Guides: count better, play better

The rules pages say how to count. These guides say what to do with it: when to bid zero in Skull King, when to stop in Flip 7, which target to pick in Belote, what a hidden card is worth in Skyjo. Everything is written from our own games and from calculations we ran ourselves; every guide is dated and signed.

• Flip 7Flip 7: when to stop? The probability of a duplicate, card by cardFlip 7’s deck has 94 cards and each number exists in as many copies as its value: twelve 12s, one 1. A card-by-card risk table, the 25-point rule and the 7th-card case.8 min read2 October 2026
• French TarotHow many points in French Tarot? Contracts, oudlers, petit au bout: scoring explainedFrench Tarot: the taker needs 56, 51, 41 or 36 points with 0, 1, 2 or 3 oudlers. Score = (25 + difference) × contract, plus petit au bout, handful, slam. Worked example.10 min read2 October 2026
• BeloteBelote with declarations: tierce, fifty, hundred, four of a kind — how many points and who scores themTierce 20, fifty 50, hundred 100, four jacks 200, four nines 150, other fours of a kind 100. Only the strongest declaration scores. When to declare and how to count them.8 min read2 October 2026
• ContréeCoinche or Contrée: what are the differences in bidding and scoring?Contrée or coinche: same core (bids in tens, double and redouble, 160 + contract on a failure), but differing habits on declarations, all-trumps, capot and game target.8 min read2 October 2026
• Skull KingSkull King: Kraken, White Whale and Loot cards — how they scoreKraken destroys the trick, White Whale turns characters into escapes, Loot ties two players for a 20-point bonus. What they change in the scoring, with the tricky cases.8 min read2 October 2026
• HeartsHearts: getting rid of the queen, counting spades, and when to shoot the moonThe queen of spades is worth 13 of a hand’s 26 points. What to pass, how to count spades to tell who has her, when to play her, and when to shoot the moon (or stop it).9 min read2 October 2026
• BarbuBarbu: which scoring table? How to balance the five contractsBarbu has no official scoring table. Three common ones compared (classic, equal-weight, simplified), what each does to the salad, the check totals, the twenty-deal game.8 min read2 October 2026
• All gamesHow many points to win? The target of 17 card and board games in one tableSkyjo 100 (lowest wins), Belote 1,000, 6 nimmt! 66, Hearts 100, Skull King 10 rounds, Uno 500, Mölkky exactly 50… The full table for 17 games, with short versions.7 min read2 October 2026
• Skull KingBidding zero in Skull King: when it pays off, when it’s a trapA zero bid scores 10 points per card in the round. Round by round, which hands and opponents make it worth the risk — and why Rascal’s scoring changes it all.8 min read29 September 2026
• BeloteBelote: 1,000, 2,000 or 3,000 points? Scoring variants from one table to the nextEnd of game, rounding to the nearest ten, the 81–81 tie, capot at 250 or 252, belote kept when the taker fails: the conventions that vary between Belote tables.9 min read29 September 2026
• SkyjoSkyjo: a hidden card is worth 5 points — and what that changes in the way you playA Skyjo card is worth 5.07 points on average. From that figure: which discards to take, when to flip, how to play columns and when to end the round unscathed.8 min read29 September 2026
• YahtzeeYahtzee: the real odds (Yahtzee, straights, full house) and the strategy for the 63 bonusWe simulated 200,000 Yahtzee turns: 4.6% odds of a Yahtzee in three rolls, 59% for a small straight, 37% for a full house. How that shapes your scorecard.9 min read29 September 2026
• All gamesThe 10 scoring mistakes we see at every table (and how to avoid them)Forgotten doubling in Skyjo, missed dix de der in Belote, bonus on a failed Skull King bid, ×2 after the modifiers in Flip 7: the ten scoring mistakes we see most often.9 min read29 September 2026
• All gamesPaper or app for keeping score? What our games taught usScore sheet or phone? Game by game, what paper does better, what the app does better, and why the Combien de points? counter works the way it does: offline, no account.8 min read29 September 2026
• 6 nimmt!6 nimmt! (Take 6!): 171 bullheads in the deck — where they hide and how to avoid themThe 104 cards of 6 nimmt! carry 171 bullheads, concentrated on 28 cards. Which cards to play early, when to take a row on purpose, and why the player count matters.8 min read29 September 2026
• ContréeContrée: how much is your hand worth? Evaluating before bidding 80, 90 or 100A simple method to value a Contrée hand before bidding: master trumps, outside aces, length, the lead, and what a failed contract really costs (160 + contract).9 min read29 September 2026

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