Belote scoring: how to count points, with a calculator

Choose the team that took, enter the trick points of “Us” (“Them” are worked out automatically), any capot, the validated declarations and Belote-Rebelote. Select the 1,000-point target for either variant; the reserve from ties is handled automatically.

The eight trumps are worth 62 points (10 = 20, 6 = 14, 1 = 11, 7 = 10, 12 = 4, 11 = 3, 5 and 4 = 0). Each of the three other suits is worth 30 points (1 = 11, 7 = 10, 12 = 4, 11 = 3, 10 = 2, 6, 5 and 4 = 0), so 90. Cards total: 62 + 90 = 152. The last trick earns 10 extra points (the “dix de der”). 152 + 10 = 162.

In practice, if you know one team’s trick points you know the other’s (162 minus that number), except with a capot. That is what the calculator does.

The team that wins the eighth and last trick adds 10 points to its tricks. In French it is called the “dix de der”. These 10 points often make the difference between a made contract, a tie and a failure: keeping a master trump for the end is a real weapon.

When a team wins all 8 tricks, it makes capot: its tricks count 252 points instead of 162, and the other team has 0 in tricks. Declarations and Belote are added as usual.

Example: the taking team makes capot and won the comparison with a 3-card Suivi (5-6-7 of coins, 20 points): it scores 252 + 20 = 272, the defenders 0. If the defenders make capot against the taker, they score 252 instead of 162, plus declarations.

For each team, add tricks + validated declarations + Belote-Rebelote. The contract is made if the taking team’s total is strictly higher than the defenders’. Each team then scores its own total.

With no declarations and no Belote, you therefore need at least 82 trick points: 82 against 80 is made; 81 against 81 is a tie. A declaration lowers the bar accordingly: with a 4-card Suivi (50 points), 57 trick points are enough (107 against 105).

If the taking team’s total is lower than the defenders’, the contract fails — the team is “inside”. The defenders then score 162 (or 252 if they made capot) + all validated declarations, including the taker’s, + their own Belote. The taking team scores only its Belote-Rebelote, if it had it.

Example: the taker makes 70 in tricks and has Belote (20); the defenders make 92 and won the comparison with a 3-card Suivi (20). Totals: 90 against 112, the contract fails. The defenders score 162 + 20 = 182; the taker keeps 20 (their Belote).

If both totals are exactly equal, the hand is a tie (“litige”). The defenders score their points at once. The taker’s points (except Belote, which they keep) go into reserve. They will go to the team that wins the next hand that is not a tie: the taker’s team if its contract is made, the defenders if it fails. Successive ties add up in the reserve.

• Declarations: only the team that wins the comparison (at the start of trick 2) scores them — all of them, partner’s included. The other team scores no declaration.
• If the taker fails, their team’s validated declarations go to the defenders.
• Belote-Rebelote (20 points) always stays with the team that called it, even if it fails, and never goes into reserve.

Values and comparison rules are detailed in our guide to Belote declarations.

Hand 3: the taker had the declaration but failed; the defenders score 162 + those 50 declaration points = 212. Hand 4: Belote stays with the taker despite the failure.

Points add up hand after hand. The target is 1,000 points in the Moroccan variant and 1,000 in the French variant. The game ends after the hand in which a team reaches the target. If both teams pass it on the same hand, the higher total wins; if they are exactly equal, a deciding hand is played. The calculator also offers 500 and 700 points for games with friends.