Bezique

Bezique originated in France in the early 19th century as Bésigue. It was extremely fashionable in Britain in the early 20th century, and was Winston Churchill's favourite card game. Although its popularity declined in the late 20th century, it still has many devoted players.

Bezique is a two-player card game, and the basic version is played with a double pack of 64 cards (two copies of A-K-Q-J-10-9-8-7 in each suit). In its heyday, variations for larger numbers of cards were invented. The American game Pinochle is very similar in structure, especially in its two-player form.

Rules of Bezique, Polish Bezique, Chinese Bezique and Rubicon Bezique, archived from Howard Fosdick's website.

Sharon Clarke's description of Bezique: The Card Game is published on the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy web site.

Here is an archive copy of Chris Herring's rules for Six Pack Bezique.

Rules of Bezique are available on the Card Game Heaven site.

Jean-François Bustarret's site has rules in French version for Bésigue.

The Planet Haiti website included a page describing several versions of Bésigue played in Haiti.

The Cardmaster package includes a 4-pack Rubicon Bezique computer program.