Mus (card game)

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Mus is a popular Spanish card game originating from the Basque region. From there it spread all over the country, where it is now the most played card game, spawning countless Mus clubs or peñas and becoming a staple game among college students. It is highly regarded, being considered by many as one of the finest card games. The origin of the name is unknown but is not Basque; according to the Catalan etymologist Corominas it derives from French mouche ("fly").^[1]

It is played (normally in two pairs) with the Spanish deck which is a deck of 40 cards (without eights and nines), and it has a variety of different rules in the different regions of Spain. The game has four rounds:

• Grande (Biggest): playing for the highest combination of cards.
• Pequeña or Chica (Smallest): playing for the lowest combination of cards.
• Pares (Pairs): playing for the best matching card combination.
• Juego (Game): playing for cards total values of 31 or more. Sometimes replaced by a Punto (Point) special round.

It has a distinctive feature in that signals (señas) between players are an accepted part of the game.

Basque emigrants carried the game to other countries. Nowadays there is an international Mus tournament, apart from many national and regional ones.

Contents 1 Gameplay 1.1 Setup 1.2 Starting the game 1.3 "Mus" or "No hay Mus" 1.4 The rounds 1.4.1 Grande 1.4.2 Pequeña or Chica 1.4.3 Pares 1.4.4 Juego 1.5 Playing 1.6 Scoring 1.7 Strategy 1.8 Signals 1.9 Named hands 2 References 3 External links

[edit] Gameplay

[edit] Setup

Mus is played with two 2-player teams playing one another. Each team member sits around the table facing his or her partner.

Every hand consists of four rounds: Grande ('Biggest'), Chica ('Smallest'), Pares ('Pairs') and Juego ('Game'). If the 'Game' round cannot be played because nobody has a hand total value of 31 or more, the whole round is replaced by punto ('Point'). After the fourth round, there is a scoring round, when all scores are calculated. The game is played with a pool of 30 points in the middle of the table. The points are represented by beans or any other such element. When a point is scored by a player, that player takes a bean and puts it in the team's side. To decrease the need for lots of beans, one player's side counts as 1-point beans and the other side as 5-point beans. This makes it possible to play with only 16 beans in the table.

A match (partida) is divided into games (juegos). Each game is won by the first team to reach 30 points. 3 games count as one vaca and 3 vacas win the match, although there are many other scoring variations, for example, in some places the game is played to 5 games and 5 vacas. In the North of Spain (La Rioja,Navarre and Guipúzcoa), where Mus is played with four Kings, it is common to play at 40 points instead of the standard 30. This variation has to be played with 22 beans in the pool instead of 16. In the rest of Spain, the regular rules are eight Kings and 30 points. When played with eight Kings, threes count as Kings and twos count as Aces. With eight Kings, it is much easier to get good hands and riskier to bet high.

[edit] Starting the game

In the first game, the dealer is selected randomly. After that, the dealer will be the last game's first player. In this way, the speaking order changes in each game and all the players get to be the first one to speak at some point. The dealer shuffles the cards and his left hand player cuts the deck. After this, he deals four cards, one card at a time, to each player starting with the player to his right and finishing with himself. Once the cards have been dealt, he puts the deck aside and the game begins. The first player to speak will be the player at the right hand side of the dealer. Being the dealer is disadvantageous because ties are solved by speaking order: in case of a tie the person who spoke first wins.

[edit] "Mus" or "No hay Mus"

Starting with the player to the right hand side of the dealer (known as mano), each player declares whether or not they want to have a discard phase. By turns they say either "Mus" (to agree on discard) or "No hay Mus" (or "No Mus"). Only if they all agree, there is a discard phase, where they can discard up to all four cards. The dealer deals to each player the requested cards in one go. After a discard phase, the players repeat the process of agreeing to a new discard phase until one of them finally disagrees. If necessary, the discarded pile can be reshuffled and redealt as many times as needed. After a player refuses to have a new discard phase, the rounds begin.

[edit] The rounds

[edit] Grande

The first round is called Grande. The two teams compete for the highest combination of cards. The highest cards in the Spanish deck are the Kings, followed by Knights and Jacks. In the variant game with eight kings, the threes work as the regular Kings and are therefore as high. For example, a hand like 'King-King-Knight-7' would be better for this round than 'King-Knight-Knight-7'. As it is a bidding game, if one team does not accept the bid then they may not win the hand even though they have higher cards.

