Rules of Cuatrola: how to play

A partnership game from south-east Spain played with only the twenty scoring cards. Five cards per player, forced play from the very first trick, and the chance to call Solo or Cuatrola.

Played with the forty-card Spanish deck, but only the twenty cards that score: the as (ace), tres (three), rey (king), caballo (knight) and sota (jack) of oros (coins), copas (cups), espadas (swords) and bastos (clubs). The rest (twos, fours, fives, sixes and sevens) are set aside before dealing and never appear.

Within a suit the ranking from strongest to weakest is as, tres, rey, caballo, sota. It matches the point order, so the top card is also the most valuable one: no surprises like the seven in Escoba or the nine in other games.

Values are: as eleven points, tres ten, rey four, caballo three, sota two. All twenty cards together add up to a hundred and twenty points, and with the ten points for winning the last trick (always on the table), each hand distributes a hundred and thirty points in total. If someone cantes (announces a scoring combination), the total rises with the twenty or forty of each cante, though not every hand has one.

Four players in two facing partnerships: your partner sits opposite you and the opponents sit either side. Talking about the game is allowed, but never about the cards in your hand.

The dealer gives five cards to each player, one at a time or in twos and threes according to custom. The last card is for the dealer, who shows it to the table: that is the trump suit, and everyone knows from the start that the dealer holds that exact card.

The mano (the player who leads) sits to the dealer's right. They speak first and lead first. Turns run clockwise, as in almost every Spanish card game, and the dealer's position rotates the same way.

Before the first card is played, each player may pass, announce Solo (play the hand without their partner's help, who sits out) or Cuatrola. If no one announces anything, the hand is played normally. You may only raise the bid, never lower it: pass, Solo, Cuatrola and, in the quintola variant, Quintola.

There are two ways to play the big bid. Without quintola, Cuatrola requires winning all five tricks and is worth four. With quintola, Cuatrola requires four of the five tricks and is still worth four, while Quintola requires all five and is worth five. On the site you choose the variant in the options window, along with the length of the match.

Each trick goes to the highest card of the suit led, unless someone has trumped: then the highest trump wins. Cards won are set face down and counted at the end of the hand.

The partnership adds up the points of the cards it captured, plus twenty for each cante of rey and caballo of the same suit, forty if that suit is trumps, plus ten for winning the last trick.

Only one cante can be announced per trick won, and the cante belongs to the partnership: if both partners hold a cante, only one is announced and the other waits until the partnership wins another trick. When there is more than one, the forty is announced before the twenty.

The partnership with more points scores one point on the scoreboard. If Solo was called, the hand is worth two; with Cuatrola it is worth four and with Quintola five. When the side that made the announcement fails to fulfil it, those points go to the opposing partnership instead.

The match ends when a partnership reaches the agreed number of points, usually three or five. On the site you play the number of hands fixed for the table: eleven in a quick match, and eleven or twenty against house players or in a custom table.