Barbu
How to play Barbu
Barbu is a French classic and the ancestor of a whole family of "contract" trick-avoidance games (the Turkish King and the Trex of the Levant are its cousins). It is sharp, sociable and a little cruel — every deal you are trying not to win the wrong cards. You play against three bots, or take on real people online — press Play online to be matched, or share a private link to play together.
Play Barbu online with friends
Prefer real opponents to the bots? Choose Play online to be matched with other players, or share a private invite link and seat up to four players at the same table — right in your browser, with no account and no app. The server deals every hand and enforces all five contracts, keeping everyone in sync.
The idea
There is no trump. A standard 52-card deck is dealt 13 each. Players follow the led suit if they can; the highest card of the led suit wins the trick, and the winner pays whatever that deal's contract charges. Every penalty is negative — the goal is to finish the game least negative.
The contracts
What makes Barbu Barbu: the dealer chooses which contract to play, and across the game each of the four dealers plays every contract exactly once — twenty deals in all. The five negative contracts are:
- No tricks — each trick you win costs −2.
- No hearts — each heart you take costs −2.
- No queens — each queen costs −6.
- Le Barbu — taking the King of Hearts costs −20.
- No last two — each of the last two tricks costs −10.
In the two heart contracts you may not lead a heart until hearts have been broken (played on another suit).
Scoring
Penalties subtract from your score, deal after deal. After all twenty deals the player with the highest total — the one who dodged the most damage — wins.
Strategy
Read the contract and shed your danger early: in "no queens", get rid of high cards in suits where you hold a queen; in "Le Barbu", never get stuck winning a heart trick while the King of Hearts is still out. When it is your deal, pick the contract your hand is safest in — that is the whole art of Barbu. Duck tricks by playing the highest card that still loses. Tap a card to play it; legal cards are highlighted, and when you deal you choose the contract from buttons. N starts a new game.