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Tresillo

Tresillo is one of the great Spanish games, considered a development of the “El Hombre” game. The main feature of this game compared to others, lies in its individualism.

Tresillo deck

Aim of the game

If you are the Player, to win at least five tricks over several partial games, or, if you are the Opponent (Defender), to prevent the Player from achieving this and win the points at play.

Deck of cards

A 40 card Spanish deck is used It is customary to use two decks with different backs, starting the game off with one deck and then changing it when a player requests so before the deal.

Number of players

A game of Tresillo is usually played by four players, although only three receive cards and play in each partial game. The fourth player limits themself to dealing the cards, but also wins and pays like the others. This fourth player is called the “Mayor” or “Zángano”.

Order and value of the cards

The order of the cards depends on whether or not they are the trump suit. The order of the cards when they are the trump suit:

  • For coins and cups: ace of swords (espada), mala, ace of clubs (basto), ace of the suit (punto), king, knight, jack, deuce, three, four, five and six.
  • For swords and clubs: ace of swords (espada), mala, ace of clubs (basto), king, knight, jack, seven, six, five, four and three.

The order of the cards when they are not the trump suit:

  • For coins and cups: king, knight, jack, ace, deuce, three, four, five, six and seven.
  • For swords and clubs: king, knight, jack, seven, six, five, four, three and deuce.
Tresillo card value

In each hand, one of the card suits is chosen as a trump suit. A custom that has become popular nowadays is to play with a favourite or preferential Suit. The most common way of playing is to choose one suit for all the hands, generally, a short suit (swords or clubs). When bidding, the preferential suit takes preference and has a higher score.

Regardless the trump suit chosen, there are two cards that are always considered trumps: the ace of spades, called the Espada, and the ace of clubs, called the Basto. The “Mala” depends on the suit chosen as trump. If it is coins or cups, the Mala is the seven of the chosen suit, and if it is swords or clubs then it is the deuce of the chosen suit. The aces of cups or coins are called “Puntos” and are the fourth highest card when either of these suits are chosen as trump.

The cards themselves have no value in points, as it is only the number of tricks won that matters.

Dealing the cards

In each hand, the turn to deal corresponds to one of the players, giving out nine cards to each player, three at a time. If there are only three players, the player that precedes the “Hand” (lead player) deals out the cards, including to themself. The rest of the game is played as if there were four players playing. A pot is placed next to the dealer, into which all of the players’ chip are put.

Four cards are drawn, one of each suit, and placed face down on the table. Each player turns over one card. The player who gets the coin card chooses where to sit, the one with cups sits to their right, swords to this player’s right, the fourth place is taken by the player who gets the club card. The player who gets the coin card becomes the dealer, the player on their right is the “hand”, the one to their right is the middle-hand, and the fourth player is the rear-hand. The players take turns in these four positions in rotating order. In all stages of the game the direction of play is anti-clockwise.

BIDDING

Bids in Tresillo, from lowest to highest are:

  • Normal Play. With no preferential suit. The player chooses the trump suit, discards the number of cards that they consider necessary and replaces them with the same number of cards from the top of the stock deck.
  • Play with preferential suit. As with Normal Play but here the trump suit is the preferential suit.
  • Vuelta. The player turns over the top card of the stock deck to reveal the trump suit and then takes it. Next, they discard whichever cards they do not need it and take the same number minus one from the stock deck to have nine cards in their hand. The Vuelta can be Solo, if the player only discards one card. In this case, the bid is considered a solo when scoring. Whether or not this bid is admitted must have been previously agreed.
  • Normal Solo. With no preferential suit. The player chooses the trump suit and plays with the cards they hold in their hand, without discarding.
  • Solo with preferential suit. As with Normal Solo but declaring the preferential suit as the trump suit.
BOLA

A player makes Bola when they win all nine tricks in the game. Bola may precede any of the bids. After a player has won the first five tricks, they must decide whether or not to try for Bola. If they do not, then the game ends at that point, however, if they do try then the sixth trick is played, and up to all nine or until one of the Defenders wins a trick. In the latter case, the player loses Bola

AUCTION

After receiving and looking at the cards, the players, starting with the hand, make the offers to determine who will be the Player, i.e. which of the three will attempt to win five tricks or more, and which suit will be trumps. The players can only use three expressions:

  • Pass. The player does not want play, due to poor cards or not being able to outbid another player. If, in the first turn, all the players pass then that hand is cancelled, the cards collected and a new hand dealt.
  • Play. The player considers their hand good enough for Normal Play. This expression can only be used in the first round of the auction, in subsequent rounds players can only say “Pass” or “More”.
  • More. The player can make a higher bid than the one offered by the previous player, unless they are the “hand”, who is then limited to matching the previous offers made by the middle-hand or the rear-hand. The players can continue to bid higher right up to the highest bid, Solo with preferential suit.
Tresillo card value
ESTUCHES

The three highest trump cards, Espada, Mala and Basto are called Estuches. These cards have special characteristics:

  • La espada (ace of swords) A player is never forced to play this, even if an Opponent plays a trump card and the player has no other trump card.
  • Mala. Whoever holds this card is only forced to play it if it is the only trump card they have and the hand leads with the Espada.
  • Basto (ace of clubs). The player who holds this is only forced to play it when the hand leads with the Espada or Mala and they have no other trumps.

