Rules
Provençal Bombu
Credits
Provençal variant passed on by Pedro Sanchez.
Equipment
4 players, a 32-card pack, 4 suits. Ranking, high to low: Ace, 10, King, Queen, Jack, 9, 8, 7 — the no-trump ranking of belote, where the 10 slips in just behind the ace. Each player gets 8 cards.
Dealing and direction of play
- The deal goes counter-clockwise, in packets of 3-2-3, 3-3-2 or 2-3-3 depending on the chosen method.
- The dealer changes every round: 4 rounds of 6 contracts, so 24 hands.
- The player to the dealer's right leads first.
- You must follow suit if you can. No obligation to play higher.
The six contracts
- No trick — each trick taken is worth +10. There are 8 tricks, so 80 at most. Slam: taking all 8 tricks is worth −320.
- No heart — each heart is worth +10, 8 hearts in the pack, so 80 at most. Unlike some Barbu rules, hearts may be led.
- No queen — each queen is worth +20, whatever the suit, 80 at most. Queens may be led.
- No Bombu — the king of hearts alone is worth +80. It may be led.
- Salade — all four combined: +10 per trick, +10 per heart, +20 per queen, +80 for the Bombu, 320 at most. Slam: all 8 tricks are worth −320.
- Patience — first out −200, second −120, third and fourth 0.
Slam (contracts 1 and 5): it gives a flat −320 to that player and nothing to the others; nothing else on the hand is counted.
Everything stacks within a single trick. A trick holding 2 hearts, the queen of spades and the king of hearts is worth 10 + 20 + 20 + 80 = 130.
The Patience
It plays like an ordinary patience: cards are laid out in suit sequences. The starting card comes from the deal — the last card dealt is turned face up by the dealer and becomes the first card of the layout, so the dealer holds one card fewer.
- A player who cannot lay any card passes.
- A player who can lay at least one card must play it.
- A new suit may only be opened with the card of the same rank as the turned-up card: if the dealer turned up the 9 of hearts, diamonds can only be opened with the 9 of diamonds.
Who wins
Points are bad points. After the 24 hands the winner is whoever has the fewest. Only the slam and the Patience bring the counter down.