Six packs of the standard 52-card pack are used (Sixain). Face cards count 10, and all other cards are equal to their face value. Before the game begins the croupier, sitting in front of the ‘tailleur’, counts and shuffle the cards at the presence of at least one player and a supervisor.
The hand begins at the presence of at least one player and a supervisor. The cards are controlled, inserted in the shuffle machine, and the croupier, sitting in front of the ‘tailleur’, asks any of the players to cut, handing him a blank card with which to divide the mixed packs and declaring: ‘Messieurs, à la coupe’. The croupier then takes five cards from the pack and declares: ‘Messieurs, les cinq cartes’.
The players are invited to place their bets with the phrase ‘Messieurs faites vos jeux’. There are only four chances at Trente et Quarante, red, black, colour and inverse. The croupier deals as many cards as necessary for each row until he goes over 30 but never announces the total, only the final digit (i.e.. : if the total is 36, he announces ‘6’). The winning row is the one with the total nearest to 30. If the Red row wins and the first card dealt is red the croupier says ‘Rouge gagne et couleur’. if it is the Black row which scores nearest to 30, he announces ‘Rouge gagne, la couleur perd’. If the red row loses and the first card is red the croupier announces ‘Rouge perd et couleur’. Lastly, if the red row loses and the first card is black the croupier announces ‘Rouge perd, la couleur gagne.’ When the two rows score the same total of points, the game is null and void unless both rows score 31. The croupier then announces ‘un après’. In this case, stakes are ‘locked in’, that is blocked, and lose half of their value. The player can then recover it or put it back into play. In the next round if he wins his wages his bet is unblocked; otherwise it is lost. If the two rows score again 31 the same rule applies.

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