If the Player has the three Estuches among their cards, they have a high Estuche. If, in addition to the high Estuche, they have trump cards in sequence, they have as many more points as they have sequential trump cards. If the Player has the three trump cards that follow the Espada, Mala, Basto and Punto with the long trump suit (coins or cups) or Mala, Basto and king with the short trump suit (swords and clubs), they are said to have a low Estuche. But if a Player does not have the Espada or Mala or Basto, i.e., no Estuche, they are said to have a Contraestuche.

WINNING CARDS

A winning card is a card from a non-trump suit that can only be beaten by a trump card. The winning cards are split into different categories:

  • First category: the kings and all the sequential cards of the same suit that are held.
  • Second category: : winning cards after having played the king, i.e., the ace , knight and jack of the same suit, as well as the sequential cards of the same suit that follow these.
  • Third category: three sequential cards that begin with the jack give a winning third category.

The cards that remain in the stock deck change the category of those held in the hand. It is very important to take the category of winning cards into consideration, especially for the Player, both when choosing the bid to make and the order in which the cards should be played.

Gameplay

One of the players will be responsible for recording the amount in play on a piece of paper throughout the game. This player is player number 4 and, on their right, the other players are numbers 1, 2 and 3 respectively.
After studying their cards, the players start the auction as described, until one of them becomes the Player and the other two pass. After deciding on the trump suit, whether by the Player announcing it or because it is the preferential suit or by turning the top card of the stock deck face up, the players discard cards and replenish their hands with cards from the stock deck. Once the Player has discarded and replenished their hand with cards from the stock, it is the Opponents turn to discard, these can decide between themselves who has the best cards to be the Defender.

The opponent to the right of the Player, who is in the best position to be the Defender, asks the other: How are we doing? The third player responds with any of the following expressions:

  • You, if they have a poor hand.
  • As you wish, if they have an average hand and at least a trick of trumps.
  • I can go, if they have a good hand.

After these announcements, the second player decides whether they should be the Defender or pass it to their partner. Occasionally the second player, due to having very bad cards or having very good cards and not needing to discard any, simply orders the third player to be the Defender. With Solos, Defender normally goes by hand, since the thirteen cards from the stock are usually sufficient for both opponents’ discarded cards. Only when the Defender has to discard eight or nine cards, do they offer Defender to their partner, who accepts or not based on their own cards.

The one who is Defender discards first and the other (poor hand) discards last, being able to request, at most, the same number of cards that remain in the stock deck. If any cards remain in the stock after the discard, these do not take part in the game and are said to be “Sleeping”, the dealer has to say how many cards are Sleeping. Neither of the two players is obliged to discard.

The “hand” starts the game of tricks. The other two players play their cards in turn. The player who wins the trick starts the next one. Each player places the tricks they have won in front of them, piling and crossing one over the other to see how many tricks each player has. At any time players can look at all the tricks to see which cards have already been played. Once the tricks necessary to establish the outcome of the hand have been played, this is then recorded and noted and the corresponding pay outs and charges made before moving on to the next hand.

WINNING & LOSING HANDS

The Player is said to have won the hand when they get more tricks than each of the opponents, getting “Primeras” if they win the first five tricks, and losing it when they get the same number or fewer tricks than an opponent. If they get the same number of tricks, it is said that they get “Puesta” and if they get fewer, they get “Codillo”. So the following may occur:

If the Player gets one trick, the result is normally “Codillo”, however, there is a special case that occurs when each of the opponents gets four tricks, meaning that they have not lost by “Codillo” but rather by a simple “Puesta” and this receives the name of “Royal Puesta”. In the cases of Codillo with one or two tricks, the opponent with the most number of tricks wins.

The bets can be with Primeras, when those who play Defender get the first five tricks (four and one) or the first six (three and three), and the Player takes the rest. If the Opponents get the first five tricks (three and two) and the Player the remaining four, there are no Puestas and Primeras do not count.

Tresillo card value
SURRENDERED & DEFENDED HANDS

The Player can always play the nine tricks and abide by the results that are given, Taken (won), Puesta or Codillo. In the case of Solo, all nine tricks have to be played. However, in Normal Play or Vuelta, if the Player sees they have no chance of winning and will probably receive Codillo they can surrender just before playing to the fourth trick by simply saying “Pass”. If Vuelta has been played, the hand ends in this way and the Player gets Puesta. In Normal Play, the opponents can accept and say “Okay” The trick finishes and the result is Puesta. But if either of the opponents believes that by continuing to play they can win more tricks than each one of the other two, they announce it by saying “I continue” or “Defending”.

