Games - Truco

	Games - Truco

Truco is a popular card game played in the Río de la Plata area. It is played using a reduced Spanish deck (only 40 cards are used, 8s, 9s and jokers are removed from the deck), by two, four or six players. When played by four or six players, they are divided into two teams. Each player is dealt three cards from a subset of the deck consisting of the numbers 1 to 7 and figures Sota, Caballo and Rey (numbers 10 to 12).

The most common form of the game is the four-player version, in which there are two teams of two players, who sit opposite each other. For six players, there are two teams of three players, with every second player on the same team.

The game is played until a team (or player if played by 2) finishes a game with 30 points or more. The 30 points are commonly split into two halves, the lower half called malas (bad) and the higher half called buenas (good). Therefore a team with 8 points would be ocho malas (8 malas), and a team with 21 points would be seis buenas (6 buenas). However, because both teams can score points in one round, it is possible (but very rare) for both teams to go over 30 points in one round. Usually as soon as one team goes over 30 points, the game is ended, to stop there being a tie situation. However, sometimes the winner is the one with more points, otherwise another hand is played, until the tie is broken.

The exciting part of the game comes from the bidding process. Each type of scoring can be bid on to score your team more points. Bids can be accepted, rejected or upped. Bluffing and deception is an integral part of the game.

Card Ranking

Ace of spades (Ancho de espadas)
Ace of clubs (Ancho de basto)
7 of spades (Siete de espadas)
7 of gold (Siete de oro)
3s
2s
1 of cup and 1 of gold (Anchos falsos)
Kings (12s)
Knights (11s)
Sotas (10s)
7 of cups and 7 of clubs (Sietes falsos)
6s
5s
4s

Gameplay

Each player is dealt three cards, and each team can win points in one of three ways, Flor, Envido and Truco.

Flor

Each player is said to have a Flor (=flower) when he has his/her three cards all of the same suit and he must announce it by saying "Flor". The player or team having the best Flor will get 3 points for each Flor (i.e. if three players announced Flor, the one with the best flor will get 3x3 = 9 points).

The Flor bet can only be performed before playing the first card and before any other kind of bets (e.g. Truco or Envido). Also, Flor cancels all Envido bets done before and suspends any Truco bet until the Flor is closed.

The player that has got a Flor announce it by saying "Flor" as we said above. Then, any subsequent player whose cards don't allow him to announce a Flor, can call a Truco (which will be suspended until the Flor is completed) or simply play his first card. Any subsequent player having a Flor can announce any of these following:

Flor: Announces the Flor and adds three points more to the bet (as any other Flor announced like this).
Con flor me achico: Announces the Flor but concedes the bet to the opponent player/team, which will win three points for their Flores and one point for your team's 'surrender' (e.g. if three players (A, B, C) have Flores and say: A:Flor-B:Flor-C:Con flor me achico, player B will score 4 points for him/her or his/her team).
Contraflor: Announces the Flor and challenges the opponent team (it's a counterattack).
Contraflor al resto: Announces the Flor and proposes to raise the bet to three points for each Flor plus the amount the leading team needs to get 15 buenas or 30 points (i.e. if the winning team has 7 buenas = 22 points, the winner of this bet will get 3 per each Flor plus 30-22 = 8 points).

After saying Contraflor the opponent team or player must answer with:

Con flor quiero: Accepts and closes the bet.
Con flor me achico: Decline and closes the bet. The opponent team/player wins three points for their Flores plus one point.
Contraflor al resto: The same as seen above.

After Contraflor al resto, the possible answers are:

Con flor quiero: Accepts the bet and closes it.
Con flor me achico: Declines the bet and the opponent team/player score three points for each Flor they have plus one point .

As any Flor betting is made on behalf of the team, the team's bet will be the last one. A common example for this is when four players (A, B, C and D arranged in teams A-C and B-D) say the following: Flor-Con flor me achico-(plays a card for not having a Flor)-Flor. A announces his Flor and adds three points to the bet, then, B surrenders and adds one point to the bet (4 points). But, D has a Flor, must announce it and, as the bet has been closed, he only can say Flor, reopening the bet. The team with the best Flor will, then, score 9 points because of A's announcement, D's announcement and the overrided (by D) B's surrender which turns out into a normal announcement! If B wants to surrender again, he should wait for A's reaction (maybe a Contraflor or nothing).

[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for Truco ]

Searches on eBay

truco

Games - Truco

Card Ranking

Gameplay

Flor

Searches on eBay

Related searches on eBay