How to play
Truco is 2 against 2. Each hand is worth points; the first team to reach the target wins. The rest is nerve and a straight face.
The rules on this page are for Truco Paulista, the Brazilian truco, with the Mineiro variant alongside: the manilha comes from the turned card (the vira) or is fixed, and there is no envido or flor. Argentine truco, with envido, is also played here: it has its own game type when you create a table and its own rules page. Argentine truco rules
The basics
- A 40-card deck, no 8s, 9s or 10s. Ascending order: 4, 5, 6, 7, Q, J, K, A, 2, 3. Yes: the queen is lower than the jack, and the jack lower than the king.
- The manilha is the strongest card of the hand. Among manilhas the suit decides: diamonds < spades < hearts < clubs.
- Each hand has up to three rounds. Two rounds take the hand. Tie in the first, the second decides; tie in the second or in the third, the hand goes to whoever took the first round that wasn't tied. Tie all three and the hand is void.
- On your turn, before playing, you may call truco. The other side accepts, folds or raises. Whoever folds hands over the previous value.
- From the second round on you may play face-down: the card loses to everything, but nobody sees what it was.
- The fixed manilhas keep their Portuguese names: zap (4 of clubs), copas (7 of hearts), espadão (ace of spades) and pica-fumo (7 of diamonds).
Pato Paulista
Manilha by the vira: a card is turned and the manilhas are the ones of the next value. Bets 1, 3, 6, 9, 12. Game to 12.
At 11 points the pair sees each other's cards and decides: play (worth 3) or fold (the other side scores 1). Both at 11 is the iron hand: worth 1, everyone plays face-down.
Pato Mineiro
Fixed manilhas: zap, copas, espadão and pica-fumo. No vira. Bets 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12. Game to 12.
At 10 points comes the hand of 10: play (worth 4) or fold (the other side scores 2). Both at 10: worth 2, cards face-down.
Pato Simplificado
A 24-card deck: Q, J, K, A, 2, 3. Manilha by the vira. Bets 1, 3, 6. Game to 6. This is where you learn.
No final hand: the game ends when someone reaches 6.
How it works
These are the rules of the game. How the app works — creating a table, sending the link, who the Duck is — is on the next page over.