Sueca (game)

Sueca is a point trick-taking game, being the most popular card game in Portugal, and also very popular in countries that were once colonies of Portugal, like Brazil and Angola.

Players and Deck

Sueca is a 4 players game, that play in two teams, with partners sitting opposite from each other.

It is played with 40 cards (remove the 8s, 9s, 10s from a standard 52 card deck). The rank of the cards in each suit, from highest rank to lowest one, is:

Ace, 7, King, Jack, Queen, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2.

As well as the high position of the seven (know as "manilha" or "bisca" to Portuguese speaking players), notice that the jack beats the queen. This is very common in Portuguese card games, a resonance of the old Portuguese decks where the jack was thought of as a knight and the queen corresponded to a maid (see The Baraja in Portugal).

The Deal

The game is played clockwise.

The first dealer is chosen at random and the turn to deal passes to the left after each hand.

The player to the dealer's right shuffles the cards and the player at the dealer's left cuts. The dealer then gives 10 cards to each player, in a single batch, beginning with the player to dealer's left, going around clockwise and ending with the dealer. The bottom card of the deck, which belongs to the dealer, is turned face up, and its suit becomes trumps.

Alternatively, the dealer can choose to deal the first ten cards to himself, the next ten to the player to his right, and so on counter-clockwise. In this case the dealer's first card (the original top card of the deck) is turned up and determines the trump suit.

The Play

The player to the left of the dealer (the one who cut the cards) leads to the first trick. Players must follow suit if they can. A player who has no card of the suit led may play any card. If any cards of the trump suit are played to a trick, the highest trump wins. Otherwise, the trick is won by the highest card of the suit led. The winner of each trick leads to the next.

Being considered a "deaf-dumb persons game" in Portugal, there can be no talking between the players and no exchange of signals between partners (considered cheating in tournament play). In casual play, though, this rule is frequently overridden, with signs actually being negotiated between partners prior to playing, which adds a different level of fun to the game - as each team tries to discover the other's cheating signs so they can get the upper hand in play.

Scoring

In Sueca, the aim is to win tricks containing valuable cards. The card values are:

Ace ..... 11 points

7 ..... 10 points

King ..... 4 points

Jack ..... 3 points

Queen ..... 2 points

The rest of the cards = no points.

* It is to be noted that in the Azores the 10 is worth 10 points and the sevens are removed from the deck.

There are 120 points in the deck altogether.

The object of the play is to win tricks containing more than half of the card points. The team which takes more than 60 card points scores one game. The first team to score four games win the rubber.

If a team takes 91 or more card points in tricks on one deal, they score two games instead of one.

If they take all the tricks they score four games and thus win the rubber immediately. Taking 120 points but losing a trick (with no counting cards in it) is not sufficient to win the rubber. In this case the winning team would just score 2 games for having more than 90.

In case of tie it's considered a null game... no team gets any point.

Alternative Scoring Rules

There are several scoring rules that diverge from country to country and even region to region.

The most common are:

Scoring 120 points being enough to win 4 games, as opposed to having to take all tricks.

The rubber being of 6 points instead of 4 (frequently played in the north of Portugal). In this case taking all the tricks will make you win 4 games, not the entire rubber.

If a team scores more than 90 points, the defeated one loses 2 games - this is called "rolha" in Portuguese or "corkscrew" as a close translation (variation often played in southern regions of Portugal as Alentejo and Algarve).

If there is a tie, both teams taking exactly 60 card points in tricks, no one scores, but the next hand is worth an extra game.