Belote

Belote is a 32-card, trick-taking, ace–ten game played primarily in France and certain European countries, namely Armenia, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Georgia, Greece, Luxembourg, Moldova, Macedonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and also in Saudi Arabia and Tunisia. It is one of the most popular card games in those countries, and the national card game of France, both casually and in gambling.
It appeared around 1900 in France, and is a close relative of both Klaberjass and klaverjas. Closely related games are played throughout the world. Definitive rules of the game were first published in French in 1921.
Within the game's terminology, belote is used to designate a pair of a king and a queen of a trump suit, possibly yielding the game's name itself.
Variations on the game include belot in eastern Europe, baloot in Saudi Arabia, and pilotta in Cyprus.

Deck

Much like Skat, German-style cards are used widely in former Yugoslav countries as well as Germany for playing this card game while French-style cards are used widely in French-speaking countries for playing this card game. Belote is played with a deck of 32 cards

Rules

The game is played differently in different locations, but most versions share a considerable set of common rules. The rules below describe the common version of this game.
A typical 32-card piquet deck is used, 4 suits with 8 ranks, or ×, and is not shuffled between games.
The game is mostly played by four people. Versions exist for five, three and two players, including a non-trivial two-player "open cards" version. Players form two teams in the usual 4 players version: north–south and east–west, and playing in turn, in a counterclockwise direction.

Dealing

The deck is never shuffled, but rather cut by the player who precedes the dealer, except for the first dealing in a game when the dealer's partner does that. The first dealing in a game is done by the winners from the previous game. At least three cards must be cut.
The cards are dealt counter-clockwise starting from the dealer's successor, each player receives a packet of three cards, then another set of two. The rest of the cards remain temporarily face-down. If a contract is agreed upon, the remaining cards are dealt after the bidding – a group of three for each player except the player who got the card that was in the middle, who gets two.

Bidding

The possible contracts are:

Clubs
Diamonds
Hearts
Spades
"No trumps"
"All trumps"

Every player must either suggest a higher contract, or bid:

Pass
Double, if the current highest contract was not bid by the partner
Re-double, if the other team have doubled bidder's or bidder partner's contract.

Usually two levels of doubling are allowed.
When doubling any contract, not only a bid in "all trumps", two levels are allowed. Some play it with a third level of doubling, which puts the whole match at stake.

The bidding phase is over when one of the following becomes true:

Four passes were announced, thus the cards are collected and the dealer cuts the deck for the next player
Three passes were announced after a contract was suggested
An "all trumps" contract is re-doubled
Play

The play consists of eight tricks, the first one being started by the dealer's successor.
The first player in a round can play any card, but subsequent players must obey the following rules :

The dominant suit must be followed.
If the player cannot follow the dominant suit, they must play a trump card, except when the current trick winner is their partner.
Played trump cards must always be of a higher-rank than other played trump cards, except when the current trick winner is the player's partner. In the "all trumps" contract, a player who cannot follow the dominant suit may play any other card.
If a player cannot follow the dominant suit and cannot play a trump card, they may play any other card.

The winner of the trick is the highest ranked card in the dominant suit. If trumps were played, the winner is the highest-ranked trump instead. In an "all trumps contract", the winner is the highest ranked trump of the dominant suit.
The winner of a trick starts the next trick. The last trick is a bit more significant, as its winner is awarded some points.
The rank of the cards is different for trump and non-trump suits. The order is :

In a trump suit: J 9 A 10 K Q 8 7
In a non-trump suit: '''A 10 K Q J 9 8 7'''
Declarations

Declarations must be announced during the first trick:

A tierce – a sequence of three – is worth 20 points.
A quarte – a sequence of four – is worth 50 points.
A quinte – a sequence of five – is worth 100 points.
A carré – 4 of the same rank – of Jacks is worth 200 points.
A carré of nines is worth 150 points.
A carré of aces, kings, queens, or tens is worth 100 points.

It is sufficient to specify the type of a declaration, whereas the exact suit or ranks are not required. A card can participate in at most one declaration.
A belote is a "royal" pair of a king and a queen of a trump suit. A belote is worth 20 points, and must be declared when the first of them is played.
In a "no trumps" contract declarations do not apply

Scoring

Each card rank has a specific scoring value. For Jacks and Nines the value depends on whether the suit is trump or not. The winner of the last trick gets 10 points.
Declarations, including belotes, are added to the score. If the contract was no trumps, the result is multiplied by two, as it is for every double bid. If a team is committed to a contract and has less points, all points go to the opponents, and the losing team are said to be "inside" or the French equivalent, "être dedans". In a doubled contract, both teams are considered committed.
The result is divided by ten, rounded, and added to the global score. The rounding is somewhat complicated as the sum of points is a multiple of ten only for a "No trumps" contract. It is 258 for "All trumps" and 162 for a suit contract. Therefore, the rounding limit is 5 in a "No trumps" contract, 4 in an "All trumps", and 6 in a suit contract.

A score below the limit is rounded down. Example: 35 points in a suit contract yields 3 match points;
A score above the limit is rounded up. Example: 125 points in an "All trumps" contract yields 13 MPs; 54 points in a "No trumps" contract yields 11MPs;
When both teams have scores at the rounding limit, the lower score is rounded up and the higher score is rounded down. Example: if in an "All trumps" contract with two tierces the declarers have 154 points and the defenders have 144 points, both teams will get 15 MPs and it would be a narrow escape.
When both teams have equal scores at the end of the round, the points are "hanging". What happens in this case is the following: the committed team doesn't add those points to their score, while the other team does. The remaining points "hang" over to the next round and they are given to the team that wins.

A special valat premium of 9 match points exists for not leaving a single trick for the opponents. Note, that this does not lift off the opponent's points from declaration. Valats are doubled at no trumps. If there is a valat in a doubled contract, the winning team's points are doubled.
The first team to reach 151 in the global score is the winner, but the game cannot end while a valat takes place.

French belote

This part describes the main differences between the classic French rules and the ones above.

Dealing

After the four players receive the first five cards, the remaining cards are left face down except the card on the top, which is turned face up.

Bidding

The biddings are made in two rounds.
During the first round each player must either pass or accept the card face up. Doing so will set the cards of the same suit as the face up card as trumps.
If every player passed, another round is made. The players can propose another card suit as trumps, but must take the face up card.
As soon as a player has accepted the card, the remaining cards are dealt :

2 cards for the player who took the card
3 cards for the 3 other players
Scoring

To score the points for a game, the team of the player who accepted the face up card must score more than the other team. Otherwise, the other team wins all the points.
Generally, this means a team needs to score at least 81 as there are a total of 162 points in the game. However, bonus points won from belote or declarations might be taken into account.

Belot

Belot is a 32-card game variant of belote for two to four players. Traditionally it is played with a French-suited or German-suited playing cards, and is particularly popular in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, North Macedonia and Arabia. It is still played in some states of the former Soviet Union and by communities of the Armenian diaspora and Jewish communities around the world.
There are different interpretations of the rules, so that one cannot speak of a fixed, uniform ruleset. The rules are almost identical to the French national card game belote and it is thus an Eastern European variant of the large Jass family.
The rules of belot are close to those of belote, and its ancestor, Klaberjass, but with a few significant differences in each. The game is played by 2, 3 or 4 players. The 4-player version is considered the standard game. The other two are truncated versions, played only if there aren't enough players available. The 4 player games are 2 teams of two. In the other variations, each player is alone. 2 player and 3 players use the 24-card deck.
Note that these rules are slightly different among countries.
Each round of belot consists of these steps: dealing, bidding, declaration, playing and scoring: