How to play Tute
2 or 4 players · 40 Spanish cards · first to 101
Tute is Spain's national card game. You win tricks to collect the cards in them, and the cards are worth points — but only eight of the forty are worth much, so most tricks are not worth having. Two things set it apart from every other trick game: you are not allowed to duck a trick you could win, and you can score for cards you are merely holding by singing them out loud.
Objective
Collect more card points than the other side. There are 120 points in the pack, another 10 for the last trick, and whatever gets sung on top of that. Points carry over from deal to deal and the first side to 101 wins the match — which usually takes two deals.
The Spanish pack
Forty cards in four suits — cups, coins, swords and batons. Each suit runs 1 to 7 and then the three court cards: Sota, Caballo and Rey, numbered 10, 11 and 12. There are no 8s and no 9s. The order they beat each other in, though, is not the order they are printed in.
Highest first. The 3 ranks second, above all three court cards.
What the cards are worth
The 3 outranks the Rey for a reason: it is also the second most valuable card in the pack. Eight cards — the four 1s and the four 3s — hold 84 of the 120 points between them, which is why a trick is rarely worth taking for its own sake. It is worth taking when there is a 3 in it.
| Card | Points |
|---|---|
| 1 — the As | 11 |
| 3 | 10 |
| 12 — the Rey | 4 |
| 11 — the Caballo | 3 |
| 10 — the Sota | 2 |
| 7, 6, 5, 4, 2 — the white cards | 0 |
Thirty points in every suit, 120 in the pack.
You must beat the trick
Every other trick game on PlayTash asks only that you follow suit. Tute asks more: if you can win the trick, you have to try. A hand full of high cards stops being an asset and becomes an obligation.
Swords are trump. Someone leads the 11 of cups.
- You hold the 12 of cups. You must play it. It follows suit and it beats the 11.
- You hold only the 4 of cups. Play it anyway — you still have to follow suit, you just cannot win.
- You hold no cups at all. You must trump with a sword.
- Somebody already trumped, and your swords are all lower. Now you are free. Throw anything you like; you are never made to waste a trump you cannot win with.
This applies even when your own partner is winning the trick. Neither published description of Tute makes an exception for a partner, so PlayTash does not either.
A hand, start to finish
Ten cards each, and the last one face up
At four players the whole pack goes out. The dealer's final card is dealt face up and its suit is trump for the hand — the dealer keeps it and plays it like any other card, so everyone at the table knows one card of their hand.
Ten tricks, under the obligation
Follow suit and beat it if you can, trump if you are void, overtrump if somebody beat you to it. PlayTash highlights the cards you are actually allowed to play, so you never have to work it out.
Sing after a trick, before you lead
Won the trick and holding a Rey with its Caballo? Sing it for 20, or 40 in trump, before you play your next card. One per trick won.
Ten more for the last trick
The diez de últimas. Whoever takes the final trick of the hand adds 10 to their side, which is often enough to turn the deal on its own.
Singing
A Rey and Caballo of the same suit — the 12 and the 11 — can be sung for 20 points, or 40 if that suit is trump. You sing immediately after winning a trick and before you lead to the next one, one combination per trick won.
It is optional, and it costs you something
Announcing 40 in cups tells both opponents exactly which two cards you are holding — in a game where they are obliged to beat you whenever they can. Sometimes the right move is to say nothing and keep the surprise.
The 40 always comes first
Singing a 20 makes it illegal to sing a 40 later in the same deal. Rather than let you walk into that, PlayTash offers only the 40 while you hold one. The 20 is offered on a later trick you win.
The tute
All four Reyes, or all four Caballos, in one hand. Sing that and you win the deal outright, whatever the card points say. It is the move the game is named after, and it is rare enough that most sessions never see one.
The two-player game
At two players Tute is nearly a different game. You get six cards each rather than ten, the thirteenth card of the pack is turned face up for trump, and the rest sits face down across it as a stock. After every trick the winner draws first and the loser takes the next card, so the trump card is the last one anybody picks up and somebody ends the hand holding it.
The rules change halfway through
While the stock lasts there are no obligations at all — you may throw any card you like, including ducking a trick you could have won. The obligations switch on the moment the stock runs dry. That makes the first half about which cards you keep and the second half about what you kept them for.
Scoring
| Source | Points |
|---|---|
| Cards in the tricks your side won | 120 in the pack |
| Diez de últimas — taking the last trick | 10 |
| Veinte — a Rey and Caballo sung in a plain suit | 20 |
| Cuarenta — the same two in trump | 40 |
| Tute — all four Reyes or all four Caballos | wins the deal |
Points accumulate across deals and the first side to 101 takes the match. With 130 on the table every hand before anything is sung, that is usually two deals and occasionally one.
Strategy tips
- 💡Count the 1s and 3s, not the tricks. Eight cards hold 84 of the 120 points, so a hand of six worthless tricks can lose to a hand of two good ones.
- 💡A hand of high cards is a liability. You are obliged to beat the trick, so high cards get pulled out of your hand at the moment your opponents choose rather than the moment you choose.
- 💡The dealer's trump card is public, so plan around it — everyone can see one card of their hand for the whole deal.
- 💡Think twice before singing 40. It pays immediately, but it hands both opponents a complete picture of your trump holding, and they are obliged to act on it.
- 💡Keep a low trump for the last trick. Those final ten points are worth more than most tricks in the hand.
- 💡At two players, the stock is your cover. Throw your rubbish while nothing forces you to follow suit, so that when the obligations start you are holding cards you actually want to play.
About Tute
Tute is the national point-trick game of Spain and is played across the Spanish-speaking world. It belongs to the same family as the Central European marriage games — Schnapsen, Bezique, Pinochle — where the recurring idea is that a King and Queen of one suit can be declared for points. Tute calls that pair the Rey and the Caballo, and it calls declaring it singing.
The obligation to beat the trick is what makes it play differently from its relatives. It is a feature of the Spanish branch of the family, shared with Guiñote, and it turns the ordinary question of a trick game — which card can I afford to lose — into a question of what you will be forced to spend and when.
The 40-card Spanish pack it uses is the same deck as Ronda, Truco, Escoba and dozens of other games across Spain, North Africa and South America. Its suits are cups, coins, swords and batons, and because they have no printed symbols the way hearts and spades do, PlayTash draws them.
PlayTash builds the four-player partnership game and the two-player stock game, which is the form the sources call Tute corriente. The rules here follow pagat.com and Wikipedia, which agree on the ranking, every point value, the obligations, the 20 and 40, the 40-before-20 rule, the ten for the last trick and the tute itself.
Play Tute online for free, with two players or four, against friends or against bots.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why does the 3 beat the King?
Because Tute does not rank the cards in their printed order. The 3 sits second, directly under the 1, and the courts fall below both — so a suit runs 1, 3, 12, 11, 10, 7, 6, 5, 4, 2. There is a reason it is worth knowing rather than looking up: the 3 is also worth 10 points, second only to the 1's 11. A trick with a 3 in it is worth fighting for, and the only card that takes it is the one card above it.
Do I really have to beat the trick if I can?
Yes, and it is the rule that makes Tute play unlike every other trick game here. Follow the suit led if you hold it, and if any of your cards of that suit would beat the best one played so far, you must play one of them. If you hold none of the led suit you must trump. The one release is this: if somebody has already trumped and you cannot beat their trump, you are free to throw anything — you are not made to waste a trump you cannot win with.
Do I have to beat my own partner?
Yes. Neither of the published descriptions of Tute carves out an exception for a partner who is already winning the trick, so PlayTash does not either: if you can beat the card on the table, you must, whoever played it. Some relatives of the game (Guiñote among them) do relax this, which is worth knowing if you learned it at a table that played it the other way.
What does singing actually do?
It pays you for cards you are holding rather than cards you have won. A 12 and 11 of the same suit are worth 20 sung together, or 40 if that suit is trump. You sing immediately after taking a trick and before you lead to the next one, one combination per trick won. It is optional, and that matters: announcing “40 in cups” tells both opponents exactly which two cards you hold, in a game where they are obliged to beat you when they can.
Why won't the game let me sing my 20?
Because you are also holding a 40, and a 20 sung first would make the 40 illegal for the rest of the deal. Rather than explain that after the fact, PlayTash offers only the 40 on this trick. Win another trick later and the 20 is offered then.
What is a tute?
All four 12s, or all four 11s, in one hand — the move the game is named after. Sing it and you take the deal outright, whatever the card points say. It is rare enough that most sessions never see one, and it is the reason the name on the tile means something.
How is the two-player game different?
It is nearly a different game. Six cards each rather than ten, and the rest of the pack sits face down as a stock: after every trick the winner draws first and the loser takes the next card. The larger difference is that while the stock lasts there are no obligations at all — you may play absolutely any card, including throwing away rather than beating. The obligations switch on the moment the stock runs dry, which is when the hand turns strict and the cards you kept start to matter.
How long does a match take?
Card points carry over from deal to deal and the first side to 101 takes the match, so it usually runs to two deals and sometimes one. There are 130 points on the table every deal — 120 in the cards, 10 for the last trick — plus whatever gets sung on top, so 101 arrives quickly. That is short for four players, and deliberately so: it is a phone-length match rather than a best-of-six evening.