How to play the Charlemagne card game
The rules of Charlemagne, and a game played out one move at a time.
Charlemagne has a kitty, eight bids and two jokers, and the rules are below. If you would rather watch than read, press play, free and with no account: we deal a bid of 6 and then a Mulot on the real table, and stop to say what happened and which rule it was.
Press play and we deal a short game of Charlemagne on the real table. It stops on every move and says what just happened and what you could do next.
Four seats, two teams, a deck of 34
Charlemagne takes exactly four players, in two partnerships, partners opposite. The deck is 32 cards, ace down to seven in every suit, plus two jokers you can tell apart: the Big joker and the Little joker. At a real table, take the twos to sixes out of a standard pack and add both jokers. Each seat is dealt eight cards and two go face down as the kitty. The deal moves one seat to the left every hand.
These are the Canadian rules, to 32 points. The Maine game has no jokers and no kitty, names the trump suit inside the bid and plays to 21. We do not deal it.
The bidding, from 5 to Gros Charlemagne
Bidding is one round, starting left of the dealer and ending with the dealer. Each player passes, and a pass is final, or bids higher than the bid before it, if there is one. The ladder is 5, 6, 7, 8, Mulot, Charlemagne, Gros Mulot, Gros Charlemagne.
A number bid is how many of the eight tricks your team will win, you and your partner together, and 8 is all of them. Mulot is a solo bid to win no trick. Charlemagne is a solo bid to win every trick. Each Gros version adds a handicap, set out below, and is worth twice as much when it comes off.
If the other three all pass, the dealer may not pass: they bid 5 or higher. That is our rule, because the pages we follow do not say what happens when all four pass.
Charlemagne step by step: kitty, partner and trump
After a 5, 6, 7 or 8 the high bidder takes the kitty, discards two cards face down and names the trump suit, any suit at all. The player to the bidder’s left leads, and all four play.
After a Mulot the kitty is never touched, and the partner’s eight cards are thrown away unseen. There is no trump suit. The bidder leads, the partner sits out, and every trick has three cards. Gros Mulot is the same, except that after the first trick the bidder’s hand is spread face up for everyone.
After a Charlemagne the bidder takes the kitty, and the partner passes over one card of their own choosing, face down, before trump is named. The partner then sits out, the other seven cards thrown away unseen. The bidder holds eleven cards, discards three, names trump and leads three-card tricks. In Gros Charlemagne the bidder picks one source: the kitty, and discards two, or the partner’s card, passed face down, and discards one. The partner sits out either way, and the bidder ends up with eight cards.
Playing a trick, and what counts as trump
The leader plays any card. Each player in turn must follow the suit led if they can, otherwise anything. Nothing has to be beaten. The highest trump played wins the trick, or with no trump in it, the highest card of the suit led. Each time a trick is won, the winner leads the next.
The top four trumps are the two jokers and the two jacks of the trump colour, then the rest of the suit. With hearts trump the order is: Big joker, Little joker, the jack of hearts (the Big Jack), the jack of diamonds (the Little Jack), then ace, king, queen, 10, 9, 8, 7 of hearts. The jokers and the jack of diamonds count as hearts, so if a heart is led and a joker or that jack is the only heart you hold, you must play it. Diamonds keep only seven cards. The jacks of clubs and spades stay in their own suits.
In Mulot and Gros Mulot only the jokers are trump, Big over Little, and the suits run ace down to seven. Two extras: with a plain suit led, no card of it and a joker in hand, you must play the joker, and when a joker is led, the player holding the other one must play it.
Scoring, and the end of the match
One team scores each hand, and it is the bidder’s team if the bid is made. A successful number bid scores its number in points, and a missed one gives the opponents that many. Bid 6 and win seven tricks and you score 6, not 7: tricks beyond the bid are worth nothing. Mulot is 15, or 7 to the opponents. Charlemagne is 16, or 8. Gros Mulot is 30, or 15. Gros Charlemagne is 32, or 16.
The first team to 32 points wins the match, checked after every hand, so a made Gros Charlemagne wins from any score.
Is Charlemagne the hardest card game to play?
No. Half the bids are ordinary trick-taking with a kitty, the numbers 5 to 8, and in our opinion they are the place to start: there is a trump order to learn and little else. Mulot and Charlemagne are the bids to let go by until you have watched a few, because they turn the game round. You play alone, three cards a trick, and a Mulot wants you to lose every one.