Rules of Guiñote: how to play

The traditional Guiñote with a Spanish deck: six cards per player, the turned-up card under the stock, calls of twenty and forty, the seven swap, and forced play once the stock runs out. Played in pairs or one-on-one, to 101 points or 51 clean.

Forty-card Spanish deck. Ranking within a suit: as, tres, rey, sota, caballo, seven, six, five, four, two. Values: as eleven, tres ten, rey four, sota three, caballo two; the rest score nothing.

There are a hundred and twenty points in the cards, ten for the last trick, and the twenty and forty cantes. The difference from other games lies not only in the values but in how the cards reach your hand and when compulsory following starts.

Played in partnerships (four players) or head to head (two). Each player gets six cards and the rest of the deck stays in the middle, with the trump card underneath, face up.

The usual deal is two rounds of three cards. The player to the dealer's right, the mano, leads, and the turn then continues around the table.

First phase: no compulsory following. Any card may be played, and after each trick everyone draws a card from the stock, starting with whoever won it. This is when cantes are prepared and strength is hidden.

Once the stock runs out, the second phase is played with compulsory following: follow suit, beat the trick if you can, and trump if you have no cards of that suit (and overtrump if someone has already trumped); only when you hold no useful trump can you play freely. The sota beats the caballo. The last six tricks are played entirely from memory.

The siete of trumps can be swapped for the trump card lying in the stock once your side has won a trick and the muestra is still visible. If the muestra itself is the siete, the swap is made with the dos of the same suit.

Each trick goes to the highest card of the suit led, or to the highest trump if someone has trumped. Cantes are announced after winning a trick: twenty for rey and sota of the same suit, forty if that suit is trumps. Only one cante is allowed per trick won.

At the end, captured cards, cantes and the ten for the last trick are added up. The partnership that reaches a hundred and one scores a point; this is also called making 51 buenas, since it beats the 50 malas. If no one gets there, another hand is played and the points carry over, which is called ir de vueltas (going round again).

The thirty malas rule: on the first hand of the point, reaching 101 is not enough on its own; you also need at least 30 points from cards and the ten for the last trick, not counting cantes. Without that, you go de vueltas. Tute: whoever holds all four reyes or all four sotas announces it after their side wins a trick and takes the point on the spot. If no one reaches 101, it goes de vueltas: points carry over and the point is awarded the instant a side reaches 101, without finishing the hand. If both sides reach or pass 101 in the same hand, whoever won the last trick wins the point.

On Lascuarenta.es (The Forty), the first side to reach 3 points — that is, to reach 101 points three times — completes the coto and wins the match outright.