How to Play La Cuatrola
Description
A Spanish partnership trick-taking game where bidding big pays off big — if you can back it up.
Objective
Bid on how many of the five tricks your partnership will win, then deliver on the promise.
Setup
Four players split into two fixed partnerships, seated across from their partner.
Deal five cards to each player from a Spanish 20-card deck.
Rules
Before a card is played, each player in turn may pass or bid — promising to win the hand alone (solo), or committing your partnership to four tricks (cuatrola) or all five (quintola) for a bigger score.
Once bidding closes, the trump suit is set.
Follow suit if you're able; otherwise you may play trump.
Winning
Deliver on your bid and your side scores accordingly — the bigger the promise, the bigger the reward.
Fall short and the cost matches the ambition. Reaching an agreed threshold score locks a partnership out of the biggest bids for the rest of the match.