Gamehelptaroinche

Objective

Taroinche is a 5-player game, which originated as a mixture of tarot and coinche. Each hand is played 2 (the bidding team) against 3 (the defending team), however the teams are not fixed : players take turn bidding, choosing their partner in the process.

Cards

There are 32 cards, divided in four suits (clubs, diamonds, spades and hearts). For each suit there are 8 cards from 7 to ace, with ace being the strongest, followed by 10, king, queen, jack, 9, 8 and 7 in non-trump suits. However, in trump (or 'atout') suits, there is a twist with jack being the strongest and 9 being the second.

Every card has a point value, as follows:

• 7, 8: 0 points
• 9: 0 when non-trump and 14 when trump
• J: 2 when non-trump and 20 when trump
• Q: 3 points
• K: 4 points
• 10: 10 points
• A: 11 points

The sum of the cards is 152 points, plus 10 points for the last trick (known as 'Dix de Der'), for a total of 162 points.

Gameplay

In the bidding phase, 6 cards are dealt to each player, with 2 cards remaining in the "dog". Each player bids the number of points they are trying to get, with a trump suit and partner chosen (the player can choose oneself for more points). Bidding starts at 82 points, next is 90 and then goes up by units of 10. It also uses a modifier determining the fate of the dog cards :

• WITH: the 2 dog cards are revealed, the winner of the bid takes them in his hand and discard 2 cards

• WITHOUT: the dog stays hidden, and the point are given to the bidding team

• AGAINST : the dog stays hidden, and the point are given to the bidding team

The strengths of the bids are as follows : 80 WITH < 80 WITHOUT < 80 AGAINST < 90 WITH < ...

When all players pass, the last bidding player wins the contract and the trick-taking starts. Each hand consists of 6 tricks of 5 cards. In each trick, the first player leads a card, then other players must follow suit if able. If they don't have the suit required they must play a trump (known as 'cutting'), unless their partner is winning or they don't have any trumps. If there is already a trump on the table, the player must play a stronger one if they can.

Cutting wins the trick, otherwise the strongest card with the initial trick suit wins. The winner of each trick collects the cards played in the trick, and starts the next one. This continues until the last trick.

At the end of the round, each team counts the points they collected, and see if the bidding team finishes their bid. If the bid is successful, the bidding player wins twice the bid points, his partner wins the bids points, and each player of the defensive team lose the bid points. If the bid is failed, it is the opposite.

Conventions

During the first bidding turns, while looking for the ideal partner, one usually bid "WITHOUT" if they have the 9 of trump (or at least looking for the Jack), and "AGAINST" if they have the Jack. When answering, it is not necessary as it should be obvious for both players. However, if the complementary card is alone, it is customary to add the appropriate modifier to the answer ("WITHOUT" if the 9 is alone, and "AGAINST" for the Jack).

The "drop", if a player want to find a specific As : they bid "WITHOUT" at the sought-after suit, increasing the bid by 10 compared to the lowest they could have said, and choosing as partner the next player (so they don't get "coinched"). For example, if the current bid is 80 AGAINST, 100 club WITHOUT means that the player is looking for the As of club. More rarely, one can look for a 10 by bidding AGAINST, with the same +10 jump. To answer a drop, one should bid at the same color, once again with the next player (so they still don't get "coinched"), unless this player is the one who did the drop. As for regular bids, if the As is alone, it is customary to answer "AGAINST".

Coinche

Instead of bidding, a player can 'Coinche', which means they think the bidding team won't make their bid. Then the bidding ends, and the points scored at the end of the round are doubled. The players of the bidding team can also "surcoinche", in which case the points are quadrupled. Furthermore, if it was done by the partner of the bid, they becomes the bidding player (in particular, they obtains the dog cards).

Capot

The strongest bid is called "capot" (which also comes with dog modifiers), worth 250 points, and means that the bidding team must win all 6 tricks. For this value, two additional bids are possible

• No trump (SA = Sans-Atout): No suit is consider as trump, so there is no cutting.

• All trump (TA = Tout-Atout): All suits are consider as trump, so there is also no cutting. All players must play a stronger card if they can.

Belote

The king and queen of the trump is called 'Belote'. This combination is worth an extra 20 points, and is automatically declared unless the bid is "capot". The player says 'Belote' when playing the first card, and 'Rebelote' when playing the other.