Card Game 101 #18: Argentine truco!

Truco is often talked about as a difficult social game for beginners and antisocial people.

The game is popular in Argentina, Uruguay, Venezuela, Paraguay, Murcia, Canary Islands, Illes Balears, and Andalusia; all with different regional variations in the rules.

Buuuuuuuut, we'll explain the Argentina rules and the signs here :D

✔ A 50-card Spanish deck. Take jokers, eights and nines out: we won't be using them.

✔ Somewhere to write the points down: paper and pen, matches, or apps.

✔ 2, 4 or 6 players.

In each hand (or mano) players get three cards, and when it is your turn you play any card you want to.

This is the ideal player arrangement. When playing with 4 or 6 players, teams are set up like this:

Before starting, decide if y’all will play with ‘flor’. If the players cannot decide if play with flor or not, draw any card from the deck: if it’s an even number, the game includes flor; if it’s odd, it doesn’t. (I'll explain in a moment what flor implies)

This is the hierarchy of the cards, which is separate from the points value of each card:

Ace of Swords - Best card of all the game

Ace of Clubs/Batons

Seven of Swords

Seven of Gold/Coins

All the Threes - same rank

All the Twos

Ace of Gold and of Cups

All the Kings

All the Knights

All the Jacks  - The following cards are really bad 

Seven of Clubs and of cups

All the Sixes

All the fives

All the fours - Worst of the worst!

The points each card is worth correspond to its face value, except on Kings, Knights, and Jacks, which all are worth 0.

The score a team or a person needs to achieve in order to win is either 15 or 30. Choose one of them in agreement with everybody else: 15 for fast plays and 30 for long games.

If a team reaches the score decided beforehand, they win!

Mano - Hand

(La) primera - (The) first trick

(La) segunda - (The) second trick

(La) tercera / última - (The) final / last trick

Tantos - Envido Points

Negras - Jacks, Knights and Kings

The game goes counterclockwise, starting with the player at the right hand of the dealer. That first player will have to deal on the next mano, and so on.

Since all players have three cards, in each trick all the players play one card in each round.

For winning a trick, the card you or your allies played has to have a higher hierarchy than the rivals' ones.

And for winning each mano, you or your team must win at least two tricks. If a team has won the first two tricks, la Última won't be played.

Whoever wins the mano will win a point :)

But, what if there's a draw?

"Parda" is called the situation of a draw in a trick, and this is how to break the draw:

+If there's Parda on the first trick,

+If there's Parda on the second trick,

+If there's Parda on the third trick,

If e.g. Fuse has really bad cards, like 4-4-4 (😭); he can fold the mano saying 'me voy al mazo'.

If an entire team folds, the opposing team gets one point added to their score.

There are three main 'events' that happen in each mano that have variations and must be remembered: envido, truco and flor.

You can only call Envido in the first trick of each mano and in your turn.

Envido rules are "easy", it someone (like you) calls Envido or its variants, the players of the other team must decide on behalf on the team whether to accept or reject Envido. The important detail is that only one player needs to accept for the entire team to accept, so you need to talk this well.

The word for calling an Envido is just 'Envido'. The words for accepting an Envido are 'Quiero' (I'm in). If those exact words aren’t used, the Envido call may be considered invalid later. The exact words for rejecting it are 'No quiero'. If you call, accept or reject accidentally - regardless of your intentions - the action counts as if you did on purpose.

You don't show the cards in Envido. There is an exception that I'll explain later

There are three variants of Envido:

•Envido: If the rivals accept Envido, whoever wins the envido gets 2 points. Otherwise, the one who calls for the Envido gets 1.

•Real Envido: Similar to normal Envido, but 3 points to the winner of Envido.

•Falta Envido: This is tough! If the team who wins Falta Envido is in Malas they automatically get to Buenas (e.g. from 3 points to 16). If the winners are in Buenas, they automatically win the entire game!

The Envido is won according to the amount of points your cards have. Here's how to calculate that:

•If you have two cards of the same suit, e.g. 5 and 3, you sum both of the values and add 20; so 5+3+20 gives 28.

•If your cards are from different suits, you should (optional) count the highest card (of a 3, a 6 and a 7, you should say you have 7).

The amount of points in Envido are called 'Tantos'

EXCEPTION: The jacks, knights and kings have no numerical value on Envido, so if you have 11 and an 7, you only have 27, not 38... The Jacks, Knights and Kings are known as 'negras' (blacks)

Good things to remember: The highest amount of points is 33, and the lowest is 'Nothing'. Not zero, 'Nothing'.

