BisqaThe complete rules of Bisqa
Bisqa is played in short rounds: you get a few cards, announce how many tricks you think you will win, then play. Whoever keeps their word best keeps their lives. Here are all the rules, with examples.
Cards and players
Bisqa uses a 40-card deck: four suits (♥ hearts, ♦ diamonds, ♣ clubs, ♠ spades) and ten values per suit, from ace (1) to king. There are no 8s, 9s or 10s. This is the standard deck in Tunisia, the one used for chkobba.
A game has 2 to 8 players. In the app, empty seats can be taken by bots, and a private game is played with everyone on their own phone.
The goal
Each player starts with a number of lives (5 by default; 3, 4 or 5 depending on the setting). At the end of each round, you lose lives if you did not win exactly the number of tricks you bid. A player who reaches zero lives is eliminated. The last player still alive wins the game.
How a round works
1. The deal
The number of cards dealt changes every round, following the cycle 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, then back to 5 as long as the game goes on. Everyone gets the same number of cards. With 8 players and 5 cards each, the whole deck is dealt.
2. Bidding
In turn, each player announces how many tricks they expect to win this round, from 0 up to the number of cards in hand. The first bidder changes every round: it is the next player at the table among those still in the game.
The last bidder rule
The last player to bid may not choose a number that would make the total of all bids equal to the number of cards dealt. That way, someone is bound to miss: the table can never be right for everyone.
This restriction does not apply to the one-card round.
Example
Three players, 4 cards each. Amel bids 2, Bilel bids 1. The total is 3. Chokri, the last to speak, may bid 0, 2, 3 or 4, but not 1, because 2 + 1 + 1 would make 4, the number of cards.
3. Playing the tricks
The player who opened the bidding leads the first card. Everyone then plays one card in table order. You may play any card from your hand: there is no obligation to follow the suit led.
Once everyone has played, the strongest card wins the trick. Its owner leads the next one. The round goes on until all cards have been played.
4. Counting lives
At the end of the round, each player compares their bid with the number of tricks they actually won. They lose as many lives as the difference between the two. Exactly on target costs nothing.
| Bid | Tricks won | Lives lost |
|---|---|---|
| 2 | 2 | 0 |
| 0 | 1 | 1 |
| 3 | 1 | 2 |
| 1 | 4 | 3 |
Winning too many tricks costs as much as winning too few. That is what makes Bisqa special: a great hand can become a problem if you bid too low.
Card strength
To decide who wins a trick, look at the suit first, then the value.
- Suits, strongest to weakest: ♥ hearts, ♦ diamonds, ♣ clubs, ♠ spades. Any heart beats any diamond, whatever its value.
- Values, within a suit: king, queen, jack, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, ace.
Example
On the table: 7♣, 2♦ and K♠. The 2♦ wins, because diamonds are stronger than clubs and spades. Had someone played the 3♥, they would have won instead.
The ace of hearts
The ace of ♥ is the only card whose role you choose when you play it:
- High: it beats every other card, even the king of hearts;
- Low: it loses to every other card, even the ace of spades.
It is a precious card to fix your round at the last moment: win the trick you were missing, or get rid of a trick you do not want.
Exception: in the one-card round, the ace of hearts is always the strongest card.
The hidden round (1 card)
When everyone gets a single card, the game changes completely: you cannot see your own card, but you see everyone else's. You must bid 0 or 1 by guessing whether your card is likely to beat the ones you see.
Example
You see the K♥ in front of one opponent and the 4♣ in front of another. Only the ace of hearts, always the strongest in this round, could beat that king: bidding 0 is almost always right.
A complete round
Three players, 3 cards each.
- Amel holds K♥, 5♣, 2♠ and bids 1.
- Bilel holds Q♦, 7♦, 3♠ and bids 1.
- Chokri holds A♥, J♣, 6♠. The total is already 2: he cannot bid 1 (that would make 3, the number of cards). He bids 0.
Trick 1: Amel plays K♥, Bilel Q♦, Chokri plays his ace of hearts low. The king of hearts wins: Amel has her trick.
Trick 2: Amel leads 2♠, Bilel plays 7♦, Chokri J♣. The diamond wins: Bilel has his trick.
Trick 3: Bilel leads 3♠, Chokri plays 6♠, Amel 5♣. Clubs beat spades: Amel wins one trick too many!
Result: Amel bid 1 and won 2, so she loses 1 life. Bilel and Chokri kept their word and lose nothing.
End of the game
Rounds continue as long as at least two players are alive. When only one player has lives left, they win the game. The final ranking follows the order of elimination and remaining lives.
Online rules
- Each player has a limited time to bid or play (10 to 30 seconds, set by the host of a private game).
- If time runs out, or a player leaves, a bot plays in their place so the game goes on. The player can come back and take their seat again.
- Every move is checked by the server: everyone sees exactly the same game.
Want to improve? Read our strategy tips.