How to play Pocha (a prediction-based trick-taking game): rules, scoring and strategy

Pocha is a trick-taking game for three to six people, played with a 40-card pack, that rewards accurate predictions. Before each hand, players must predict exactly how many tricks they’ll win, gaining points if they get it right and losing them if they win more or fewer than they bid.

What makes it fun

Most trick-taking games reward you for winning plenty of tricks. Not Pocha. Here, what matters is knowing what your hand is worth. You can win the game without taking a single trick, as long as you said ‘zero’ at the start. That’s what makes it so compelling: every card takes some thought.

How to deal

The number of cards goes up and then down as the game progresses. In the first hand, everyone gets one card; in the second, two; and so on until the whole pack is dealt. Then the number goes back down, one card at a time. The next card after the deal is turned face up to determine the trump suit.

How to play each hand

• Taking turns, each player says aloud how many tricks they think they’ll win.
• You must follow suit and, if you can, beat the highest card played. If you have no cards of the suit led, you must play a trump.
• At the end, check who got their prediction right and record the points.

A few tips

The ases (aces) and treses (threes) of trumps almost always win tricks, so count on them. Low cards in a non-trump suit, on the other hand, rarely achieve much. And pay close attention to everyone else’s bids: if the total number of tricks predicted is higher than the number available, someone is bound to miss their target, and you can help make sure it’s the player in the lead.

The rules vary a little from household to household (some don’t allow the total number of tricks bid to equal the number available), so it’s worth agreeing on them before you start. If you enjoy trick-taking games, take a look at Tute (a Spanish trick-taking game) and Guiñote (another Spanish trick-taking game), too.