Piquet Rev. 0.18.0
Piquet Rules
Object of the Game
Piquet is a classic two-player card game played with a 32-card deck (7 through Ace). The goal is to score points through combinations of cards in your hand (declarations) and by winning tricks over the course of a 6-deal match (Partie).
The Deal & Discard
- Each player is dealt 12 cards. The remaining 8 cards form the Talon.
- Carte Blanche: If a hand has no face cards (King, Queen, or Jack), it scores 10 points immediately.
- The Elder Hand (non-dealer) discards 1 to 5 cards and draws replacements from the talon.
- The Younger Hand (dealer) may discard up to the remaining number of cards in the talon and draw replacements.
Declarations
Players compare hands in three categories. Only the player with the superior combination in each category scores; an equal value or length results in no score for either player (the tier is "equalized" or "sunk").
- Point: The most cards in a single suit. Worth 1 point per card. Ties broken by highest pip sum (Ace=11, Face=10).
- Sequence: Longest consecutive run of cards in the same suit (minimum 3). Worth 3 points for 3, 4 for 4, and 15+ for 5 or more. Ties broken by highest top card.
- Sets (Quatorzes/Trios): 3 or 4 of a kind (10s or higher only). 3 of a kind = 3 pts. 4 of a kind = 14 pts.
Trick Play
- Elder hand leads the first trick. You must follow suit if able.
- The highest card of the led suit wins the trick. There are no trumps.
- Winning a trick you led or your opponent led scores 1 point.
- Winning the last trick scores an additional 1 point.
- Winning the majority of tricks (7+) scores 10 points (Cards).
- Winning all 12 tricks scores 40 points (Capot).
Special Bonuses
- Repique: If a player reaches 30 points in declarations alone before their opponent scores any points in that deal, they receive a 60-point bonus.
- Pique: If the Elder Hand reaches 30 points through a combination of declarations and points won in trick play before the Younger Hand scores a single point in that deal, they receive a 30-point bonus.
The Partie & Rubicon
- A standard match (Partie) consists of 6 deals.
- The Rubicon: At the end of 6 deals, if the loser has fewer than 100 points, they are "rubiconed."
- If rubiconed, the winner scores 100 points PLUS the sum of both players' final scores.
- If not rubiconed (loser has 100+ points), the winner scores 100 points PLUS the difference between their scores.
The Oracle
An advisor, not a boss. The decision stays yours. Tap the Oracle button while choosing your discards, or on your turn in trick play. It leads with its best option and a plain-language reason, and says so when two options are statistically tied.
What it ranks by: net points this deal, that is your points minus the opponent's, counting everything the game scores: Carte Blanche, Point, Sequence, Sets, Repique, Pique, each trick, the last trick, Cards and Capot. In a two-player game a point you deny the opponent is worth exactly as much as a point you score, and the match is decided by the gap between the two totals. The bar beside each option shows how often it out-scored the opponent on the deal.
How it calculates:
- Monte Carlo simulation on the shared engine used across tedponderings.com. Instead of a formula, it plays the rest of the deal out 50,000 times per option and counts the results.
- Only cards you have not seen are dealt: your hand, your discards and every card played are excluded.
- The opponent in the simulation discards, leads and follows by its own code from this game; your simulated self plays by that same rule on the turns after the one being advised.
- What you have seen is evidence. The declaration dialogue tells you about the opponent's hand (its Point, Sequence and Sets, and its "Good", "Not good" and "Equal" answers), as does a Carte Blanche it announced and any suit it failed to follow. Deals that contradict the evidence are thrown out and dealt again.
- Discards: trying every possible discard set would take minutes, so the Oracle tests a shortlist (a sensible set for each allowed number of cards, plus your current selection).
- Precision: each average carries a 95% confidence margin, shown in the panel. Two options within their margins of each other are statistically tied.
Omitted Traditional Mechanics
- Sinking: The historical strategy of intentionally under-declaring a hand to conceal information has been omitted; all hands are evaluated automatically for maximum points.
- Peeking at the Talon: The traditional rule allowing a player to look at un-drawn cards in the Talon is not implemented in this digital version.