How to Play Bezique

By Jaques of London · Est. 1795 · Updated 2026-08-17

Bezique is a trick-taking and melding card game for two players, played with a double pack of 64 cards made up of the 7s through Aces from two standard 52-card decks. It sits in the same broad family as Piquet and Pinochle, combining the tension of trick-play with the satisfaction of building high-scoring meld declarations from your hand.

Players enjoy Bezique for its blend of memory, card management, and opportunism. It rewards those who can balance chasing melds against the practical need to win tricks at the right moment. It is typically played at home or in card clubs, and the standard two-player game is compact enough to fit comfortably into an evening.

A little history

Bezique became widely popular in Britain and France during the second half of the nineteenth century, and its rules were well documented in card-game manuals of that era. Its earlier origins are unclear: some accounts link it to older Swedish and French games, but the evidence is thin enough that no single line of descent can be stated with confidence. The game gained particular fashionable attention in Victorian England and spawned several variants, most notably Rubicon Bezique and the more elaborate Chinese Bezique, both of which were codified in published rule sets by the late 1800s.

Setting up

1. Strip both decks of all 2s, 3s, 4s, 5s, and 6s, leaving 64 cards in total (eight cards of each rank from 7 up to Ace, across two suits of each).
2. Shuffle the 64-card pack thoroughly.
3. Deal eight cards to each player, one at a time, alternating.
4. Place the remaining 48 cards face down in the centre as the stock.
5. Turn over the top card of the stock and place it face up, half beneath the stock pile, to establish the trump suit.
6. If the turned-up trump card is a 7, the dealer scores 10 points immediately.
7. Non-dealer leads to the first trick.

How to play

1. Non-dealer leads any card to the first trick. The opponent plays any card in response. There is no obligation to follow suit during the first phase of the game (while the stock lasts).
2. The trick is won by the higher trump if a trump is played; otherwise by the higher card of the suit led. If two identical cards are played, the leader wins the trick. Ace ranks highest, then 10, King, Queen, Jack, 9, 8, 7.
3. The winner of each trick scores points for any Brisques in that trick: each Ace or 10 captured is worth 10 points. Keep captured cards face down in front of you.
4. After winning a trick, and before drawing from the stock, the trick winner may declare one meld by placing the relevant cards face up on the table in front of them. Score that meld immediately (see Winning / Scoring). Only one meld may be declared per trick won.
5. Meld cards remain on the table in front of the player and are still part of their hand for play purposes. A card may be used in more than one meld, but not twice in the same class of meld.
6. Both players then draw one card each from the stock, winner first, to restore their hands to eight cards.
7. If a player holds the 7 of trumps, they may exchange it for the face-up trump card at the bottom of the stock at any point when they win a trick. This scores 10 points. If the turned card has already been taken, simply playing the 7 of trumps scores 10 points.
8. Play continues trick by trick until the stock is exhausted and both players have drawn their final cards (the last two cards are the final stock card and the face-up trump card).
9. Once the stock is empty, the meld cards on the table are taken back into the respective player's hand. From this point onwards both players must follow suit if able, must trump if unable to follow suit, and must win the trick if possible with a higher card of the correct suit or a higher trump.
10. No further melds may be declared in this second phase. Brisques continue to score as tricks are won.
11. The player who wins the final trick of the game scores a bonus of 10 points.
12. After all tricks are played, both players count their Brisques and any remaining meld scores already recorded. The player who reaches or exceeds 1,000 points first wins the game.

Winning and scoring

The target score is 1,000 points. Points are accumulated from Brisques (each captured Ace or 10 scores 10 points), from melds declared after winning tricks, and from the 10-point bonus for winning the last trick. Melds and their scores are as follows: Common Marriage (King and Queen of any non-trump suit) 20 points; Royal Marriage (King and Queen of trumps) 40 points; Bezique (Queen of Spades and Jack of Diamonds) 40 points; Double Bezique (both Queens of Spades and both Jacks of Diamonds) 500 points; Four Jacks 40 points; Four Queens 60 points; Four Kings 80 points; Four Tens 90 points (sometimes called Four Aces in some traditions, each scoring 100 points); Four Aces 100 points; Trump Sequence (Ace, 10, King, Queen, Jack of trumps) 250 points. The 7 of trumps exchanged or declared scores 10 points. The first player whose running total reaches 1,000 points at any point in the game wins. If both players reach 1,000 in the same hand, the higher total wins.

