In short. Pick the trump suit, your seat in the trick, the cards already on the table and the ones you still held: the checker shows which cards you were allowed to play and explains why the rest were forbidden. It applies the five rules in the order they actually arise, follow suit, play over when trumps are led, trump, overtrump, otherwise play freely.
Nothing leaves your browser, the whole thing is computed on this page.
The five rules, in the order they arise
Belote card play is a decision tree, which is exactly why arguments break out: two rules can look like they apply at once. They never do. They are tested in this order, and the first one that matches settles it.
- Do you hold the suit that was led? If yes, you must play it.
- Was the suit led the trump suit? Then you must play over the highest trump already down, if you hold one. There is no partner exception here — this is the rule that surprises people.
- No card of the suit led? Then you must trump — unless your partner already holds the trick, in which case you are free.
- Has an opponent already trumped? Then you must overtrump if you can.
- Otherwise you play whatever you like, trumps included. Nothing forces you to undertrump.
The two situations that start the arguments
When trumps are led, you must play over — even if your partner is winning
The exception that frees you when your partner holds the trick is real, but it belongs to the trumping rule, not to following suit. If the trump suit itself was led and you hold trumps, you must climb over the best one already played, whoever is winning. Which is how a player ends up dropping the Jack of trumps — twenty points, the strongest card in the game — on a trick their own side had already won.
Nobody has to undertrump
If an opponent has trumped and none of your trumps beats theirs, you are not required to throw a trump away underneath. You play whatever you like. Plenty of players believe the opposite, and this is exactly the kind of point another page of rules would not settle: you have to see the position arbitrated.
What this tool does not do
It says what was allowed, never what was best. Among the legal cards, which one to choose is strategy, and that is a different question.
It covers the ordinary contract, where one suit is trumps. All-trumps and no-trumps have their own tables and are not handled here.
Frequently asked questions
Do I have to enter all eight cards?
No. Enter the cards you still held at that moment. An argument that broke out on the seventh trick means two cards to enter, not eight — the engine never needed the original deal.
Can I send someone the answer?
Yes. “Share this verdict” builds a link that carries the whole position, so whoever opens it lands straight on the same verdict. Nothing is stored anywhere.
Is this the same as your Belote game?
The same engine, yes — the code that decides which cards are legal is a faithful port of the one running the real games, and a differential test replays both on hundreds of thousands of random positions.
Which belote is this?
French coinche, also called belote contrée. Card play is the same as in classic belote; only bidding and scoring differ.
Play a hand
Free in your browser, no account, against three bots — forbidden cards stay dimmed and the coach tells you why.