Escudo de Lascuarenta.es con los cuatro palos de la baraja españolaLascuarenta.es (The Forty)

Learn to play

Chinchón tutorial: practise play by play

Chinchón tutorial

Chinchón isn't played in tricks, but by combining your hand. Here are the keys to drawing, discarding and closing; then practise a game against the bot.

See Chinchón tablesFull rulesArticle about Chinchón

Key points

The essentials del Chinchón

Sets and runs

A set is three or four cards of the same value; a run is three or more consecutive cards of the same suit. The wild card can stand in for whatever card you're missing.

Drawing and discarding

On your turn, draw from the stock or the top of the discard pile and drop another. Watch what you discard: the player to your left may put it to good use.

Closing and scoring

You close when your hand is fully combined with no loose cards left. The rest score whatever's left over: face cards ten, the wild card twenty-five and the rest their number. Whoever passes the agreed limit is eliminated.

The chinchón

Combining your whole hand into a single run of the same suit is a chinchón: depending on the variant you choose before sitting down, it wins the game outright or subtracts forty points.

Questions

Questions about this tutorial

Origins

History of the deck

Origin of the deck

The 40-card Spanish deck arrived on the peninsula in the 14th century and established its four suits —coins, cups, swords, and clubs— as symbols of medieval social classes.

The Tute

Heir to the Central European Marriage, Tute popularized the 20 and 40 declarations and became the quintessential table and tavern game.

La Cuatrola

A pairs variant from the southeast of the Iberian Peninsula. It is played only with the 20 scoring cards (aces, 3s, kings, knights, and jacks): all are dealt, 5 per player, and the trump card is one of the dealer's cards, which they show to the table. Whoever dares to 'sing Cuatrola' commits to winning all five tricks alone.

Sota de Oros de una baraja de Lascuarenta.esSota de Copas de una baraja de Lascuarenta.es
Sota de Espadas de una baraja de Lascuarenta.esSota de Bastos de una baraja de Lascuarenta.es
The sotas (jacks) of the four suits in the Baraja Antigua, in the style of early 20th-century decks.

Full rules

Rules of every game, in writing

Check the deck and its values, the deal, how a round unfolds, scoring, strategy, common mistakes, regional variants and table vocabulary.

Rules of CuatrolaPartnerships, forcing suit and five tricks that countRules of TuteForty cards, calls made out loudRules of GuiñoteCalling the forty, swapping the seven, forced playRules of ChinchónSets, runs and the art of discardingRules of BriscaThree cards, the trump card and constant drawingRules of MentirosoBluffs, face-down cards and accusationsRules of MusPartnerships, signals and going all inRules of PumbaSnap twos, jacks as wildcards, fast discardingRules of La EscobaAdding up to fifteen and sweeping the tableRules of SolitarioYou against the deal: Klondike, Spider and Pyramid