How many players can play Bezique?

Bezique can be played with 2 to 2 players.

How to Play Bezique

Bezique is the classic 19th-century French two-player trick-and-meld game. Win tricks to earn the right to declare valuable card combinations such as the namesake Q♠ + J♦ Bezique, with bonuses for captured Aces and Tens.

How to Play

Bezique is the elegant 19th-century French parlor game that gave rise to Pinochle. Two players use a 64-card pack to play a trick-taking game in which winning a trick earns the right to declare a 'meld' (a valuable card combination) face-up on the table. Aces and Tens captured in tricks are also worth points. The first player to the agreed score, traditionally 1000, wins.

Download rules (PDF)

Quick Reference

Goal

Score 1000 points (or 500 in the short match) from melds, brisques and tricks across multiple deals.

Setup

Use a 64-card pack (two piquet decks, 7-A only).
Deal 8 cards each in packets of 3-2-3.
Turn the next card up to set trump; rest of deck is the stock.

On Your Turn

Stock phase: play one card; no need to follow suit.
Trick winner may declare one meld face-up.
Both players draw from the stock; winner first.
End phase (after stock): must follow suit and trump if possible.

Scoring

Bezique (Q♠ + J♦): 40; Double Bezique: 500.
Royal Marriage (K + Q of trump): 40; Common Marriage: 20.
Trump sequence (A-10-K-Q-J): 250.
Four Aces: 100; Kings: 80; Queens: 60; Jacks: 40.
Each Ace or Ten captured (brisque): 10; last trick: 10.

Tip: Hoard trumps for the strict end phase; the last trick is worth 10 points and 8 brisques may still be live.

Players

Two-handed Bezique is the standard form. Three-, four- and six-handed Bezique exist (each player using their own piquet pack), but the two-handed game is overwhelmingly the most played and is described in detail here.

Card Deck

Use 64 cards: two standard 52-card decks shuffled together with all cards below the 7 (i.e. 2-6) removed. Each suit therefore appears twice and contains: Ace, 10, King, Queen, Jack, 9, 8, 7.
Card rank in tricks (high to low): Ace, 10, King, Queen, Jack, 9, 8, 7. Note the 10 outranks the King, just as in Pinochle.
Trump cards beat any card of any other suit. The trump suit is set during the deal.
Identical duplicates: if the two cards played to a trick are identical (same rank and suit), the card played first wins.

Objective

Be the first player to reach 1000 points (or 500 in the short game) by combining (a) points scored for melds declared face-up after winning tricks, (b) 10 points for each 'brisque' (Ace or Ten) captured in tricks, and (c) the 10-point bonus for winning the very last trick of the deal.

Setup and Deal

Each player draws one card from the shuffled pack to determine the dealer; lower card deals first. The deal alternates each hand.
Deal 8 cards face-down to each player, in packets of 3, 2, 3 (some traditions deal 3, 3, 2).
Turn the next card off the stock face-up; this card determines the trump suit. If it is a 7 of trumps, the dealer scores 10 points immediately.
Place the rest of the deck face-down across (or partly under) the upturned trump card to form the stock.
The non-dealer leads to the first trick.

Gameplay (Stock Phase)

Leading and following: While the stock has cards in it, there is no obligation to follow suit and no obligation to win the trick. The leader plays any card; the responder plays any card.
Winning the trick: The trick is won by the higher card of the led suit, unless one or both players play a trump, in which case the higher trump wins.
Meld: Immediately after winning a trick (before drawing), the winner MAY declare one meld by laying its cards face-up on the table in front of them. Melded cards stay on the table but are still part of the player's hand and can be played to future tricks.
Drawing: After any meld is settled, the trick winner draws the top card of the stock to refill their hand to 8, then the loser draws the next card. The trick winner leads the next trick.
Trump 7 swap: A player who holds the 7 of trumps may, on winning a trick (and before drawing), exchange their 7 for the upturned trump card and score 10 points. The second 7 of trumps when later played to a trick scores another 10 points if announced.
Reusing melded cards: A card already laid down in a meld may not be melded again as part of an identical combination, but it may form a different meld with new cards (e.g. a Queen of Spades melded as part of Bezique can later be melded again as part of a marriage with the King of Spades).

Gameplay (End Phase)

When the stock is exhausted, each player picks up any cards still in their melds and the end phase begins.
Strict trick-taking: Players must now follow suit if possible; if unable to follow suit they must trump if possible; only when unable to do either may they discard from another suit. The higher card of the led suit (or the higher trump) wins.
No more melds. All eight remaining tricks are played out under these strict rules.
Last trick bonus: The player who wins the very last trick of the deal scores 10 points.
Brisques: After the deal, each player counts captured Aces and Tens (both called brisques); each is worth 10 points.

The Melds and Their Values

Marriage (common): King and Queen of the same non-trump suit, 20 points.
Royal Marriage: King and Queen of the trump suit, 40 points.
Bezique: Queen of Spades plus Jack of Diamonds, 40 points. (In some packs the cards are reversed when Diamonds is trump; the named pair is fixed by the rule book before play.)
Double Bezique: Both Queens of Spades plus both Jacks of Diamonds melded together at one time, 500 points.
Sequence (trump): A, 10, K, Q, J of the trump suit melded together, 250 points. The King and Queen of this run can also be claimed for the 40-point Royal Marriage but must be melded as the marriage on a different turn (you cannot claim both with the same play).
Four Aces: Four Aces of any suits, 100 points.
Four Kings: 80 points.
Four Queens: 60 points.
Four Jacks: 40 points.
7 of trumps: Holding it lets you swap for the upturned trump and score 10 points (see Stock Phase). Playing the second 7 of trumps to a trick scores another 10 points if announced.

