Truco
A wildly popular South American trick-taking game built around bluffing and betting on hidden hand strength — Argentina's answer to poker's core mechanic of representing a hand you may not have.
Coming soon — not yet playable
Rules
Truco is a trick-taking card game (each player is dealt three cards and plays them out in a series of tricks) rather than a hand-showdown poker game, but it earns its place in this library because of "envido" — a betting phase, played before any tricks are taken, where players wager on the point value of their hand without revealing it, using pure verbal bluffing and reads to win or force a fold.
Envido betting: before playing any cards, a player may call "Envido," wagering that the sum of their two highest cards of the same suit (using a specific Spanish-deck point scale) is higher than their opponent's. The opponent may accept, raise (with special escalating calls like "Real Envido" and "Falta Envido"), or decline and concede a smaller number of points — all without either player's actual hand ever being revealed unless the bet is accepted through to a comparison.
Truco betting: separately, at any point during the trick-play itself, a player may call "Truco" to raise the stakes on who wins the hand overall (based on tricks won), which the opponent can accept, re-raise ("Retruco," "Vale Cuatro"), or fold from — again requiring reads and table talk rather than hand information.
Historical and cultural note: Truco (and its Envido sub-game) is played with a Spanish-suited 40-card deck (no 8s, 9s, or face-card equivalents beyond the "sota," "caballo," "rey") and traces its roots to Spain, but it has become an enormous, deeply embedded part of South American card culture — especially in Argentina, where it's a staple of family gatherings, cafes, and long bus and train rides, often accompanied by elaborate table talk and signaling traditions between partners in team play.
Strategy notes: Since Envido and Truco bets are settled through bluffing and reading opponents rather than card strength alone, Truco shares poker's core DNA of "betting on a hand others can't see" even though its trick-taking structure is completely different from vying games like Hold'em or Stud.
Common house rules
Standard deck substitution
Lacking a Spanish-suited 40-card deck, most non-Argentine tables substitute a standard 52-card deck with 8s, 9s, and 10s removed, mapping face cards to the traditional sota/caballo/rey ranks as closely as possible.
Team play (2v2) is traditional
Truco is very commonly played in two-person teams (partners sitting across from each other) rather than every-player-for-themselves, with extensive (and often theatrical) non-verbal signaling traditions between partners — worth deciding team structure before dealing.
Table talk is part of the game
Unlike most poker variants, boisterous table talk, bluffing out loud, and reading opponents' verbal and physical reactions during Envido and Truco calls are core, expected parts of the game rather than something to be minimized.
Related games
Based on shared category, origin, and rules that reference each other.
Put
A 16th-19th century English vying and trick-playing game for two players, documented in Charles Cotton's 1674 gaming compendium and closely related to Truco.
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