The Cypriot card table,
now online.

Pilotta is Cyprus's favourite card game — this is the “tsaka tsaka” (palaristi) variant. Four players in two teams play with 32 cards (7 up to Ace), dealt 3-2-3. Dealing, bidding and trick play all move counter-clockwise. Each round has 8 tricks, and the first team to reach 301 points wins the match (configurable to 251, 351 or 401).

Bidding starts at 80 and rises in steps of 10, counter-clockwise around the table, up to 400. A pass is not final — you may re-enter the auction on a later round. If all four players pass, the hand is cancelled and redealt by the next dealer.

If you cannot follow the suit that was led, you must play a trump card if you hold one — even when your partner is already winning the trick. There is no “partner protection” in Cypriot Pilotta.

When a trump has already been played on the trick, you must over-trump if you can. If you hold only lower trumps, you are legally forced to play one anyway — this is under-trumping, a rule that sets Cypriot Pilotta apart from Belote.

In trumps: Jack 20, Nine 14, Ace 11, Ten 10, King 4, Queen 3. In side suits: Ace 11, Ten 10, King 4, Queen 3, Jack 2. The last trick is worth an extra 10 points, bringing each round to 162 points in total.

A tierce (3 consecutive cards of the same suit) scores 20 points, a quarte (fifty) 50, a quinte 100. Four Aces, Tens, Kings or Queens score 100, four Nines 150, four Jacks 200. Only the team holding the single highest declaration scores — the other team gets nothing for declarations. Declarations are announced on the first trick and shown on the second — otherwise the points are lost.

Holding both the King and Queen of trumps scores 20 points. You call “pilotta” when playing the first of the two cards and “re-pilotta” with the second. The pilotta always counts — it is never cancelled by the opponents' declarations.

Capot means winning all 8 tricks. The team scores the contract bid plus a flat 25 points (250) plus its declarations, while the opponents keep only their own declarations. It works in reverse too — if the defenders take every trick, they take everything.

During the auction the defenders may “close” the game, betting that the bidders will fail. The team that wins a closed round scores double the stake plus all the round's points plus all declarations; the loser scores zero. If the bidders reopen it in response, the stake becomes quadruple.

Raw points are divided by 10 for the score sheet: endings 1–5 round down, endings 7–9 round up. When both teams' scores end in exactly 6 (for example 126 vs 36), the Rule of 6 applies: the bidding team rounds up and the defenders round down.