The fine points

The most common dispute concerns reusing meld cards. The standard ruling is that a card already used in a meld may be combined with a newly drawn card to form a different class of meld, but it cannot be used to remake an identical meld. For example, a King already part of a Royal Marriage may later contribute to Four Kings, but you cannot declare a second Royal Marriage using that same King again. Similarly, a card from a trump sequence may not be split off to form a separate Royal Marriage after the sequence has been scored.

A second frequent dispute arises when a player forgets to draw from the stock after winning a trick, or draws out of turn. The widely accepted ruling is that if the error is noticed before the next trick is led, the draw order is corrected. If the next trick has already been played, the hand is treated as if the error had not occurred and play continues normally. During the second phase, a player who fails to follow suit, fails to trump when required, or deliberately underplays when winning is possible has committed a revoke; the standard penalty is that their opponent scores 100 points and the revoke player may not score any further points that hand.

How to win more often

• Protect your Bezique cards early. The Queen of Spades and Jack of Diamonds are the building blocks of Double Bezique (500 points), so avoid leading them into tricks unless you have no better option.
• Win tricks at the right moment, not simply as often as possible. You can only declare a meld after winning a trick, so time your wins to coincide with a meld ready to score rather than burning trump on low-value tricks.
• Keep a Royal Marriage in reserve if the trump suit is one where you hold strong control. Scoring 40 points from two cards is efficient, and the cards remain available for a trump sequence later.
• Count Brisques actively. Each Ace and 10 your opponent captures is 10 points to them; during the final phase, when you must follow suit and win if possible, knowing how many Brisques remain can decide whether it is worth fighting for a trick.
• In the second phase, manage your hand so you are not caught unable to follow suit in a critical round. A player who is stripped of a key suit by their own earlier trick-play can lose a string of Brisques rapidly when forced to trump or discard.

Variations

Rubicon Bezique

Rubicon Bezique uses four 32-card packs shuffled together (128 cards) and has no turn-up trump; instead, the trump suit is determined by the first marriage or sequence declared. The target is 1,000 points in a single hand, and a player who fails to reach 1,000 is said to be rubiconed, meaning their score is ignored and their opponent scores 1,000 plus both totals combined. Additional high-scoring melds specific to this variant, such as Carte Blanche (a hand with no court cards, scored at 50 points and re-scoreable on each draw), make it a richer but longer game.

Chinese Bezique (Six-Pack Bezique)

Chinese Bezique is played with six 32-card packs shuffled together (192 cards), and each player receives 12 cards. There is no turn-up trump; the first trump sequence declared fixes the trump suit. The scoring is dramatically inflated, with Quintuple Bezique worth 13,500 points and the target set at 250,000 points across a session. It is a lengthy, high-stakes variant that enjoyed a fashionable following in the late Victorian period.

Three-Handed Bezique

Three-Handed Bezique uses three 32-card packs (96 cards) and deals eight cards to each of three players. A fourth hand is dealt face down as a dummy, and the player who wins the first trick takes the dummy hand into their own, discarding down to eight cards. Play then continues in the standard fashion with three active players, each trying to reach 1,500 points. Partnerships are not fixed; each player competes individually.

Bezique without a Trump Turn-Up

In this stripped-back variant, sometimes called No-Trump Bezique, no card is turned up to establish trumps at the start. The trump suit is instead fixed as Spades throughout, or alternatively is determined by the first marriage declared, mirroring the Rubicon convention. This simplifies setup and is popular as an introduction to the game for newer players before they move to the full standard rules.

Bezique: frequently asked questions