How to Play Truco Mineiro
Description
Minas Gerais plays it with the top four cards fixed. Everyone knows what beats what — so you are reading players, not cards.
Objective
Take two of three tricks, with a fixed card ranking and no vira to change it.
Setup
A Spanish 40-card deck, played in pairs. Deal three cards to each player.
There is no vira and no manilha — the four highest cards are fixed for every hand: the Four of Clubs, Seven of Hearts, Ace of Spades and Seven of Diamonds.
Rules
Play three tricks. Highest card wins each; a tie freezes the trick and the next one decides it.
Any player may call truco to raise the hand to three points, and it can climb to six, nine and twelve from there.
With the top cards fixed and known to everyone, Mineiro shifts the game away from reading the vira and toward reading the players.
Winning
Win two tricks and take the hand at its current stake.
First side to twelve points wins the match.