OBJECTIVE OF LE QUATRE SEPT: The objective of Le Quatre Sept is to be the first team to 31 or more points.
NUMBER OF PLAYERS: 4 Players
MATERIALS: A modified 52-card deck, a way to keep score, and a flat surface.
TYPE OF GAME: Trick-Taking Card Game
AUDIENCE: Adult
OVERVIEW OF LE QUATRE SEPT
Le Quatre Sept is a trick-taking game for 4 players. The goal of the game is for your partnership to reach 31 or more points first and win the game.
There will be two teams of two where partners will sit across from each other.
SETUP
To modify the deck, you will remove all cards 6 and lower from the deck. This leaves you with a 32-card deck.
The first dealer will be random and then pass to the left at the start of each new round.
Once the deck is sorted, the dealer will shuffle the cards and deal hands to each player clockwise. The players will receive hands of 8 cards. Players should check their hands immediately because if a player ever receives all four 7s in their hand in one deal they automatically win the entire game.
Card Rankings and Values
Cards are ranked as follows. 10 (high), 9, Ace, King, Queen, Jack, 8, and 7 (low). There are no trumps in Le Quatre Sept.
Certain cards have scoring values attached to them. Aces score 1 point, and 10s, 9s, Kings, Queens, and Jacks all score 1/3rd of a point. 8s and 7s are worth nothing, and the last trick scores 1 point.
There is a total of 11 full points in each round and all fractional points are ignored.
GAMEPLAY
The gameplay is very simple for Le Quatre Sept. Like every other trick-taking game it is a matter of leading and following tricks. The game starts with the player to the dealer’s left and continues clockwise.
The first player will lead the trick and all other players must follow suit if able. If not able, they may play any card they wish.
The player who plays the highest-ranked card of the leading suit wins the trick. They will also lead the next trick.
There is a special point bonus that can be won in a round. if a player has three highest-ranked cards of the same suit and manages to win 3 consecutive tricks with them, their team scores an additional 11 points this round. To score this bonus a player must declare their intention when playing the first of the three cards to the first trick. This bonus is called a Poule or a Politaine.
SCORING
Once all tricks are played players will tally their scores from cards won in tricks. The fraction of points are dropped from the teams’ scores and the two teams’ scores should always sum 11. The scores of each round are kept cumulatively and the round where a team or both teams reaches or exceeds 31 points ends the game.
END OF GAME
The game ends once 31 points have been matched or exceeded by a team. if just this team reaches 31 then they win, but if both teams exceed 31 the team with the higher total wins. if there is a tie and an additional round is played to find a winner.
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