Truco Criollo: Rules

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.

The game is played until a player 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 player with 8 points would be ocho malas (8 malas), and a team with 21 points would be seis buenas (6 buenas).

The popular appeal of the game comes from the exciting bidding process. Each type of scoring can be bid on to score more points. Bids can be accepted, rejected or upped. Bluffing and deception are also fundamental to the game.

Card Ranking

• Ace of swords
• Ace of clubs
• 7 of swords
• 7 of gold
• 3s
• 2s
• Ace of cup and ace of gold
• Kings (12s)
• Knights (11s)
• Jacks (10s)
• 7 of clubs and 7 of cups
• 6s
• 5s
• 4s

Mano and Pie

In Truco, there are two concepts concerning which player begins the round and who is the last. The mano in is the one that plays first and the pie , the dealer, is the last to play. These roles change in next round.If the game is tied (for example, if two opponents have the same points for envido), the hand wins. Tthe hand is the first one to call his points for envido.

Structure of the game

Players can earn points in three different ways. These will be further developed below in special sections for each one.

• Truco: points can be earned by winning in the playing of the cards (the "tricks").
• Envido: points can be earned by having the best combination of two cards of the same suit or a single card.
• Flor: points may be earned by having all three cards of the same suit.

Truco

The playing of the cards is done thus: the mano leads to the first trick (each round has three tricks) by playing one card. Then, each other player plays one card. The player with the highest card (according to the ranking shown above) wins the trick. The cards remain face-up on the table until the round is finished.

Sometimes it happens that there is no single highest card, but a tie between the two cards. This trick is called a draw, parda. The same mano then leads the next trick.

By winning two of three tricks, one wins a round, equivalent to one point. If a team wins the first two tricks, the third is not played. But if one of the games ended in a parda, the team that won the earlier of the other two tricks wins (e.g. If trick 1 was won by A, trick 2 was won by B, and trick 3 was a draw, A wins the round for having won the earlier trick. That concept is often referred to as "primera vale doble" (first is worth double) If trick 1 is drawn and trick 2 is won by B, the winner of the round is B and a third trick is not played). In the case of two pardas, the winner of the remaining trick wins the round. In case of three pardas, the mano wins the round. The winner of each round is the first one to play the next card. If a round is tied, or "parda", the hand plays first.

During play, there are multiple opportunities to raise the stakes of the round.

• Truco: Any player can call truco at any stage of the round to increase the value of the round to 2 points for the winner. To accept the bet, the challenged team says quiero. If not, no quiero, and the round ends there, so the challenger player wins one point and a new round begins.
• Retruco: The team that answered quiero to the truco can call retruco to increase the value of the round to 3 points. It may be said immediately after truco or after having accepted the bet. The other player must answer with quiero or no quiero. If the answer is no quiero, the round ends there and the player that called retruco wins 2 points.
• Vale cuatro: The team that answered the retruco can say this immediately after the retruco or after accepting it. This makes the round worth 4 points and is the highest bet made in Truco. If the challenged player refuses the bet, the player that called vale cuatro wins the round and scores 3 points.

To call retruco immediately, it is necessary first to say quiero (and the same is true when calling vale Cuatro).

A player can call "irse al mazo" (going to the deck), which meansyhe player admits defeat without finishing the hand.

Envido

"Envido" must be said before the player plays a card.

It is important to know that Envido bets have precedence before Truco bets. If one team calls Truco, and then the other calls Envido, the last must be completed (accepting, increasing or declining it) before the Truco.

When Envido is said, the challenged player can answer in any of these ways:

• Quiero: accepts to take the bet.
• Envido: accepts the 2 points of the first Envido and proposes to raise the bet by 2 points.
• Real Envido: accepts the 2 points of the first Envido and proposes to raise the bet by 3 points.
• Falta Envido: if both players score less than 15, the one with the highest score wins the game. If they score more than 15, the winner gets as many points as his opponent is short of reaching 30.
• No quiero: refuses to take the last bet. Thus, the challenger player earns 1 point if there were no raisings, or the amount of points that were accepted (e.g. Envido-Real Envido-No quiero is 2 points worth).

For Real Envido, the answers are the same, excepting Envido (because it would "lower" the bet). For Falta Envido, the answers are also the same as in Envido, excepting Envido and Real Envido (that leaves only Quiero and No quiero).

Quiero and No quiero close the bet and after one of that, no other Envido bet can be opened. In the cases where the bet is ended with Quiero, a comparison of the pairs (puntos de envido = "score of envido") is performed to see which player has the highest and wins the bet. The puntos de envido are calculated according to these rules:

1. The score of a pair of the same suit is the sum of the values of the cards + 20, but considering that the King (12s), the Knights (11s) and Sotas (10s) are worth 0.
2. If the player has no suit pair, then his puntos de envido is the value of his highest card, with Kings, Knights and Sotas worth 0.
3. If playing without Flor, in case of having three cards of the same suit, the puntos de envido are those of the highest pair of the hand.
4. A player is obliged to report his score correctly, because that can be used later to deduce his cards. For example, if a player has already played a six of spades and he has 27 for envido, he is forced to report his correct score, even if doing that means he reveals his ace of spades to the rest of the players. If the winner reports his score wrong, the points at stake are assigned to the other team.

The puntos de envido are told from the mano to the dealer player anticlockwise. In case of a tie between the two players, the earliest has preference. Any player, in case of having a bad envido can surrender without revealing information of his cards to the other team/player by saying Son buenas ("They're good").

Flor

To have a Flor is to have three cards of the same suit in the hand. When playing with flor, any player having one must announce it or a penalty is risked. The player having the best Flor wins 3 points for each Flor announced. On the other hand, if a player has no Flor, that player cannot announce a Flor (on the contrary to Envido, where any player having or not the pair of the same suit can announce it).The call for Flor can only be made before playing the first card, by simply saying Flor. Then, any other player having flor must announce his own (the playing of cards is suspended, so players without flores should wait until the bet is over), going anticlockwise and by saying any of this possible answers:

• Flor: A simple announcement. If nothing more is said, the team having the best Flor scores 3 points for each Flor announced this way or by an accepted Contraflor .
• Con flor me achico: You announce you have Flor, but surrender on behalf of the team. The Flor bet is closed and the opponent team scores 3 points for their Flores and 1 for your surrender.
• Contraflor: You announce your Flor and challenge the opponent team to answer (see below).
• Contraflor al resto: You announce your Flor and propose to raise the bet to the amount of points the leading team needs to win the game plus 3 for each Flor.

After calling Contraflor, the challenged team must answer by one of these:

• Con flor quiero: the challenged team confirms that each Flor will be three points worth.
• Con flor me achico: The same as above, when answering a simple Flor.
• Contraflor al resto: See above.

After Contraflor al resto, the answers are:

• Con flor quiero: Accepts to raise the bet to the amount of points the leading team needs to win plus 3 per each Flor.
• Con flor me achico: See above.

After the bet has been closed by saying con flor quiero or con flor me achico, players announce the flores. The comparison between Flores is done similarly as in Envido: the values of the three cards are added up plus 20 (Aces to 7 are worth the face value and Sotas, Knights and Kings, 0). When two flores have the same suit, the one of that player playing earlier has precedence. At the end of the hand, the flores must be shown.