Bouillotte
A high-stakes French vying game that emerged during the Revolutionary era, played with a stripped 20-card deck and believed to have shaped the early French form of Poque.
Coming soon — not yet playable
Rules
Bouillotte was played with a 20-card deck (only 7s, 10s, and Jacks removed from a standard 32-card piquet pack down to Aces, Kings, Queens, 9s, and 8s in some accounts), typically among four players, each dealt four cards — three face down and one face up.
Betting proceeded in rounds with players wagering on hand strength, bluffing being fully legitimate; the best hands were four of a kind ("bouillotte") followed by three of a kind plus the highest possible fourth card, then simple point totals of same-suited cards.
Historical note: Bouillotte became fashionable and heavily regulated in France around the time of the French Revolution, prized (and periodically restricted) for the size of the bets it attracted. Gaming historians connect its four-player, short-deck structure to the early French form of Poque, which later crossed the Atlantic and fed into the development of American poker.
Strategy notes: With one card exposed per player, Bouillotte blended public and private information in a way that rewarded reading exposed cards across the table as much as one's own hidden three — an early version of the "up-card reading" skill central to games like Seven-Card Stud today.
Common house rules
Four players is traditional
Bouillotte was historically built around exactly four players and a matching 20-card deck; adapting it for a different table size changes the deck composition and hand odds.
One card exposed, three hidden
Standard rule: each player's fourth card is dealt face up, giving the rest of the table partial information — don't deal all four cards face down, or the game loses its defining information dynamic.
Historical curiosity, not for real stakes
As with other centuries-old European vying games in this library, treat a Bouillotte hand as an educational look at poker's French Revolutionary-era ancestor rather than a game to bet seriously on.
Related games
Based on shared category, origin, and rules that reference each other.
Ambigu
A French vying game first recorded in 1659 under Louis XIV, blending elements of Whist, Bouillotte, and Piquet, with hand categories that closely parallel modern poker rankings.
Learn the rules →Brelan
A French vying game from the 15th–19th centuries, played with three cards and a card turned from the deck — a key link in the chain leading to Bouillotte and Poque.
Learn the rules →Glic
One of the oldest recorded European vying games, dating to at least 1454 — its French name is considered the most direct linguistic root of 'Poque,' and by extension 'poker.'
Learn the rules →Poque
The 17th-18th century French bluffing and betting game most often credited as the direct namesake and ancestor of the English word 'poker.'
Learn the rules →