A little-changed descendant of Brusquembille, the ancestor of briscan and bezique,[1] Briscola is a Mediterranean trick-taking ace–ten card game for two to six players, played with a standard Italian 40-card deck.

The game can also be played with a modern Anglo-French deck, without the eight, nine and ten cards (see Portuguese variations below).

The traditional Italian-suited pack used for briscola consists of forty cards, divided into four suits: coins (Italian: Denari), swords (Spade), cups (Coppe) and batons (Bastoni).

(Played with a French deck, queens take the place of knights or knaves.)

If two players (teams) have the same number of points (60) another game is played to determine the winner.

The winner of that trick is determined as follows: Unlike other trump card games, players are not required to follow suit, that is, playing the same suit as the lead player is not required.

Once the winner of a trick is determined, that player collects the played cards, and places them face down in a pile.

If there is a two-way tie, the third player drops out and play continues as a two-hand game.

[2] In four- and six-player variations a system of signaling is often allowed between members of the same team.

A common system of signaling is as follows: There also exists a variation whereby the three, is ranked as a three (i.e. a four can beat it) but maintains its status as worth 10 points.

In some parts of Italy (located mainly in Piedmont and Sardinia), the three as the second most valuable card is substituted by the seven, like in Portuguese Bisca (see below).

Then the bidding phase begins, the purpose of which is to decide the trump suit (Briscola) and to form two uneven groups that will play against each other.

This remaining player has then "won the bid" and therefore gets to declare the Briscola, i.e. the trump suit.

The bid represents the number of points that player believes they are capable of accumulating.

Game strategy is often devised to determine which player is partnered with the declarer, whereas the declarer's partner may devise ruses and decoy strategies to fool the other players, such as not taking a trick, or playing points on a trick that will be won by an opponent.

The term sounds mysterious in Italian as fare cappotto means "make a coat".

A mythical but likely explanation is that an antecedent of the Briscola game was introduced in Italian ports by Dutch sailors (perhaps derived by klaverjas).

In Dutch, when a team has a total victory, they make the adversary "kapot" (in German Kaputt).

However Klaverjas is quite a different game, as the trump is chosen automatically and players must follow suit.

In briscola, players are free to play any card so the game is more strategic and less mnemonic.

Another variation, this time on the "score bidding" method, is that the declarer can only choose a suit, the called rank being implicitly a two.

In Slovenia, Croatia and Montenegro, the briscola game is called briškula and it is played predominantly in the coastal region.

This variation is exactly the same as the regular Italian game except that each player plays two cards separately during the course of a trick.

In Portugal, the briscola game is called bisca and it is played with a modern Anglo-French 52-card deck.