Like playing card games? Ever tried Truco? If ever a card game could give you a mental breakdown, Truco would be it. Madeline Blasberg tries to get to the bottom of the notoriously complicated Argentine game.
Somewhere on the list of Argentine obsessions, perhaps just below malbec and the sacred siesta you will find the name of a game many love, and few master: Truco. What may look like an innocent game of cards is really a wonderfully sinister pastime that captivates natives and befuddles foreigners.
Though it now resembles a form of poker on steroids, Truco, emerged in its early and much simplified form in the Middle East as was known as Truc. It then made its way to Spain before arriving on the coast of colonial South America, all the while introducing elaborate rules and seducing innocent hearts into playing a game delightfully full of stratagems. Truco´s faithful can be found throughout South America and parts of Europe, but none embraced it quite as warmly as the gauchos of Argentina.
It now resembles a form of poker on steroids
In order to play you´ll need a deck of Spanish style playing cards, a way to keep
score, and 2-6 players divided into two equal teams. Traditionally, gauchos used dried kidney beans or matches to keep score, but if you´re feeling particularly modern, a pen and some tally marks will serve the same purpose.
What makes Truco tantalizingly impossible to learn is in part its obscenely complicated set of rules. Truco is played in a series of tricks, and the card with the greatest value wins the trick. Of course the value of the cards does not follow a logical order, so the heirarchy must be memorized.
Thought it was that simple? Not hardly. Add to the mixture a series of bets, each with a specific name – Truco, Envido, Flor – and each with at least 2 counterbets that your opponent can use to raise the value of the original wager. As in poker, the objective is to bluff when your cards are weak, and con your opponent when your cards are powerful.
Let´s complicate it one step further. Truco can also be played in teams, in which case players sit in a circle and communicate with eachother through a silent language of microscopic, rapid-fire gestures, or señas. Each card is assigned a specific gesture: a raise of the eyebrows, a wink of the eye, a twitch of the lips. The trick is to quickly and secrety send the signal to your team, meanwhile trying to intercept your opponent´s signals. To the outside observer, this looks like pure madness.
Moral hang-ups and trusting your opponent are an Achilles' heel
But the truth is, if you play by the rules alone you are assured defeat. In Truco, which means trick in Spanish, moral hang-ups and trusting your opponent are a type of Achilles´ heel. Although the game is similar to poker, Truco´s sinister nature runs much deeper than an innocent round of Texas Hold´em. Not only is it a game of cards and strategy, it is also very much a game of word play and verbal snares. Absolutely everything said aloud during a game of Truco is valid, and your opponent will constantly try to trap you into saying something you shouldn´t.
They may purposefully mispronounce the name of a bet – envidrio instead of envido, or turco instead of truco – in hopes of getting you to reveal your hand. Or they may not formally accept a wager by saying quiero and instead say dale or a ver to prompt you to prematurely reveal your cards and shoot yourself in the foot. The game depends only slightly on chance, and very heavily on mischief, and the overly trusting, undiscerning foreigner is always easy prey.
Truco is deeply embedded in Argentine culture
Got the hang of it? Add to that that every country, every province, even different friendship groups have entirely nuanced rules, and there is almost always an exception to that rule. Inconsistencies of this nature will also be a source of trickery, and your opponent will probably assume you were aware of his particular variation as a way to swindle you out of points.
Though not as visible as flashy tango dancers, or as easy to partake in as a glass of wine, Truco is deeply embedded in Argentine culture. And for those brave enough to give it a try, it is a mind boggling puzzle, a social phenomenon and a chance to play a little dirty.
