Truco

Origin

Description

Objective

How the game goes on

Start of the game and each of the hands

Truco

Envido

Flor (flower)

Differences with truc

play by yourself

play by yourself

Origin

Truco is an Spanish cards game, very popular in some countries of South America, like Argentina and Uruguay. There are some variants of the game; Ludoteka offers the Argentinian truco.

Truco is also played in some zones of Spain; the origin of the game is probable the Truc, a similar game played in Valencia.

Description

This is a Spanish card game.

The Spanish pack has 40 or 48 cards distributed in four suits: oros (golden coins), copas (glasses), espadas (swords) and bastos (sticks); the picture cards are sota (jack,10), caballo (horse,11), and rey (king,12). Most games are played with the 40 cards pack (pictures and cards from ace to seven), but some of them need also eights and nines.

If you already know about the truc, just learn quickly looking at the differences between truc and argentinian truco.

Two, four, six or eight players may take part in the game, always divided in two teams; there is also another variant for three palyers. The more usual is to play between four players, divided in two pairs who are placed alternatively. The following explanations are made in the supposition that 4 players are taking part.

Ludoteka offers the option to play individually (2 players) and by pairs (4 players).

Objective

The main goal of the game is to get the agreed number of partial games, called chicos (usually two).

Ludoteka offers the option to play until 1 or 2 chicos.

Every chico consist of 30 points, that must be added during several hands.

How the game goes on

Start of the game and each of the hands

Three cards are dealed in every hand.

Truco and envido are two different lances (bet headings) played during every hand.

Truco

The truco entails in winning tricks. Three tricks are played, and the winner in each of them is the player who throws the highest card, according to the folowing hierarchy:

Ace of Espadas (Swords)
Ace of Bastos (Sticks)
Seven of Espadas
Seven of Oros (Golds)
Threes
Twoes
False Aces (Copas and Oros)
Kings
Caballos (Knights)
Sotas
False Sevens (Copas and Bastos)
Sixes
Fives
Fours

The truco is won by the pair who gets two of the three tricks.

If nobody wins the trick because two opponents throw the same highest card according to the hierarchy, the trick is called parda (draw).

If both pairs win one trick and the other is a draw, the winner is the pair who has got the trick before the opponent. If the three tricks are even, the winner is the leader in the dealing.

In many cases there is no need to play the third trick because it is already decided (when one of the pairs gets the two first tricks, or just one trick and one draw).

The player who gets the trick starts the next one.

The pair who wins the truco scores one point.

Any player may chant truco during his turn, before throwing the card. This is a bet to score two points instead of one. If the opponents don´t agree, it worths one point and the dealing is ended.

The pair who received the truco may chant retruco at the moment, or later during the turn. If the opponents agree, three points wil be scored by the winner. If don´t, the dealing is closed with two points.

Finally, the pair who chanted truco could chant vale 4 (it´s worth 4 points). If the opponents don´t agree, they score 3 points.

The two players version of the game gives the chance to say me voy al mazo instead of playing a card; it means that the player assumes that the opponent will be the winner of the truco, and it is not worth to continue playing the hand.

Envido

Optionally anu player may chant envido in his first turn during the dealing, before playing any card or talking about the truco. Once the betting on envido is open, the truco remains interrupted until the envido es completely decided.

The winner of the envido is the player who has the highest score according to the following rules:

If two of the three cards are of the same suit, the score is twenty and the sum of the indexes of both cards; If the three cards are of the same suit, the lowest of them is not taken into account.
If the three cards are of different suits, the score is only the highest index of the three cards.
The value of the figures is always zero.

The winner of the envido scores two points.

The bet may be real envido instead of envido. If so, the bet is worth 3 points.

There is a third kind of envido: the falta envido; in this case it is worth the amount of points that the pair who is ahead needs to reach the 30 points necessary to win the chico.

If there is a draw, the winner is the leader.

The envido may be answerd with another envido, until two sucessive replies. The falta envido can´t be responded.

If the bet is accepted the players tell their scores inmediately; it is note necessary to show the cards, that will be played in the truco. If it is not accepted, the pair who thows the bet scores one point, or the sum of previous bets.

Flor (flower)

The player who has three cards of the same suit must chant flor during his first turno, and scores three points.

If someone chants flor there is no option to bet on envido; if there was already any bet opened, it is cancelled.

If any opponent has another flor (it is not frequent), there are three possible responses:

Con flor me achico: consider that the own flor is not good, giving 4 points to the opponent.
Contra flor: if the opponent agrees, the best flor will score six points.
Contra flor al resto: if the opponet agrees, the best flor wins the whole chico. If it is not accepted, 4 points are scored.

The value of the flor is obtained adding the indexes of the three cards; figures value zero.

Some players prefer to play without flor; if so, three cards of the same suit serve simply to get more chances of having a good combination for the envido.

In Ludoteka the use of the flor is optional.

Differences with truc

If you know how to play truc, just read the differences between both games:

Cards: the whole pack of 40 cards is used.
Optionally the flor may be played: it replaces the envido whenever any of the players has the 3 cards of the same suit..
The winner of the envido is checked inmediately when closing the bet, before playing the truco.
The option to bet 3 points in the envido (real envido).
The cama is named chico, and it is played until 30 points.
There is no option to play the whole chico in the truco (not Joc Fora).

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