Tute Rules: How to Play the Spanish Card Game
Tute is the card game that does for Spain what Belote does for France or Scopa for Italy. It is the trick-taking game every family knows, played with a 40-card Spanish pack, and it has grown so many regional accents that two players from different provinces can sit down and start disagreeing about the rules within five minutes. The heart of it, though, is the same everywhere: you try to win the cards that carry points, and you try to hold the King and Queen of one suit at the same time so that you can announce them.
What separates Tute from an ordinary trick-taking game is that it runs on two scales at once. One scale decides which card beats which. The other decides what a card is worth when the tricks are counted. They are not the same scale, and the card that wins the trick is very often not the card that pays. A player who learns only the first scale will win tricks all evening and still lose the game.
This guide covers the pack and the suits, both rankings in full, the deal and the pinta that fixes trumps, the rules for following suit and taking tricks, the declarations — tute and las cuarenta — that are worth more than most hands, how a hand is scored, the variants you are likely to meet, and the strategy that settles the close games.
The deck and the suits
Tute is played with a Spanish 40-card pack. The four suits are oros (coins), copas (cups), espadas (swords) and bastos (clubs), and each suit holds ten cards: 1 to 7 plus three figures. The Spanish 1 is the ace, and the three figures are the sota (Jack), the caballo (Queen) and the rey (King).
You do not need a Spanish pack to play. Take an ordinary 52-card deck and remove every 8, 9 and 10, which leaves exactly forty cards. On a French deck the suits line up neatly: diamonds stand in for oros, hearts for copas, spades for espadas and clubs for bastos. The one thing to keep straight is that the Spanish pack has no 8, no 9 and no 10 at all — the sota, the caballo and the rey take their place.
Card strength and point values: two different rankings
This is the part beginners get wrong. Tute uses two rankings, and they are not the same ranking. Strength decides which card wins a trick. Value decides what that card is worth when you count up at the end. The ace is the strongest card in the pack, but the 3 is worth almost as much as the ace and is beaten by it; the King wins tricks and is worth only four points.
Learn this table before anything else, because every decision in the game is a trade between the two columns.
| Card | Strength (high to low) | Point value |
|---|---|---|
| Ace (as) | 1st — the highest | 11 |
| 3 (tres) | 2nd | 10 |
| King (rey) | 3rd | 4 |
| Queen (caballo) | 4th | 3 |
| Jack (sota) | 5th | 2 |
| 7, 6, 5, 4 and 2 | 6th to 10th, in that order | 0 |
The deal and the pinta
In the two-player game the dealer gives ten cards to each player. In the four-player game the whole pack is dealt out, ten cards each, and the players sit in two partnerships with partners facing each other across the table.
Once the cards are out, the dealer turns up the top card of what is left. That card is the pinta, and its suit becomes the trump suit for the whole hand. It stays face up on the table so that nobody can forget which suit is trumps.
A hand runs until the hands are empty. Every trick takes one card from each player, so in the four-player game all forty cards are played and there are exactly ten tricks.
How to play a trick
Trick play in Tute is short and strict, and the order of the rules matters.
- The dealer’s opponent leads the first trick. In the two-player game that is simply the player who did not deal.
- You must follow suit. If you hold a card of the suit that was led, you have to play one, and you are never allowed to throw off a different suit while you still hold the led suit.
- If you cannot follow suit, you may play any card you like, including a trump.
- Trumps beat everything. Any trump card beats any card of a plain suit, however high that card may be.
- If no trump was played, the highest card of the suit that was led wins the trick.
- The winner of a trick leads the next one, and every card taken goes face down into the winner’s pile until the hand is scored.
Declarations: the tute and las cuarenta
The declarations are what give the game its name. If you hold the King and the Queen of the same suit, you hold a declaration, and it is worth real points — more than most players will collect in card points across an entire hand.
The suit decides which declaration you have:
| Combination | Which suit | Points |
|---|---|---|
| Tute | King and Queen of the trump suit | 40 |
| Las cuarenta | King and Queen of any other suit | 20 |
When you may declare, and when the chance is gone
You cannot simply announce a declaration whenever you feel like it. You have to win a trick first, and you must declare immediately after that trick, before the next card is led. If you let the moment pass, the declaration is dead for the rest of the hand.
That single rule is what makes holding a declaration tense rather than comfortable. You may sit with the tute in your hand for five tricks and never get the chance to say it, which is why experienced players watch their own cards constantly and announce the instant they take a trick.
Note the naming, too. Las cuarenta literally means “the forty”, but in this game the declaration outside trumps is worth twenty. If you hold the King and Queen of trumps you have the tute, and there is no better thing to be holding.
Scoring a hand
When the last trick has been taken, each side counts three things: the point cards it captured, the declarations it announced, and the bonus for the final trick.
| What you count | Points |
|---|---|
| Point cards captured in tricks | Ace 11, 3 ten, King 4, Queen 3, Jack 2 |
| Tute (King and Queen of trumps) | 40 |
| Las cuarenta (King and Queen of another suit) | 20 |
| The last trick of the hand | 10 |
Who wins, and why the last trick matters
The side with the higher total wins. A single hand can settle a game, but most players prefer to agree a target and add the totals up hand after hand, and that is what makes the final-trick bonus so heavy: ten points is a small fortune in a game where half the pack is worth nothing.