[edit] Pequeña or Chica

The second round is the Pequeña or Chica. The two teams compete for the lowest combination of cards. The lowest cards in the Spanish deck are the Aces. In the variant game with eight Kings, there are also eight aces, with the twos being the second set of aces. For example a hand like 'Ace-Ace-5-Knight' would be better for this round than 'Ace-Ace-5-King'. It is exactly the opposite as the first round and therefore a player can never have an excellent hand for both rounds at the same time.

[edit] Pares

Before the third and fourth are played, players run a pre-round, declaring whether they have matching cards. In this pre-round, the players announce by turns 'Pares Sí' (they have matching cards) or 'Pares No' (they don't have matching cards). Having matching cards means that two or more of the cards in their hands have the same face value. If none of the players in a team can play, the whole round is skipped and the other team will score the round in the scoring phase. If none of the four players can play, the whole round is skipped altogether. The lowest combination of matching cards for this round is a single pair ('par'), followed by three-of-a-kind ('medias') and the highest Two-pair ('duples'). Unlike in poker, in mus, Two-pair is a better combination than three-of-a-kind. This accounts for the fact that it is usually played with eight kings and eight aces, which makes three-of-a-kind easier to attain. In case of a tie, the speaking order will solve it. This means when two players have the same matching cards, the one sitting closer to the right side of the dealer prevails. In the variant game with eight Kings, threes are Kings and twos are Aces for all purposes. This means that a hand such as 'King-3-2-Ace' is effectively a Two-pair of Kings and Aces.

[edit] Juego

The fourth and last round is the Juego. As in the third round, players run a pre-round before the actual round, declaring whether they are able to play or not. Being able to play the fourth round means that the total value of the cards in the player's hand is at least 31. Players announce by turns 'Juego Sí' (I can play the 'Juego' round) or 'Juego No' (I can't play the 'Juego round'). In order to be able to play this round, players have to sum up the values of each one of the cards in their hands. All the cards add their face value, except Kings, Knights and Jacks, which add only 10. In the variant game of eight Kings, threes count as Kings and twos count as Aces, and therefore they add 10 and 1 respectively to the total hand value. For example a hand like 'King-3-3-2' will add up to 31 points. The highest total card value for this round is 31, followed by 32, then 40, 37, 36, 35, 34 and the lowest is 33. 38 and 39 are impossible combinations, because in the Spanish deck there are no 8s and 9s. Take into account that 31 is a very easy combination to have in the eight Kings variant, since there are so many 10-value cards and Aces. If none of the players of a team can play, the round is finished and the other team will score the round in the scoring phase. In the situation where none of the four players can play the 'Juego' round, it will be replaced by 'Punto'. The players compete for the highest total card value, being 30 the highest possible total. As usual, in case of a tie, the speaking order rule will solve it.

Good hands for the fourth round involve having at least two 10-point cards (King, Knight, Jack). The only combination of cards that has only one 10-point card is 'King/Knight/Jack-7-7-7'. This is clearly difficult to get and some regions have special rules for this hand and reward it by letting it win against other 31-point combinations regardless of speaking order. Some other regions restrict the rule to the combination 'Jack-7-7-7' and some others restrict it further by requiring Jack and sevens to be of specific suits. This is called '31 real' ('Royal 31') or simply 'La Real' ('The Royal').

[edit] Playing

After the cards have been dealt, the players start playing the rounds, starting by the first one. By speaking order, they have the option of bidding or passing. If a player bids, an opposing player may pass or counterbid. An accepted bid will be left pending until the scoring round. The minimum bid is two points. Once a bid is accepted, the players move on to the next round. If a counterbid is not accepted, the original bidder scores the amount of points of the original bid. If the first bid is not accepted, the bidder scores one point right away. In the scoring round, winners of pending bids will receive the points. There is an exceptional kind of bid called 'Órdago', which, if accepted, ends the whole game in favor of the winning team. Bids are made and accepted by a single player, but the scoring is made by the team. It is therefore possible to accept a bid you know you're going to lose, but your team mate will win. If all the players pass in the first or second round, the winning team of each of these rounds will get one single point in the scoring phase once the cards are revealed. This is often the case for the second round, which teams sometimes refuse to bid on but then later claim the single point if they have the lowest combination of cards, even if it's only with one ace.

