How to Play Sueca

Goal

Sueca is a partnership game: 2 against 2, partners sitting opposite each other. Every deal has 120 points in cards — the team that takes more than 60 wins the game.

The deal

40-card deck (2 to 7 + Jack, Queen, King and Ace of each suit), 10 cards each. One card is turned face up and sets the TRUMP suit. It belongs to its holder, who keeps it visible on the table until they pick it up or play it.

How to play

The player after the dealer leads the first trick; after that, whoever wins a trick leads the next. You must follow the led suit whenever you can. The highest trump wins the trick; if no trump is played, the highest card of the led suit wins.

Card values

The ranking (strongest to weakest) is Ace, 7, King, Jack, Queen, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2. Only five ranks carry points — 120 in total:

• 11 — Ace
• 10 — 7 (manilha)
• 4 — King
• 3 — Jack
• 2 — Queen

Renounces

Not following suit when you could is a renounce. Here you CAN risk one — but if an opponent notices and denounces it, their team wins 4 games. A wrong accusation hands the accused team 1 game instead.

Scoring

A win is worth vales: 61 to 90 points = 1, 91 or more = 2 (a dobrada), a proven renounce = 4. Four vales close a game on the traditional score pad (the X marks two closed games), but the match itself is won by the first pair to reach 10 vales.