Game
Five cards are dealt to each player, given out as a hand of five cards at a time. The opponent of the dealer or the opponents of the dealer's team are given ten points if there are any irregularities during the deal itself, and the dealer's turn is handed over to the opponent ("pasa la mano con diez", hand over the hand with ten points). A typical indication of these irregularities is that the dealer finds himself or herself with 4 or 6 cards in his or her hand after the second deal. The cards left over after the first deal are placed face down on a stack to the side. Before the first individual turn after each deal, special announcements have to be made by each player if applicable. These are the ''doble ronda'' (four cards of the same rank) and the ''ronda'' (gathering of people, patrol, gang; three cards of the same rank). A ''doble ronda'' automatically wins the game; a ''ronda'' scores two points. The player to the dealer's right begins. The turn to play passes counterclockwise. Each player plays one card face up onto the table. Cards on the table may be captured by the opponent. If cards are captured, they are placed face down in front of the player or his teammate. Played cards remain on the table until they are captured or the round ends. Cards can be captured in the following three ways: ''matching'' (card same rank as on the table; player places matching card onto own pile), ''addition'' (two cards add to the value of the other; a 2 and a 4 can be captured by a 6; an ace, a 2 and a 4 can be captured by a 7; cards with pictures have no value and cannot be captured this way), and ''sequence'' (a card captured by matching or addition entitles the picking of the next higher card; matching a 2 entitles the capturing of the 3 and 4 (etc.), as well, should there be any). Note that, due to the absence of 8s, 9s, and 10s, the Jack follows the 7 in sequence. A table with the cards 3 4 J Q K can be cleaned with a 7 (3 and 4 add to 7, then J Q K continue the sequence), capturing a total of 6 cards. The Ace does not follow the King. The Ace counts as one for all purposes of this game.Scoring
If a player clears the table by capturing all cards, he scores a ''limpia'' (meaning ''a cleansing'' or ''a wiping out'' of the table; 2 points). If a player captures the card just played by the player before, this is called a ''caída'' (meaning ''a fall''. These two often happen at the same time; under the "official" Quito rules of the Asociación de Periodistas Deportivos de Pichincha (the association of sports journalists of the province of Pichincha), no additional points are scored for this combination (the ''caída'' or the ''limpia'' may be scored, but not both). In the Cuenca rules variation, both events are scored, for a total of 4 points. This variation in scoring is not necessarily regional. Some tournaments may give the match (chica) for a ''doble ronda'' or ''caida en ronda'' in the interest of shortening the duration of the entire tournament. In Quito only 4 points are given for ''doble ronda'' or ''caida en ronda''. A summary of these variations is shown below: After all five cards are played, there is a new deal. After a new deal, ''caída'' does not apply to any cards remaining on the table. After all cards have been played (2 deals with 4 players, 4 deals with 2 players), each player or team counts their collected cards. If the number of collected cards is 20, 6 points are scored; an additional point is given for each captured card in excess of 20, rounded to the next even number. So, 21 cards gives 8 points, 22 cards still gives 8 points. 23 or 24 cards give 10 points. If both teams capture 20 cards, neither side scores 6 points. In this case and all other ties, the non-dealing team scores 2 points. This is called ''dos por darlas'', "two for dealing (next)", as the scoring team will deal the next round. If neither team captures 20 cards, the team with more cards scores 2 points. If a team reaches exactly 38 points, that team is "out of play," called ''38 que no juega'' (38 that doesn't play). The final two points that achieve victory may only be scored by ''caída''. Existing captured cards, limpia, ronda will not count towards closing the game for that team. A chica is won when a player or team reaches 40 points. The game is won when a player or a team wins two chicas or when the opponent doesn't reach ten points at the end of the first chica (this last kind of loss is known as "zapatería"). Losing as ''zapatero'' immediately disqualifies the team from a tournament or match. If the opponent loses with "zapatería" (he doesn't score a perro = ten points), he's called "zapatero", probably because he ends up "poor" like a shoemaker (zapato = shoe). It may also be related to the expression "Cero, zapatero", a common rhyme colloquially used when referring to the number cero.Similar card games
A similar game calledSee also
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