Pili Pili rules: how to play and how to score

Pili Pili quick rules

The goal

A trick is the set of cards played once around the table: it goes to the highest card. Each round, you bet on how many tricks you’ll win, then try to win exactly that number. If you get it wrong, you receive Pilis, which are penalties. As soon as a player reaches seven Pilis, the game ends, and the fewest Pilis wins.

The round and the Mission

At the start of each round, draw a Mission card. The number in its bottom left corner shows how many numbered cards to deal each player, and its effect changes one rule for this round only. For your first games, play without the Missions, with five cards each.

Betting

Everyone looks at their cards, then announces their bet, starting with the dealer. The total of the bets must not equal the number of cards dealt to each player, so there’s always a loser. With five cards each and bets already adding up to four, the last player can’t bet one trick; they can bet zero, two, three, four or five.

Winning tricks

The dealer plays a card, then everyone plays one in turn, any card they like. Colors don’t matter, only the number counts: the highest card wins the trick, and its player leads the next one. When you play the Joker, you choose its value between 0 and 56. Keep going until the last dealt card.

The Pilis

Everyone compares their bet with the tricks they won: you receive one Pili per trick you missed by, over or under. You bet one trick and won three: two Pilis. Successful bet: no Pilis. Some Missions hand out extra Pilis, or let you discard some. Then shuffle all the cards back together and draw a new Mission.

The Missions

Some make cards change hands after betting. Others make betting harder: betting without seeing your cards, holding them on your forehead, being forbidden to bet zero or one. Others change play: cards face up, or played by everyone at once. One Mission rewards a successful bet. Expert Missions, marked with a red card symbol, go further: reversed values, or the first and last tricks costing a Pili.

The end of the game

As soon as a player reaches seven Pilis, the game ends, and the player with the fewest Pilis wins. The French text of the rulebook says nothing about ties; its Italian text adds that players tied for the fewest Pilis win together.

Beginner traps

Thinking you must win as many tricks as possible: one trick too many costs as much as one too few. Forgetting the bet-total rule for the last player. Wasting the Joker, which is there to take a missing trick or dodge one too many. And read the Mission card before betting: it can turn your hand upside down.

How to score Pili Pili

Pilis received

1 Pili for every trick you missed your bet by, over or under; 0 if your bet succeeds. Add the Pilis handed out by the round’s Mission card.

Pilis discarded

Only with the Mission that rewards a successful bet: you discard as many Pilis as the value of your bet.

End of the game

Pilis add up round after round. As soon as a player reaches 7 Pilis, the game ends: the fewest Pilis wins, and a tie means a shared win.

Worked example

Before the round, Emma has 4 Pilis, Jake 5 and Alex 3. Emma bets 2 tricks and wins 3: 1 Pili, she goes to 5. Jake bets 0 and wins 2: 2 Pilis, he reaches 7 and the game ends. Alex makes his bet and wins with 3 Pilis.

Common mistakes

• Counting only missing tricks: one trick too many also costs a Pili.
• Forgetting the Pilis handed out by the round’s Mission card.
• Discarding Pilis without the Mission that allows it: it’s the only one.
• Giving the win to the highest total: in Pili Pili, the fewest Pilis wins.

How to set up Pili Pili

Setup is the same for 2 to 8 players. The rulebook doesn’t say how to choose the dealer, or whether the dealer changes each round: agree on it before you start.