Truc
Truc is a trick-taking game played throughout Spain and southern France. It is played by four players in partnerships. Unlike most trick-taking games, Truc doesn’t require you to follow the suit of the card led. Hands of Truc can be very short, because they are only played out until a majority of the three tricks have been decided. A hand of Truc can also be abruptly stopped by one team rejecting a proposed raise by their opponents.
Truc is descended from Put, a game played in England as far back as 1674. Truc, in turn, was exported to South America, where it evolved into Truco.
Object of Truc
The object of Truc is to be the first partnership to score twelve points by taking at least two of the three tricks in each hand.
Setup
Truc is traditionally played with a Spanish 40-card deck. To make an equivalent deck out of a standard 52-card deck of Denexa 100% Plastic Playing Cards, remove the 8s, 9s, and 10s, leaving a deck of aces, face cards, and 7s through 2s in each of the four suits. You also need some way of keeping score, such as pencil and paper.
Determine partnerships by any method that is agreed upon, such as a random method like high-card draw or simply mutual agreement. Players sit opposite one another. Prior to the first hand, each partnership may retreat to a location where the other team will not overhear them and devise a system of signals to use throughout the game. These signals can communicate anything that the players desire, including the overall strength of their hand, the cards they hold, what they want their partner to play, and so on. Partners can also communicate verbally throughout the hand. Nothing’s off limits!
The dealer shuffles and offers the deck to the player to their left to cut. They may do so, or simply tap the pack, declining to cut. If the deck is cut, deal three cards to each player. If the cut was refused, the dealer has the option to deal only one card to each player (making for a much shorter hand).
Card ranking
Truc uses a special card ranking unique to the game. 3s, 2s, and aces are the highest-ranking cards in the game, and the rest of the cards rank in their usual order. Therefore, the full rank of cards is (high) 3, 2, A, K, Q, J, 7, 6, 5, 4 (low).
Game play
Game play starts with the player on the right of the dealer, and thereafter continues to the right. This player leads to the first trick. Each player in turn plays a card to the trick. A player may play any card to a trick; there is no requirement to follow suit. The person playing the highest card wins the trick. If two players on opposite teams tie for high card, the trick is a draw. The individual player that won the trick leads to the next one. If nobody won the trick, the player who led to that trick leads to the next one.
A hand only continues until the majority of tricks in it have been determined. If the first two tricks are won by the same partnership, there is no need to play the third one.
The partnership that wins the majority of the tricks wins the hand. If there is a tie, due to one or more tricks not being won by either player, the dealer’s opponents win the hand. Whichever team wins the hand scores one point. The deal passes to the right, with any unplayed cards shuffled into the deck unexposed.
Raising the stakes
At any time during their turn, either before or after playing a card, a player may raise the stakes for the hand to two points by calling “truc”. The next player in turn may either accept the raise by playing a card (or making a verbal declaration of “accept”, “OK”, or the like) or reject it by placing their cards face down on the table (or saying “No” or similar).
Once a truc has been accepted, it may be re-raised by calling “retruc”, proposing a raise to three points. As before, the next player to their right then has the option to accept or reject the retruc. Only an opponent of the first raiser may re-raise. A retruc may be called either on the same trick as the original truc, or a later trick.
If a raise is accepted, the winners of the hand score the amount of points agreed to as a result of the raise. If a raise is rejected, play of the hand stops immediately. The partnership that proposed the most recent raise scores whatever the last agreed-upon amount for the hand was.
A score of eleven
Because a partnership with a score of eleven is only one point away from winning the game, special rules apply when either partnership has scored eleven points. A full three-card hand must be dealt; a player cannot give the dealer the option to deal only one card. If only one partnership has a score of eleven, that partnership looks at their cards and decides whether or not to play. If they do, the hand is played for three points. In the event that both partnerships are tied at eleven, the hand is played as usual, with the winner of the hand winning the entire game.
The first partnership to score twelve or more points is the winner.
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