand may announce a poignée by showing them before leading the first trick. The number of trumps required depends on the number of players:

Petit at the end

The side that wins the very last trick of the hand with the Petit (trump 1) receives an additional 10-point bonus — or loses it to the opposing side if that side wins the trick while the Petit was played.

Slam

Winning every trick in a hand is a slam, the game’s most spectacular bonus. A slam announced before the hand earns more than a slam achieved without prior announcement; an announced slam that is missed, however, is penalizing for the taker.

Scoring

The hand score is based on the difference between the points scored by the taker (cards in their tricks, plus the dog if it was incorporated) and the required target according to the number of oudlers:

Basic score = (taker’s points − required target) × contract multiplier, bonuses added afterwards.

If the taker reaches or exceeds the target, they win and receive the difference multiplied by their contract factor; otherwise, they pay that same difference to each of the other players (or to the defense with 5 players). Bonuses (poignée, Petit at the end, slam) are then added or deducted separately and are not affected by the contract multiplier.

This calculation, simple on paper but an easy source of mistakes at the table, is fully automated by TarotMate: the contract, oudlers, bonuses and distribution among the players are calculated for you on every hand.