Across the whole pack the point cards come to 120, with the declarations and the last-trick bonus sitting on top of that. It is worth remembering the figure, because it tells you how much of the hand is still unaccounted for when you are trying to work out who is ahead.
Variants and house rules
Tute is played differently in every region, and the names travel further than the rules do. These are the versions you are most likely to run into.
- Tute cabrero. The four-player partnership game, with partners sitting opposite each other and the whole pack dealt out. This is the name most often used when a family says simply that they are playing tute at the table.
- Tute subastado. A bidding form. Instead of the trump suit being fixed by the turned-up pinta, the players compete in an auction, and the winner of the auction takes on the obligation that goes with it. It turns a friendly game into something much sharper, because a bid is a promise you have to keep.
- Two-player tute. The head-to-head version, ten cards each, with the same declarations and the same bonus for the last trick.
- House rules. How many cards are dealt, whether a declaration must be made at the very next trick or may wait, and whether the game is played to a target or settled in one hand — all of this varies. Agree it before the first card, not after the first argument.
How to play
- Take a 40-card Spanish pack, or strip the 8s, 9s and 10s from a normal 52-card deck.
- Deal ten cards to each player. With four players the whole pack goes out, and partners sit opposite each other.
- Turn up the top card of the undealt pack. That card is the pinta, and its suit is trumps for the whole hand.
- The dealer’s opponent leads the first trick. Follow suit if you can: if you hold a card of the led suit, you must play it.
- If you cannot follow suit, play anything you like — but remember that any trump beats any card of a plain suit.
- The highest trump wins the trick, or if no trump was played, the highest card of the suit that was led. The winner leads the next trick.
- Declare the King and Queen of a suit immediately after you win a trick: 40 points if they are trumps, 20 points if they are not.
- When the cards are gone, count the point cards you captured, the declarations you made and 10 points for the last trick. The higher total wins the hand.
Strategy
- Count the 3s as carefully as the aces. The 3 is the second-strongest card in the pack and it is worth ten points; only the ace can beat it, so it is both hard to take away from you and very expensive to lose.
- Guard your declarations. Holding the King and Queen of a suit is only worth points if you actually get to announce them, and you can only announce after winning a trick. If you are sitting on the tute, spend a trick early to unlock it rather than hoarding it and running out of chances.
- The last trick is worth ten points, more than a King, a Queen and a Jack together. If you can afford it, keep back one card that can win the final trick of the hand.
- Follow suit with your cheapest card. When you are obliged to follow suit, which card you choose is a free decision: throw the 2 or the 4 and keep the 7 for later, because a 7 can win a trick once the high cards have gone.
- Remember that half the pack scores nothing. The 2, the 4, the 5, the 6 and the 7 are all worth zero, so treat them as ammunition: spend them to follow suit, to force out trumps, and to save your scoring cards for tricks you can genuinely win.
Frequently Asked Questions
- How many cards do you get in Tute?
- Ten. In the two-player game each player is dealt ten cards, and in the four-player partnership game the whole pack is dealt out, which is also ten cards each.
- What is the pinta in Tute?
- The pinta is the card turned face up after the deal to decide trumps. Its suit becomes the trump suit for the entire hand, and it stays visible on the table so that everyone can see it.
- What is a tute in Tute?
- Holding the King and Queen of the trump suit is called the tute, and it is worth 40 points. The same two cards in any other suit are called las cuarenta and are worth 20 points.
- When can you declare a tute or las cuarenta?
- Only immediately after you win a trick, and before the next card is led. If you do not announce it at that moment, the declaration is lost for the rest of the hand.
- Does the ace beat the 3 in Tute?
- Yes. The ace is the highest card in the pack and beats everything, including the 3. But the 3 is the second-strongest card and is worth 10 points against the ace’s 11, so the two are close in value even though the ace takes the trick.
- Which cards are worth points in Tute?
- Only five cards per suit score: the ace is worth 11, the 3 is worth 10, the King 4, the Queen 3 and the Jack 2. Everything else — the 7, 6, 5, 4 and 2 — scores nothing.
- What is the last trick worth in Tute?
- Ten points. It is a bonus on top of the cards you captured and any declarations you made, and it is very often what decides a close hand.
- What is the difference between Tute and tute cabrero?
- Tute cabrero is the four-player partnership form, played with the whole pack dealt out and partners sitting opposite each other. In everyday speech people often just say “tute” when they mean this version.
- Do you have to follow suit in Tute?
- Yes, whenever you can. If you hold a card of the suit that was led, you must play one of that suit, and you may not play a trump or a different suit instead.
- How do you win at Tute?
- Add up the point cards you captured, your declarations and the ten points for the last trick; the higher total wins the hand. Many groups agree a target and add the totals up over several hands.