Description

Cuarenta is the national card game of Ecuador. It is a fishing game played with a Baraja, a pack of 40 Spanish playing cards. The game can also be played with the standard 52 card pack of Anglo-American playing cards, but all 10s, 9s and 8s are omitted (ace is low).

Cuarenta is Spanish for the number 40. This refers to the number of points that are required to win a chica (small division of the game) and also to the number of cards used to play it. Two chicas or the first chica with zapatería (loss of the chica by scoring less than ten points) win the game (a completed game is called a "mesa", which means "match"). The game can be played by 2 players, or 4 players split into two teams.

Five cards are dealt to each player, given out as a batch of five cards at a time. Each player plays one card face up onto the table. Cards on the table may be captured by the opponent. If cards are captured, they are placed face down in front of the player or his teammate. Played cards remain on the table until they are captured or the round ends.

Cards can be captured in the following three ways: matching (card same rank as on the table; player places matching card onto own pile), addition (two cards add to the value of the other; a 2 and a 4 can be captured by a 6; an ace, a 2 and a 4 can be captured by a 7; cards with pictures have no value and cannot be captured this way), and sequence (a card captured by matching or addition entitles the picking of the next higher card; matching a 2 entitles the capturing of the 3 and 4 (etc.), as well, should there be any).

If a player clears the table by capturing all cards, they score a limpia. If a player captures the card just played by the player before, this is called a caída. In either case, the player scores 2 points.

Before the first individual turn after each deal, special announcements have to be made by each player if applicable. These are the doble ronda (four cards of the same rank) and the ronda (three cards of the same rank). A doble ronda automatically wins the game; a ronda scores two points. After all five cards are played, there is a new deal. After all cards have been played (2 deals with 4 players, 4 deals with 2 players), each player or team counts their collected cards. If the number of collected cards is 20, 6 points are scored; an additional point is given for each captured card in excess of 20, rounded to the next even number.

A chica is won when a player or team reaches 40 points. The game is won when a player or a team wins two chicas or when the opponent doesn't reach ten points at the end of the first chica.