Envido is not only a psycology game, but also an social-skill one. Why? Since you can answer Envido!

You can answer different: Real Envido, Envido (yes, you can reply Envido with Envido) and Falta Envido. Envido Envido gives more points than Real Envido tho.

Also, you can re-answer, and be answered back! But, you say Real Envido if it has already been said, nor respond Falta Envido, nor say Envido after Envido Envido.

Also, you could answer Flor, annulling the points already bet (I'll really get onto what Flor is)

Note: Whether to answer Envido or not, to reject the re-gamble, to accept the answer, or to re-answer applies with the same rules that apply when calling Envido for the first time.

(Those points are added to the score of the corresponding team)

For winning the Envido, you must have the most amount of points:

The player who called Envido first says their points, then the players who accepted the Envido MAY do the next part:

•they will say 'Son buenas' (they're great) if they have worse tantos

•or will say their score if having a higher one.

•or they'll answer raising the bet.

So, the team which reports the highest points will win the Envido, and therefore add the points specified in the table of above to their score :D

Well, let's talk now about flor! You can only call Flor before playing your first card, and is worth three points when called. You can report to have Flor in the middle of Envido (if you haven't played yet), but the points of Flor count separate from the Envido ones. You can only call Flor in your turn.

Flor happens when all of your cards are of the same suit; then, you could either call Flor or Envido; but you cannot play Envido after somebody says Flor. Sooooo, you might risk the three points from Flor trying to get something like e.g. Envido, Envido, Real Envido, Falta Envido.

OPTIONAL RULE: Pido Flor is a rule that establishes that flor must be announced when somebody has it. If someone suspects of one of their rivals of having an unannounced flor after the second match, the person who suspects can say 'pido flor'; and if their rival did have Flor, the opposing team gets three points!

As well as in Envido, cards aren't shown. Flor cannot be rejected, but can be answered! Reflor is said when somebody reports to have another Flor, and wants to bet that the points of their Flor are more than that of yours! Reflor points are 6, and if you have a bad Flor and don't want to risk the other team to have a higher Flor you can reject Reflor; but they would get 3 points.

BUUUUUUT, if a third person also reports to have Flor, they can answer to the Reflor 'Contra Flor al Resto'; and whoever wins Contra Flor al Resto wins the entire game!!!

NOTE: The highest Flor posible is 38, and the lowest one is also 'Nothing' (The knight, jack and king of the same suit)

Luckily, Truco won't be so hard to understand.

In Primera, Envido is usually played. And in Segunda and in Tercera, truco is called.

Truco raises the points for winning the Mano for 1 to 2! Your rivals can either accept Truco saying 'Quiero', or to reject it saying 'No quiero'; the latter one will give you an point and end the mano there :)

Truco can be called even when it's not your or your allies' turn.

Furthermore, you can.... OBVIOUSLY ANSWER TRUCO OMG MWHHAHHAHAHAHA

Retruco may be only called for answering a wanted truco, and gets you 3 points if you win! If you reject it, the rivals get 2 points. And... you can answer a wanted retruco! Vale Cuatro gives the winner 4 points, and if you reject Vale Cuatro they'll get 3.

You could call Truco before Envido, but nobody does that. Also, anyone could answer you 'Envido', which will nullify your call of Truco. That 'Envido' will count as a normal call for Envido. In this case, you or anyone else are able to normally call truco after Envido finalizes.

When somebody says the phrase 'Quiero verlas en mesa' o 'Quiero ver las cartas en mesa', you must show all your cards at the end of the mano; if the person who had to show their cards forgets or refuses to show them, all the points won in the mano go to the opposing team.

But, why does this rule exist? Well, if Dekkie reported to have Flor but lied, all her points of Flor will go to the other team! As well, if Bread won Real Envido but had 21 instead of the reported 33, all the points of Envido would go to the other team :)

'Quiero verlas en mesa' can only be sung by those who accepted Flor or Envido.

THAT'S RIGHT FOLKS, YOU CAN LIE ABOUT YOUR TANTOS.

How do you tell your teammates which cards do you have? You must do signs for that, and try that the other team doesn't realise ;)

That's it! Hopefully you understood :)

I wanted to do this blog since I like the blog series made by akjlddkjslfsd, who I think is one of the best bloggers of the RUB. Thanks for reading!