How to play Argentine truco
Two teams of two, a Spanish deck, and two bets running at once: the truco, decided by the cards, and the envido, decided by the points in your hand.
This page is about Argentine truco. The rules for Truco Paulista (Brazilian), with manilhas and the hand of 11, are on the other page. Truco Paulista rules
The basics
- A 40-card Spanish deck: 1 to 7, 10 (jack), 11 (knight) and 12 (king), in swords, clubs, coins and cups. No 8s, no 9s, no jokers. There is no turned card and no changing manilha.
- From strongest to weakest: 1 of swords, 1 of clubs, 7 of swords, 7 of coins, the 3s, the 2s, 1 of cups and 1 of coins, the 12s, the 11s, the 10s, 7 of cups and 7 of clubs, the 6s, the 5s and the 4s. Cards on the same step tie (parda).
- Each hand has up to three tricks and whoever takes two wins it. If the first trick ties, the second decides; if a later trick ties, whoever won the first takes the hand. If all three tie, the team of the hand (the first player) wins.
- Truco is worth 2, retruco 3 and vale cuatro 4. Declining gives away the previous value: 1, 2 or 3. Only the team that accepted the last bet can raise.
- Game to 30 points: the first 15 are the malas, the next 15 the buenas. When you create the table you can choose a game to 15.
The envido
- Envido is worth 2, real envido 3 and falta envido whatever is needed to win. You can raise, in this order: envido, envido again, real envido, falta envido. Accepted, everything adds up; declined, the last caller takes what had already been accepted (1, if nothing had been accepted).
- Envido can only be called in the first trick, before you play your card, and never after the truco has been accepted.
- Points: two cards of the same suit are worth 20 plus their sum. The 10, 11 and 12 count zero; the 1 counts 1. With three of the same suit, the best two count. Without two of a suit, your highest single card counts. The maximum is 33.
- Examples: 7 and 12 of swords with a 3 of coins make 27. 7, 6 and 5 of cups make 33. 7 of swords, 5 of coins and 12 of cups make 7. Tied points: the player who is hand wins.
- Envido comes first (el envido está primero): if truco is called on you in the first trick, you can call envido before answering. The envido is settled first, then the truco.
- Falta envido: with both teams in the malas, the winner takes the whole game. If someone is already in the buenas, it is worth what the leading team needs to reach 30.
- Flor (three of the same suit, worth 3) is a house rule at some tables. Here it is switched off: three of a suit count only as envido.
Rules checked against Spanish Wikipedia (Truco argentino) and pagat.com.