Rules

Tournament Barbu

Credits

Rules described by John McLeod, inspired by bridge players. The elaborate form of Barbu, more tactical than the traditional French one: the declarer picks the contract, Trumps replaces the Salade, and doubling brings betting into the game. It was a favourite pastime of the Italian Blue Team.

Equipment

4 players, a standard 52-card pack, ranking A K Q J 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 in each suit. Each player calls each of the seven contracts once: 28 hands.

The declarer

• The first declarer is chosen at random and stays declarer for seven hands; then the player to their left takes over, and so on.
• The cards are dealt by the player to the declarer's right and cut by the player opposite.
• The declarer chooses the contract, but everyone plays for themselves.

The five negative contracts

No trumps. The declarer leads. Players must follow suit if possible, otherwise discard anything. The winner of a trick leads to the next.

• No tricks — −2 per trick, −26 in all.
• No queens — −6 per queen, −24. Captured queens are kept face up; play stops at the end of the trick containing the fourth queen.
• No last two — −10 for the last but one trick, −20 for the last, −30 in all.
• No hearts — −2 per heart, except the ace of hearts at −6, −30 in all. Leading hearts is forbidden unless you hold nothing but hearts. Captured hearts are kept face up.
• No king of hearts (Barbu) — −20. Same ban on leading hearts.

The two positive contracts

• Trumps — the declarer names the trump suit and leads. The trick goes to the highest trump, or to the highest card of the suit led. Any card may be led, but any player who can legally head the trick with a trump must do so, overtrumping included. +5 per trick, +65 in all.
• Dominoes (Fantan) — the declarer names a starting rank ("dominoes from the five"). Each player in turn must, if able, play a card of that rank or a card of the same suit adjacent to one already down. Every suit must be started with the chosen rank. A player who cannot play passes — including the declarer if they hold none of that rank. Aces high, twos low. +45 / +20 / +5 / −5, +65 in all.

The values are chosen so that the seven hands total zero, which makes the score sheet self-checking.

Doubling

Once the contract is chosen (with the trump suit or starting rank announced), each player in turn, starting to the declarer's left, has one chance to double any or all of the others. The declarer may only double players who doubled them. In the two positive contracts only the declarer may be doubled. Doubling back is a "redouble"; making every possible double is called "maximum". Each player must double the declarer at least twice per set of seven hands.

A double is a side-bet on which of the two will score better. Settlement, pair by pair: if only one of two players doubled the other, the difference between their raw scores is added to the better one and taken from the worse; if both doubled each other, that difference is doubled. With no double between two players, nothing changes hands.

Example: Anne calls No queens and takes one queen (−6), Cath one (−6), Diana two (−12), Beth none (0). Beth doubled everyone, Cath doubled Anne, Anne redoubled Cath. Anne pays 6 to Beth; Anne and Cath scored the same, so nothing passes despite the redouble; Cath pays 6 to Beth; Diana pays 12 to Beth.

In the app, doubling is switched on under Scoring. On every hand a grid lets you tick who doubled whom, and the settlements are worked out automatically, redoubles included — there is no arithmetic left for you. The obligation to double the declarer is not enforced: it belongs to the table, not to the maths. The app simply shows, under the score table, how many doubles each player has already laid against the current declarer, and never blocks a hand.

Variations

• Choosing the contract — some let the dealer choose; the lead still belongs to the player left of the dealer, except in dominoes where the dealer starts. In the older French version the contracts instead follow a fixed order, with no choice and no doubling.
• Doubles — some only allow doubling the declarer, and require a redouble to cover everyone who doubled.
• Undoubled contract — some do not play the hand at all if nobody doubles a negative contract: each opponent takes a third of the total, the declarer the rounding. No tricks +1 / −9; no hearts 0 / −10; no last two 0 / −10; king of hearts +1 / −7.
• Leads — some do not ban heart leads in Barbu; others require the king of hearts or the queens to be discarded at the first safe opportunity.
• Trumps — some do not force a void player to trump or overtrump.
• Dominoes — many play the ace low; some let the declarer's first card set the starting rank.
• Other schemes — king of hearts at −15 and dominoes +40/+20/+10/−10; or dominoes 30/20/10/0 with Barbu at −15. Mark Brader's scheme: Barbu −25, Fantan +40/+20/0/−20, hearts −12 for the ace and −4 each other, last two −10/−20, tricks −5, queens −15, Ravage City −36, trumps +5.
• Ravage City — an extra no-trump contract: whoever takes the most cards in any one suit scores −36; a two-way tie is −18 each, three-way −12, four-way −9 (a −24 variant exists). With this contract a session runs to 32 hands.

Players, pack, contracts and values are all set under Scoring, and a named set can be saved for later games.