General rules

It´s a game with combined aspects of “Rummy” and “La Loba”, with great popularity here. It is normally played between two, three or four players, rarely between five or more persons. CARDS: The Spanish pack of 48 cards is used.

VALUES

The highest card is the King, that has a value of 12 points, then the Queen 11, and the Jack 10. Right afters the nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, ace, every one by it´s value.

DEALING

The pack is placed face down and each player withdraws a card, the one that takes the highest one will be the dealer, who after making the one to his left do the cutting, will start the distribution on his right, The game having finished with an absolute winner or with a draw that divides the lot, that winner will be in charge of dealing the cards again, but this time on his left, that is, in each game the delivery is done on the opposite sense. This is done to avoid the constant control from one player to another. Seven cards are dealt., one by one, to each playerr, and finally one is placed uncovered beside the remaining pack, that will remain face down.

GAMES

The“Piernas” and “Escaleras” are formed. The “Piernas “are formed by cards of the same value, (three cards at least).

Development

The players, by orden, go drawing one card and throwing another.One draws from the deck or, if it suits, the one above, uncovered, of the cards discarded , but only one. Thus they are combined with the ones of the hand in “piernas” and “escaleras”

THE CUT

When the seven cards are combined, or less, if so wanted, they are laid on the table to finish the round. This is called cutting the game. The games can be formed by less than seven cards, all together, but the rest must not add up more than seven points. It is not possible to partially extend games, instead, once gathered the already expressed conditions, it will be laid simultaneously. When a player “cuts”, he shows his cards, then the rest do the same, and then if the cutter has leftovers cards and one or every one coincide with the games of the others, he can place them. Then the following player in the order of the game will do likewise, and so on. There can be more than one turn placing discards, but when there is no more laying down, it´s over.

POINTS

The points that are jotted are against and correspond to the sum of the cards that haven´t been played. Playing between two, when one of them reaches 101 points, he looses. If it is between three or more players, the one that reaches 101 points leaves, and the rest continues until there is one only winner, who takes the pool. Another way of winning consists in doing “Chin-Chon”, that is, combining all the cards to form an “escalera” of the same suit The player that cuts with this set wins the game, whatever the number of points of his score. If one player cuts and one that has not entered the game yet has a served “Chin-Chon”, he will not be able to make it valid as such.The player that cuts without leaving surplus, that is that his seven cards have formed a game, will add minus 10 points to his favor. The ones that remain without points against after dealing his cards in everyone elses games, jot down minus 10.

FREE CUT

When the game starts it must be decided if the “cut” is free or not. It is called “free” when, for instante, a player has 98 points and is allowed to cut although the lefth over be up to seven points, and the player adding less points passing the 100 mark will win. On the opposite case,a “normal cut” should have cut with a left over of 2 points.

Prizes: The game starts placing a certain quantity of chips that form the pool, with which the final winner of the match will benefit. Each player will give a smaller prize, in chips ,to the one who cuts in each round, thus, although some may not win in the end, they can compensate quite a bit with the partial prizes for cuts. The one that does Chin-Chon collects double the initial prize, that is, that each one of those that are still in the game puts in the game another quantity of chips like at the beginning.

Hooking on: The player that has completed 101 points, instead of abandoning can “hook on”, that is, keep on playing. For that he must add in the pool a quantity of chips similar to the inicial posture. If he does it for a second time, the quantity must be double the first, and in the third, double the second. Between two players there is no hooking on. The one that does, does it with the the points of the one that has more.

Finished Pack: If the pack is finished without nobody having “cut”, the surplus cards are dealt again, they are put face down, without a visible face, and the game continues. If it is finished a second time, then each player jots down negatively the points of his cards that don´t form a game, individually, that is, without discharging in the games of the others. The use of cards with different values, or any other variable in the game, has to be conveniently pointed out before starting the game.