1 - Characteristics

Coinche is the strategic variation of Belote.

In this variant, players estimate their hands and must submit a bid for the number of points they plan to score: this defines the contract (cf. 6 - Contract).

The melds (cf. 4 - Melds) play a major role in the fulfillment of the contract.

Aim of the game:

  • The bidding team has to fulfill the contract to win a round, scoring a minimum of 82 points through tricks, without melds and Belote-Rebelote
  • The first team to reach a minimum of 701 points wins the game. If both teams get over 701 points, then the team with the highest score wins

2 - Dealing

Contrary to Belote, all the cards are dealt at the beginning of the round, which means a total of 8 cards for each of the 4 players (dealing first 3 cards to each, then 2, then 3).

Then the "bidding phase" begins. Please note that if all players pass at the start of a round, the player to the left of the dealer will become the dealer and the player on his left will be the 1st to talk.

3 - Bidding

The player to the left of the dealer starts the bidding.

This player can announce the value and the suit of the contract (cf. 6- Contract), which they will aim to fulfill (with their partner). If a player decides not to make an offer, then they must pass.

Once a player has either made an offer or passed, the player to their left has the choice between making a better offer or passing.

The bids end if nobody has made an offer on their first turn or as soon as 3 people have passed since the last offer (the player is not allowed to overbid if they made the last offer). In this case, the last offer defines the contract and then the tricks phase begins.

Note that if all players pass during the bidding phase, the deal is over. The player to the left of the dealer becomes the new dealer and the cards are redistributed.

The trump ("atout" in French) can be chosen from:

  • A specific suit,
  • Tout Atout (All Trumps), also referred to as TA: This means that all suits behave like a trump suit, and should follow the rules for trump (e.g. players should always play higher if they can do so) and obviously, if all suits are trumps, then they are all equal strength
  • Sans Atout (Without Trumps), also referred to as SA: Means all suits behave as non-trump suits, and therefore, none is stronger than the other

4 - Value and order of the cards

If the player chooses a specific suit, then the value of the cards is the same as those in the classic version of Belote.
 
Values are as follows if a player chooses All Trumps (TA) or Without Trumps (SA):
 
TA & SA values

 

5 - Melds

The melds are compared when the game starts. The team with the highest meld wins their meld (about the fulfillment of their contract).

Melds value

6 - Contract

Below is a summary of possible offers (in ascending order):

Contracts value

7 - Score calculation

Similar to the classic version of Belote, scores are calculated per team. The point values of each won card are added together. The last trick receives an additional 10 points (also known as "10 de der").

The contract of a round is fulfilled once the betting team reaches its goal (cf. 6 - Contract).

The final score is then calculated as demonstrated in the table below:

Score calculation

Note:

  • The circumstances shown above in the square brackets are only added to the score if the team has won them.
  • If a capot/general is done but not announced, then the contract is valid as announced.
  • If the two teams are tied (the total score of the game is identical), the team which wins the last round is then designated as the winner of the game.

Now it's time to practice 😀

Have fun on Belote.com!