Truco Express is Truco, the bluffing card game of Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay, for two against two with partners facing or one against one, each on their own phone: Truco Paulista and Truco Mineiro as Brazil plays them, and Truco Argentino with the Spanish pack, the envido and flor.
About Truco Express
Truco is played at bar tables, in kitchens and on beaches from São Paulo to Buenos Aires, and it is loud: the hand is worth a point until somebody calls Truco, and the other side has to accept, run, or raise it again. Truco Express keeps the calls and drops the pack: one phone hosts, the others join it with a short code, and nothing needs a server or an account. Bots take any empty seat, so one phone and a few bots is a game too.
Each player holds three cards from a pack of forty, and the side that takes two of the three tricks takes the hand. In Paulista a card is turned up, the vira, and the four cards of the next rank are the manilhas, the best in the pack; in Mineiro the manilhas are always the 4 of clubs, the 7 of hearts, the ace of spades and the 7 of diamonds. The hand goes 1, 3, 6, 9, 12 in Paulista and 2, 4, 8, 10, 12 in Mineiro, and the game is to 12. A side one point from the game decides its hand of eleven after seeing its partner's cards.
In Argentina the cards are oros, copas, espadas and bastos, and the 1 of espadas is the best of them. Truco is 2, Retruco 3 and Vale cuatro 4, and in the first trick the players sing the envido: twenty and two cards of a suit, counted for you. Flor is a table choice, and a lost hand can be given up by going to the deck. The game is to 30, fifteen malas and fifteen buenas, or to 15.
Made for the journey
- No internet, no mobile data. The phones talk to each other directly, so a game carries on through tunnels, ghats and stretches with no signal at all.
- Everyone on their own phone. Nobody passes a handset round, and nobody sees a hand that is not theirs.
- Short of players? Bots take the empty seats, each with a setting for how closely it follows the play, and now and then they bluff.
- A dropped link is not the end of the hand. A phone that loses the connection can join the same table again.
- No sign-in and no real money. Install it, open it, play.
How playing together works, and tips for trains, buses and flights
Features
- Truco Paulista, Truco Mineiro and Truco Argentino in the one game, chosen when the table is made
- Four players in two sides, or two head to head
- The Argentine game drawn as a Spanish pack, with the envido counted for you and flor if the table plays it
- Every call answered by the other side: accept, turn it down, or raise; what each player called shown under their name
- Brazil's hand of eleven, with the partner's cards shown to the side on eleven
- Quick game: save a table of bots, and open it in one tap
- Connects over Bluetooth, Wi-Fi or Google Nearby, with no internet
- No sign-in, no server, no real money