Ciapanò

Tressette turned upside down. Forty cards, no trump, and every ace you take costs a point, unless you take them all. 3–5 players.

Also known as Ciapano, Rovescino, and Tressette a Perdere.

Game ends at

points

Who To Play With

or

How to play Ciapanò

  1. 1An Italian game from Lombardy, played like Tressette turned upside down: you try not to take points. It uses 40 cards (the eights, nines and tens are taken out), and everyone plays alone.
  2. 2With four players everyone gets ten cards, with five eight each. With three, the four of diamonds is set aside and everyone gets thirteen.
  3. 3There is no trump. The player after the dealer leads. Follow the suit led if you can; if you can't, play anything. The highest card of the suit led takes the trick and leads next.
  4. 4From high to low, each suit runs 3, 2, A, K, Q, J, 7, 6, 5, 4.
  5. 5The points in the tricks you take count against you. An ace is 1 point; threes, twos, kings, queens and jacks are a third of a point each; the rest nothing. The last trick costs 1 more. Leftover thirds are dropped.
  6. 6Take every card worth points and the last trick too, and the hand turns round: you score nothing and everyone else scores 11.
  7. 7Points add up from hand to hand, and the deal passes along. When someone reaches the target at the end of a hand (the host picks 21 or 31), the lowest score wins.

More trick-taking games

All 225 games, free, in your browser.