[edit] Scoring

After the four rounds have been played and bids have been accepted, there is a scoring round, where the players show their cards and winning bid players claim their bets. In addition to that, the third and fourth rounds give additional scores to the winners depending on how good their hand was. The winning team of the third round scores 1 additional point for each single-pair they have, 2 points for every three-of-a-kind and 3 points for every Two-pair. The winning team of the fourth round scores 2 additional points for each player who could play the round or 3 points if that player had a total card value of exactly 31. If they played a 'Punto' round instead, the winning team of the round scores 1 single additional point only.

[edit] Strategy

It is impossible to have a hand that wins all the rounds so the best winning hands are usually very good in some rounds, but not all. for example, a hand such as 'King-King-King-King' is very good in the first and third round, but exceptionally bad in the second and mediocre in the fourth. Similarly, a hand such as 'King-King-Knight-Ace' is very good in the fourth round, mediocre in first and third rounds and very bad in the second one. Players usually take into account the cards their team mate might have in order to score in rounds they initially had no good cards for. Also, winning third and fourth rounds always gives additional points and a good strategy is to break the discard phase when both team members can play third and fourth rounds, even with mediocre cards, in order to score those bonuses.

[edit] Signals

In Mus it is strategically important to know which cards your team mate is holding. There are many commonly accepted signals (señas) allowed in the game. You can use any of them to indicate to your team mate the hand you are holding (while trying to hide the transmission of the signal from your opponents). The signals have a fixed meaning and it is against the rules to use other signals or use false signals (by signalling a hand you do not hold). The señas are:

• Two Kings: biting the centre of the bottom lip
• Three Kings: biting one side of the bottom lip
• Two Aces: poking out the tongue
• Three Aces: poking out the tongue to one side
• Single Pair (par): tilting the head to one side
• Three-of-a-kind (Medias): pursing lips to one side of the mouth
• Two-pairs (Duples): raising the eyebrows
• 31 (La una, or simply 31): winking
• Three Kings, one Ace (Solomillo): blowing a kiss
• 30 (30 al punto): lifting both shoulders
• 29: (29 al punto): lifting the right shoulder
• 28: (28 al punto): lifting the left shoulder
• I have nothing (Ciego, blind). This indicates a bad hand: closing the eyes
• Royal 31 (31 Real or La Real, see above): touching the earlobe

Not all of these signals are accepted in all variations and there might be other signals in use. It is always good to clarify the signals in use when playing for the first time.

[edit] Named hands

Some hands have particular names:

• Duples gallegos ("Gallician duples") : King-King-Ace-Ace
• Duples castellanos ("Castilian duples") also called "Duples polacos" ("Polish duples") and "Duples alemanes" ("German duples"): King-King-Knight-Knight.
• 31 Real ("Royal 31"): Also, La real ("The Royal"): Jack-7-7-7. It is the only combination of cards that adds up to 31 for the fourth round with only one figure card (King/Knight/Jack). Different house rules allow this hand with different requirements. Some people would allow King-7-7-7, while others would require the original Jack-7-7-7 only when the Jack is of a specific suit. Some people restrict it further by requiring that the sevens be of different suit than the Jack.
• La Jugada del tío Perete ("The hand of Uncle Perete"): 4-5-6-7. It is simply the worst hand possible. It is weak in all four rounds. Certain house rules allow a single point to be awarded to a player that openly declares this hand before starting to play. Some other places might call it differently: Tanganete in La Rioja.
• Solomillo ("Tenderloin") or la bonita ("The Pretty one"): King-King-King-Ace.
• Ley del Mus ("Law of Mus"): King-King-Knight-Jack. This hand is seen as the minimum a player has to have in order to accept risky bets, at least in first, third and fourth rounds.

[edit] References

Much of the content of this article is translated from the equivalent Spanish Wikipedia article.

1. ^ Mus card game. Kern County Basque Club. Retrieved on 14 September, 2006.

[edit] External links

• Rules of Card Games: Mus (by John McLeod)
• Ontario Basque Club: Mus (rules, vocabulary, etc.)
• DUPLES e.V.: Mus (German mus club; rules etc.)
• elmus.org (internet portal devoted to mus)
• IRCMUS (a program that allows to play mus over an IRC channel)