Play French tarot online

How multiplayer French tarot works

Playing French tarot online with other people, step by step: the code, the seats, the table rules, and what happens when somebody drops out.

Inviting the table

The host opens the table, which needs a free account, and shares its six-character code or the link from "Copy link". On a phone "Challenge a friend" stands beside it, and hands that invitation straight to Messenger, Instagram, Snapchat or whatever else you chat in. Everyone who follows it picks a name and sits down as a guest; nobody else needs an account.

French tarot here is for four or five players. Everybody should be in the lobby before the first hand, because a game in progress cannot be joined. If the table is short, the host can press "Add an opponent" to seat a bot.

Four or five players

At four, everyone gets eighteen cards and six go to the chien. At five, everyone gets fifteen, the chien is three, and after the bidding the taker calls a king before seeing the chien. Whoever holds that king plays with the taker, and nobody — including the taker — knows who it is until the card is played.

The host chooses how long the evening is: 3, 6 or 9 hands. When the last one is over, the player with the highest score wins.

Bidding and the chien

Everyone speaks once, starting to the dealer's left, and each bid has to beat the one before: petite, garde, garde sans le chien, garde contre le chien, or pass. The highest bidder is the taker. If everybody passes, the cards are thrown in and that counts as one of the hands.

With a petite or a garde, the taker picks up the chien and chooses the same number of cards to put back. The table only lets you choose cards that may go down: never a king or an oudler, and a trump only when there is nothing else.

The play and the count

The table only lets you play legal cards: follow suit, trump when you cannot, and play over the highest trump if you can. Everybody can see how many points each player has taken and how many oudlers, and the taker's count is shown as the hand goes.

After the last trick the table shows the chien, the taker's points and oudlers, the target, and what each player paid or received. The next hand starts once everyone has pressed "Ready for the next hand". The poignée, the petit au bout and the chelem are not counted here.

If somebody drops out

A player whose connection drops is shown as away and waited for twenty-five seconds. After that a bot plays their cards until they return, and opening the table again gives them their seat back. A player who presses Leave mid-game is replaced by a bot for the rest of it.

If the host leaves, hosting passes to whoever has been sitting longest. A table with no activity for six hours is cleared away.