Cuarenta
Ecuador’s favorite. Match or add up to take cards and the run above them, catch the card just laid, and race to 40. 2–4 players, in partnerships.
How to play Cuarenta
- 1Cuarenta is Ecuador’s favorite card game. It uses 40 cards: Ace to 7 plus the Jack, Queen and King, with no 8s, 9s or 10s. Suits never matter. Four players play as partners sitting across from each other.
- 2Everyone gets five cards and the middle starts empty. On your turn play one card. If it can take something, it must; otherwise it stays face up in the middle.
- 3A card takes another card of the same rank. An Ace to 7 can instead take two or more number cards that add up to it (a 6 takes a 2 and a 4). When there is more than one way to take, you choose.
- 4Whenever you take, you also sweep up the run that follows: the next rank up, then the next, for as long as they are there. Ranks run A 2 3 4 5 6 7 J Q K, so a Jack follows a 7.
- 5Matching the card the player before you just laid down is a caída, worth 2 points. Clearing the middle completely is a limpia, worth 2 more. Being dealt three of a kind is a ronda, worth 4. Being dealt four of a kind wins the game on the spot.
- 6When hands run out, everyone gets five more until the deck is gone. Whoever took last also gets whatever is left in the middle.
- 7Then count captured cards: 20 or more score 6 points, plus 1 for each card over 20, rounded up to an even number. With three players, 14 cards is the mark instead of 20.
- 8The first side to 40 wins. Once you have 38, caídas, limpias and rondas stop counting: only your captured cards can take you over the line.
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