Take or pass? Evaluating your hand in French Tarot before bidding

The three questions before bidding

A Tarot hand is read in a precise order. First the oudlers: how many, and which ones, because each lowers the target (56, 51, 41, 36 with 0, 1, 2, 3 oudlers) and because the Petit is worth nothing if it gets captured. Then the trumps: how many, and whether they are high or low, because they are what wins tricks and protects the Petit. Finally the suits: the kings, the long suits that end up winning, and the voids that let you ruff.

The points you hold count less than you think: the taker does not play to keep their points, they play to win tricks, and a trick in a suit scoops up everybody’s court cards. A 30-point hand with few trumps is a defending hand; a 15-point hand with nine trumps is a garde.

The weight of the oudlers

The three oudlers are not equal. The 21 is yours for good: nobody can capture it. The Excuse almost is: it stays with you as long as you do not play it in the last trick, and it also lets you avoid following to a dangerous trick. The Petit is a promise: it only counts if it is still in your tricks at the end, and the defence will spend the deal hunting it. At our tables, we only count the Petit as an oudler with at least six trumps to escort it with 4 players (seven with 3, five with 5); below that, we count it as half, and we plan to play it early on a big opposing trump rather than see it fall in the last trick.

The arithmetic is brutal but fair: with two safe oudlers you need 41 points, less than half the deck, and an average trump holding is enough. With a single oudler, 51 points: you need length. With none, 56: you need everything else, and the chien only brings an oudler in 27% of cases with 4 players (see below). Passing with no oudler is never a mistake.

Counting your trumps

There are 21 trumps in the deck. With 4 players, each receives a little over five on average; holding seven means holding a third of them, and the defence has to share the other fourteen between three hands. Seven trumps is where a garde becomes reasonable, nine is where the hand controls the deal. The high trumps (15 to 20) count double: they win tricks from the start and let you “chase” the opposing trumps without risk.

Garde sans and garde contre are tried when the chien can no longer teach you anything: with three oudlers and nine trumps, the six cards of the chien add almost nothing, and the multiplier doubles or triples the gain. Remember that in garde contre the chien goes to the defence with its points: you need a hand that wins without it, and against it.

The suits: kings, length and voids

A king is worth 4.5 points and, almost always, a trick: it is the card that scoops up the opposing court cards. A queen without her king is worth 3.5 points and falls to the opposing king: she is more of a burden to discard. A long suit (five cards or more) becomes master once the first two rounds are played, because the opponents have none left; at our tables, a six-card suit with the king counts as one more trump. A void (a missing suit) is worth as much: every round of that suit gets ruffed, and that is where the low trumps win tricks.

The hand to fear is not the one with many points, it is the one with kings, a long suit and a void: it wins tricks everywhere. The hand that disappoints is the one with queens and knights in four suits: lots of points that will end up in other people’s tricks.

A table scale to decide

When we hesitate, we count. This scale is not a rule, it is our table scale, calibrated on our four-player deals; it gives an order of magnitude, not a certainty.

Under 20: pass. 20 to 29: prise. 30 to 39: garde. 40 and over: garde sans, garde contre above 50 with all three oudlers. Example: 21, Excuse, nine trumps including the 20, 19 and 18, king and queen of hearts, void in clubs. Oudlers 20; five trumps beyond the fourth, three of them high: 3 × 3 + 2 × 2 = 13; king 4, queen 2, void 3: 42. That is a garde sans, and indeed, with two safe oudlers you need 41 points: nine trumps and a king make them almost on their own.

What to expect from the chien, and the discard

The chien is a six-card lottery, and it is better to know the odds before betting your deal on it. With 4 players and no oudler in hand, there is a 27% chance of finding at least one there; with one oudler, 19% of finding a second; with two, 10% of finding the third. It brings a trump and a half on average, rarely a high one. Taking “to see the chien” is therefore a prise with no oudler three times out of four.

The discard, on the other hand, is entirely in your hands, and that is where points are won. You may discard neither kings nor trumps (unless you have nothing else, and then you show them). You discard to create a void, by emptying a short suit, and to put points to safety: an isolated queen or knight is worth more in the discard, where they count for you, than in the hand, where they will fall to an opposing king. Six cards well discarded are often ten points gained and one more void.

With 3 and 5 players

With 3, each player has 24 cards and seven trumps on average: hands are richer, voids rarer, and the targets do not change. You take one notch more easily, but a garde needs nine trumps, and the Petit needs seven trumps as escort. The chien is the same, 6 cards, with a 30% chance of bringing an oudler when you hold none.

With 5, each player has 15 cards and the chien only 3: it rarely brings anything (a 14% chance of an oudler when you hold none). On the other hand, the taker has a partner: call the king of your longest suit without a king, or of the suit where you hold the queen, so that the king wins its trick and the partner reveals themselves early. A hand worth a prise with 4 players is worth a garde with 5, because the partner brings their trumps and their tricks; and the Petit can be escorted with only five trumps, since hands are short.

In short

1. Count in order: oudlers, trumps, suits. Points in hand count less than tricks to be won.
2. The 21 and the Excuse are safe; the Petit only counts with six trumps to escort it.
3. With 4: prise with one oudler and six trumps, garde with two oudlers and seven or eight trumps, garde sans with three oudlers and nine trumps.
4. With no oudler, pass: the chien only brings one in 27% of cases.
5. Kings, a long suit and a void win tricks; lone queens and knights are to be discarded.
6. The discard wins ten points: create a void, put isolated court cards to safety.

Frequently asked questions