In which case that player stops being Defender and becomes Player. The game continues and, when finished, the following cases may occur:

  • The one who continues the hand gets more tricks than either of the other two. The first player gets Puesta and the amount is paid by the one who defended.
  • The one who continues the hand gets the same number of tricks as either of the other two. In this case they lose the hand by Puesta and, as the first Player already accepted their bet by surrendering, this game results in a double Puesta or two twin Puestas.
  • The one who continues the hand gets fewer tricks than either of the other two. This saves their Puesta, since the second player takes care of it.
  • The poor hand gets more tricks than each one of the other two. The first Player gets Puesta and the one who defended gets Codillo.

Scoring

Needed for keeping score a dish, placed to the right of the dealer, a scorecard on which player number 4 notes down the scores and tokens for the players.

The dealer puts five tokens into the pot. There are two types of bet for the purposes of paying out and collecting:

  • First Puesta. Those that are made when there are only tokens from the dealer in the pot. These Puestas are carried over to the next game.
  • Second, reserved or rated Puesta. Those that are made when there is a Puesta of any kind in the pot. These Puestas are noted on the scorecard by player number 4 and in the box corresponding to the player that makes them. They are put into the pot when the Puesta that was in it has been taken, following the order of greatest to least. Player number 4 advises whoever has to pay the Puesta and the amount, and marks it on the scorecard by partially crossing through it diagonally; when they take it, it is crossed out completely, indicating that it is already paid.
Tresillo card value

Conditions are additional payments in points for bids, Estuches and other events:

  • Play: 0 points
  • Vuelta: 2 points
  • Solo and vuelta solera: 20 points
  • Bola: 100 points
  • Estuches (for each one): 1 point
  • Contraestuche (for each missing estuche): 1 point
  • For getting the first five tricks: 1 point

In relation to payment for Estuches, remember that in order to count the conditions of Estuche, it is necessary to have a high Estuche, considering all the sequential trump cards that follow the Basto as Estuches. When Bola is not given, the maximum number of Estuches that can be counted is 5, however, when Bola is given, all the Estuches are counted.

Collection and payment The amount in play and the conditions are paid to the Player or charged to each of the other three players, the Puestas are for the table and go into the pot, and the Codillos are collected by the player who gave it. Collections and payments are always rounded up in multiples of five.

Charges for hands won.

  • There is no Puesta or a first Puesta in the pot. If a simple suit is trumps, 5 points are charged for playing and the points for conditions, if any, are added, and whatever is in the pot is also taken.
  • There is a Reserved Puesta in the pot If a simple suit is trumps, nothing is charged for playing but the points for conditions, if any, are rounded up and charged. Whatever is in the pot is taken.

If a preferential suit is trumps, double the points for a simple suit are charged, rounded up, and whatever is in the pot is taken.

Payments for hands lost.

  • There is no Puesta or a first Puesta in the pot. If a simple suit is trumps and the hand is lost, the conditions are paid and a bet for whatever is in the pot plus 20 points is made. This Puesta goes into the pot if there is no Puesta in it or onto the scorecard if there is. If the hand is lost by Codillo, the same as mentioned in the previous paragraph is paid, as well as an amount equal to the Puesta to whoever gave Codillo. If a preferential suit is trumps, the amount for the Puesta and Codillo is whatever is in the pot plus 40 points double, and the points for conditions are doubled.
  • There is a Reserved Puesta in the pot. If a simple suit is trumps and the trick is lost, the conditions are paid and a bet equal to whatever is in the pot is made. This Puesta is noted on the scorecard. If the hand is lost by Codillo, the same as mentioned in the previous paragraph is paid, as well as an amount equal to the Puesta to whoever gave Codillo. If a preferential suit is trumps, it acts as if it were a simple suit, but the points for conditions are doubled. In both cases, if the player loses a Solo as a result of Codillo, they only pay the Codillo without Puesta.

Payment and collection for surrendered or defended hands.

  • For surrendered and not defended play, whoever surrenders makes the corresponding Puesta and does not pay conditions.
  • For surrendered Vuelta, whoever surrenders makes the corresponding Puesta and only pays the conditions for Vuelta, 2 points (which are rounded up to 5 points).

In surrendered and defended play:

  • a)Whoever defends wins the hand, collecting the Puesta from the one who surrendered.
  • b)) Whoever defends pays Puesta. As the one who surrendered also pays it, there are twin Puestas. If they have to go into the pot because they are Primeras, they normally go in together but if noted on the scorecard, together or separately.
  • c) Whoever defends receives Codillo from the one who surrendered. This saves their Puesta and the other one pay it.
  • d) The poor hand gives Codillo to the other two. Whoever surrendered only pays Puesta and the one who defended pays Codillo to the poor hand.

In none of these cases are conditions paid.

Tresillo card value

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