Scoring

Add up points for melds declared during the deal, brisques (Aces and Tens) captured in tricks, the 7-of-trumps bonuses, and the 10-point last-trick bonus.
Score is kept on a Bezique scoring marker (a numbered pegboard) or on paper, accumulated across deals.
There is no penalty for failing to meld; you simply score nothing extra that turn.

Winning

The match ends the moment a player reaches the agreed target. Standard match: 1000 points. Short match: 500 points. The player who first crosses the target stops the deal and claims victory; if both players cross during the same deal, finish the deal and the higher score wins.

Common Variations

Rubicon Bezique: Played with 4 packs (128 cards), 9 cards dealt, no upturned trump (the first marriage or sequence declared sets trump), and many additional melds including Triple Bezique (1500 pts) and Quadruple Bezique (4500 pts). Match target is usually 1500.
Chinese Bezique (Six-Pack Bezique): 6 packs (192 cards), 12 cards dealt, target 2000+. Even larger melds are possible (Quintuple Bezique = 9000 points). The favoured form of Sir Winston Churchill.
Three- and Four-handed Bezique: Each player uses their own piquet pack; play and scoring follow the basic two-handed rules with the addition of melds for three of a kind.
Open Bezique: Hands are played face-up; a teaching variant.

Tips and Strategy

Win tricks for melding rights, not their face value. A 9-of-clubs trick worth nothing is great if it lets you meld 250 points of trump sequence.
Hold the second card of a meld before declaring. Declaring a marriage when you only have one of the partners is impossible; declaring four Queens with three on the table and the fourth still in stock is risky if your opponent might capture it later.
Bait Aces and Tens. Playing a Jack to a trick the opponent will surely win can lure them into using a brisque (Ace or Ten); brisques captured in tricks are worth 10 points each, so denying the opponent yours is itself defensive points.
Save trumps for the end phase. Once the stock runs out, every trick must be followed and trumped strictly. Trumps you held back become decisive in the last 8 tricks, where the last-trick bonus also lurks.
Track the second Bezique. A Double Bezique is worth 500 points; if one of the four cards is already melded by your opponent, your chance is gone. Hold a single Bezique back if you have a realistic chance of drawing the second pair.

Glossary

Brisque: Any Ace or Ten captured in a trick; each is worth 10 points at deal end.
Meld: A scoring combination of cards laid face-up on the table after winning a trick.
Bezique (the meld): Queen of Spades plus Jack of Diamonds, worth 40 points.
Stock phase: The first part of the deal during which players draw replacement cards from the stock and may meld.
End phase: The final 8 tricks after the stock is exhausted; strict suit-following and trumping rules apply, no more melds.
Trump 7: The 7 of the trump suit; can be exchanged for the upturned trump card for a 10-point bonus.

Tips & Strategy

Bezique is two games at once: a loose, melding-driven stock phase followed by a strict, trick-taking end phase. The art is balancing meld-building with brisque defence (saving Aces and Tens for tricks you intend to win) so that both halves of the deal pay you points. Save trumps for the strict end phase where the last-trick bonus lives.

The mid-stock phase is when most points are won. A correctly timed Royal Marriage (40) followed by the trump sequence (250) on a later trick yields 290 of the meld total without needing a single decisive card. Note that any card melded is still in your hand and may be played, so plan which cards to spend before melds run out of value.

Trivia & Fun Facts

Double Bezique (both Queens of Spades and both Jacks of Diamonds melded together) is worth 500 points, one of the largest single-meld scores in classical card games. Bezique scoring boards (decorative numbered pegboards used to track the running score) became collector's items in late-Victorian England.

01In Bezique, which two specific cards form the namesake meld worth 40 points, and what is the meld worth if you have all four such cards on the table at once?

Answer The Queen of Spades and the Jack of Diamonds form a single Bezique (40 points); both Queens of Spades and both Jacks of Diamonds melded together form a Double Bezique worth 500 points.

History & Culture

Bezique appears in 19th-century French manuals; it became a craze in Paris in the 1860s and reached England the following decade, where it became the leading two-handed parlour card game until Pinochle and Gin Rummy supplanted it. Winston Churchill played Six-Pack (Chinese) Bezique throughout his life and Sherlock Holmes is described playing it in 'The Empty House'. It is the direct ancestor of Pinochle.

Bezique was the iconic parlor card game of the late Victorian and Belle Epoque eras and is referenced in literature by Conan Doyle, Tolstoy, and others. It is the direct parent of Pinochle in America and Binokel in Germany.

Variations & House Rules

Rubicon Bezique uses four packs and many extra melds; Chinese (Six-Pack) Bezique uses six packs and was Churchill's favoured form. Three- and four-handed Bezique exist but are seldom played today.

Play to 500 for a ~30-minute introductory match, or 1000 for the traditional length. House rules sometimes count brisques only at the end of the match (instead of after each deal) to keep the running score cleaner.