Game rules Truco Mineiro

Descriptions

The game has 4 players, forming duos, sitting in alternate positions.

• Players - 4.
• Deck of Cards - a traditional (or spanish) pack, without Jokers, 8's, 9's or 10's.
• Distribution - 3 cards each participant.
• Objective - score 12 points.

Definitions

• Trumps - Fixed cards that are the highest in the game, like a "trump". From the strongest to the weakest: 4 of Clubs, 7 of Hearts, Ace of Spades and 7 of Diamonds.
• Round - A sequence of 4 plays, where each player plays a card.
• Hand - Composed by 2 or 3 rounds, and initially are worth 2 points.
• Truco - Kind of a bet, where the hand value of points raises to 4
• Six - A bet to raise the Truco to 6 points.
• Ten - A bet to raise from 6 points to 10 points.
• Twelve - A bet to raise from 10 points to 12 point
• 10's Hand - When one of the teams reach 10 points.
• Iron Hand - When both teams reach 10 points.
• Covered Card - Card that is flipped (with the face down), and it's worth nothing. Like the player is giving up disputing the hand.
• Cards Order (from lowest to highest): 4, 5, 6, 7, Q, J, K, A, 2, 3, trump cards [manilhas].

The Game

After cards distribution, a new hand starts, worth 2 points. The "hands" happens in sequence, until a team reaches 12 points. The 10's Hand is worth 4 points. At Iron Hand, the game is played the same way except that they can't see the cards, leaving them face down the table.

The Hand

The hand can have 3 rounds. The player who plays the highest card wins the roud, and the duo that wins 2 rounds wins the hand. In case a round ends in a tie, the team that already won the previous round or wins any round after the tie wins the hand. When a duo wins the frist round and the other duo wins the second and there is a tie at the last round, the team that won the first round wins the hand. If all rounds end in a tie, no one scores and a new hand is played.

Truco

At their own turn and before playing, each player can call for Truco. In doing so, he asks the adversaries if they accept, they run or they raise the Truco to Six. If they accept, the hand changes to a 4 points win and keep going on. If they run, the duo that asked for Truco wins the hand and scores 2 points. But if they ask for Six, the previous team need to decide if they accept the raise, run or even re-raise asking for Ten and so on. The bet can only be raised in the following order: 4, 6, 10 and 12. For example, he can't ask for Ten if the hand is worth 4 points or ask for Six if it's worth only 2. A team can't ask for Truco twice in a row. When a duo runs, the other wins the hand and gets all the points in play. Example: the hand is worth 6 and a duo asks for 10. If the adversaries run, the ones who asked for Ten will get 6 points (the actual hand value). At the 10's Hand the players can't ask for Truco. If they do so, they automatically loose the game.