Truco: A Game of Wits

Spanish cards!

As a self-described card and board game enjoyer, I was pleasantly surprised to learn that I not only hadn't heard of a card game that has elements from Spades and Poker, but also is played with a version of cards I never knew existed. My in-laws did their best to teach me the game and I enjoyed every minute, despite taking longer than I'd like to admit to catch on to the rules.

Truco is an Argentinian bluffing/strategy/rummy style card game played with a Spanish Deck of cards. When I was initially shown the card values, I actually thought, "There's no way I can learn all this," and "Why are half the 1's the most valuable cards and the other half worth less than all other 2s and 3s?"

Let me explain, a Spanish card deck has four suits, just like the card deck you're used to. Unlike what you're used to, the suits are basto (clubs), espada (swords), oro (golds), and copa (cups). Each suit has ten cards of numerical value from one to twelve. In Truco, each player is dealt three cards per round, and the game is played until one team reaches a point threshold like fifteen. Each round plays up to three hands, one for each card dealt per player. Teams score points in several ways. The first way is by winning the third hand of a round which awards one point. Alternatively, a player can use one of several verbal challenges to the opposing team. I'll admit I don't fully understand every nuance of these commands exactly but I will outline what I know and we can all ask Chat GPT later to fill in the gaps.

Envido - This two point challenge can be issued when a player has two cards of the same suit in hand or played in a round. If the opposing team also has a player with two cards of the same suit and they like their combined value (the number on the card plus 20 with 10+ counting as 0), they will say, "quiero" and accept the envido. If there is no envido had, they would reply, "no quiero." If they really like their cards, they can up the ante by replying, "real envido" which raises the stakes from two points to three. A key component is the actual verbalization of "quiero" because you can say things like, "si, cuantos tenes?" (yes, how many do you have?), without actually accepting the envido. A new player like myself got caught out several times by the veterans I was playing with who would bloviate without confirming or denying the challenge. Once the pot is right, if you will, the card values are revealed and whoever has the higher total is awarded points at the end of the round. A key strategic component is the ability to infer what cards your opponent has by what their envido value is revealed to be. For example, if I said my envido was 27 and I reveal a five from my hand, an opponent could guess that my other card might be a two of the same suit. Again, the game has many complexities but this overview should hopefully give you an idea of how it plays.

Flor - Similar to envido but with three cards sharing a suit instead of two. The commands are different but we didn't encounter this while I played so I'm less familiar.

Truco - A much more straightforward challenge, truco raises the value of winning the round from one point to two. Similarly to envido, once a player calls truco, the opponent can reply by raising the stakes or backing down. To raise the points to three, one would say, "Retruco." A final raise can take place called, "quiero vale cuatro" which increases the value to four which is the maximum if a player is really feeling their hand or, as often happens, bluffing.

The cards and suits themselves also have a specific tier of value which takes some getting used to but once you play a few rounds you start to get the hang of it. I also made use of a little chart to try and help keep things straight (even though I still forgot multiple times to my team's detriment). I'm also told there are designated facial tells you can use to communicate to your teammate like a wink or purse of the lips but I haven't reached that level of expertise yet.

All this to say, I had an absolute blast learning a new game and hope to one day play with anyone who is willing. If you got all the way to the bottom, thank you so much for reading and I look forward to writing about a new adventure next week!

God bless,

Jensen