What is Pilotta?

Pilotta (Πιλόττα) is the Cypriot variant of Belote and the best-loved card game in Cyprus - the one played in every coffee shop, on every family table and through every long afternoon. Four players sit in two partnerships, partners facing each other, and play with a stripped 32-card deck: seven through Ace in each suit. It belongs to the Jass family of trick-taking games, and it is a variant of Coinche.

How a game of Pilotta works

Every deal has three acts. First the auction: the four players bid to name the trump suit, each bid a promise of how many points your team will take that deal. Then the declarations - sequences and four-of-a-kinds in your hand that score extra, announced in the first trick and shown in the second or third. Finally, the eight tricks, where you must follow suit, must cut when you are void, and must over-trump when you can - even over your own partner. The Jack of trump is worth 20 and the Nine is worth 14, which is why they decide most deals.

Scores accumulate deal after deal until a team reaches the match target — 351 by+ default, anywhere from 101 to 401 by agreement. Hold the King and Queen of trump and you announce “Pilotta” and “Re-Pilotta” as you play them: the move the whole game is named after.

Play Pilotta online, free

pilotta.com.cy is a free online Pilotta platform. Create a table and share the code with three friends, take an open seat at a public table with players from around the world, or practise against bots until the bidding feels natural. Nothing to install — it runs in the browser on a phone, a tablet or a desktop. Your seat is yours: refresh, lose signal or change device and you rejoin the same hand where you left it.

Four-player tables, public or private by invite code.
Full rules enforced by the server — over-trumping, declarations, Capo and all.
Per-deal scoreboard with a replay of every hand that was dealt.
Profiles, levels and match history as you play.

Learn how to play Pilotta

Never played before, or want to sharpen the parts that lose you deals? The Pilotta Academy teaches the game from scratch in English and Greek — the deck and card values, the auction, follow-suit obligations, declarations, and how a deal is actually scored.