<p>Rules of Pocha</p>

Pochais atraditional Spanish card game, known for its long duration due to the number of rounds that must be played. There are many variants, determined by the number of hands played and some variable rules.

Playing cards

It is played with a Spanish deck of 40 or 48 cards distributed in four suits: coins, cups, swords and clubs. The figure cards are: jack (10), knight (11), and king (12).

Most variants are played with a 40-card deck (which includes figures and cards from ace to seven), although some also require eights and nines.

Number of players

You need at least three players, although up to four players can participate in a game. When 3 players participate, the deuces are removed from the deck, so that it is possible to deal all the cards.

Aim of the game

The aim of the game is to guess the exact number of tricks that you win in each hand. The winner is the player who gets the highest score at the end of the game.

Gameplay

Players start with one card in the first hand and receive an additional card in each subsequent hand, until all the cards in the deck have been dealt.

Then, all cards are dealt as many times as players participate in the game. Afterwards, the number of cards decreases again with every hand, until finally every player is dealt a single card.

Start of the game and the hands

The players decide at random who will be the dealer, the next player on the right will start the game.

At the beginning of each hand, the player to the left of the dealer must cut the deck. The cards are dealt one by one, and finally another card is placed face up to mark the trump.

In the hands in which all the cards are dealt, the dealer must show the last one, as it will indicate the trump.

With every dealing, the dealer switches to the next player, from left to right.

Guessing the number of tricks

In each hand, the number of tricks to be played corresponds to the number of cards dealt to each player. In each trick, all players play one card. There is always one player who wins the trick and takes the cards played.

Before starting to play, after dealing the cards, all players must predict how many tricks they think they will win, starting with first player.

At this point in the hand the last to announce their guess (the dealer) cannot choose a number that, added to the predictions of the other players, equals the total tricks for that hand. This ensures that at least one player will always be wrong in his forecast, since it is not possible for everyone to be right. This rule does not apply in hands where only one card is dealt to each player.

This guessing is the key factor of the game: the main goal is to guess right, and the secondary goal is to get a high number of tricks.

Playing the cards

After making the prediction, the first player plays any of their cards. The rest of the players will play one card each, in the same order they made the prediction (counterclockwise), according to the following rules:

• If possible, a card of the same suit that opened the trick (opening suit) should be played, also trying to beat the highest card played so far.
• If it is not possible to beat the highest card of the opening suit or someone has played a trump, any card of the opening suit must be played.
• When you don´t have a card of the opening suit, you have to try to win the trick by playing a trump card. If there are no trumps on the table or it is possible to beat the highest trump, a trump must be played. If the highest trump cannot be beaten or the player has no trumps, then they can play any other card.
• The hierarchy for the cards of the same suit, from highest to lowest, is as follows: Ace, Three, King (12), Knight (11), Jack (10), Seven, Six, Five, Four, Two.

Collecting the tricks

The trick is won by the player who has played the highest trump and, if there are no trumps on the table, it is taken by the one who has played the highest card of the opening suit.

In successive tricks, within the same hand, the start is always made by the player who has taken the previous trick.

Scoring

After playing all the tricks of the hand, the scores are updated according to the number of tricks obtained by each player and the prediction made before playing the cards:

• Each of the players who have guessed their own number of tricks gets 10 points.
• In addition, these players get 5 points for each trick won in that hand.
• Players who did not win the number of tricks that they had predicted get 5 negative points for each trick of difference (either because their prediction was too high or too low).

End of the game

This process is repeated on each hand until the set total number of hands is reached, cumulating the score from all the played hands. The player with the highest score at the end of the game wins. In case of a draw, additional hands with a single card are played until the draw is resolved.

Don't miss the opportunity to have fun and show off your skills! Join us for a game of Pocha, where skill and fun are combined in every round.