Blackjack Games: How to Play Trente-et-Quarante

Trente-et-Quarante or 30 and 40

If you speak Spanish, you no doubt recognize the name. Trente-et-Quarante is actually French for the numbers 30 and 40 respectively. It is a casino card game that originated in French casinos. The game is played in some other European gambling houses as well.

Rules of Trente-et-Quarante

In Trente-et-Quarante, the dealer lays out two rows of cards. Players bet on which row is going to win.

The first row has cards of a red deck. The second row has cards of a black deck. When both rows total more than 30 points, the hand ends. The values of the cards on each row are then counted. Whichever has the score closest to 31 wins.

In Trente-et-Quarante, cards have their usual values with the face cards at 10 points.

Color Betting

In addition to betting on which side is going to win, players can also bet on the color of the first card in the winning row. A "color" bet means you are betting the first card on the winning row will have a card painted in the same color as that row. An "inverse" bet means the opposite: you bet that the first card will have a color the opposite of the winning row's color.

House Advantage and Insurance

In the event of a tie, the casino takes half of every bet. However a player can take insurance at 1% of the total wager. With insurance, the player won't have to pay the half bet in case of a tie.

The house edge in Trente-et-Quarante is quite small, only about 1%. This meager advantage can be further slimmed by taking insurance. Unlike in blackjack, where it is generally not a good idea to take insurance, in Trente-et-Quarante, insurance is recommended.

Advantage Playing

Trente-et-Quarante seems to be immune to advantage playing strategies. While blackjack can be won using strategies like card counting and shuffle tracking, these do not really help the player in Trente-et-Quarante. Nor is there any counting system or betting system that can improve one's odds in color betting. Edward Thorp, author of Beat the Dealer, The Mathematics of Gambling and other books, proved through computer analysis that there is no real way to use advantage playing in Trente-et-Quarante.

Yet Trente-et-Quarante is still a highly appealing game. The low house edge, the simple rules and the insurance all make it a very fair game to play. If you ever come across this game in a European casino, try it out. You'll like it.