VARIABLE TRUMP TUTE

by Mark Steere

INTRODUCTION

Variable Trump Tute is a variation of the Spanish card game Tute. The trump suit can change while a trick is being played in this variation of Tute. A Spanish pack of 40 cards is used. Card ranks and suits are listed in the appendix. Four players are divided into two teams. North and South play against East and West. Variable Trump Tute was designed by Mark Steere in April, 2008.

THE DEAL AND TRUMP

The dealer of the first game of the match is selected at random. The dealer of the next game is the player to the current dealer’s right, and so on. The dealer shuffles and the player to the left of the dealer cuts the deck. The dealer then deals out all the cards one at a time in a counterclockwise order starting with the player to his right. The last card is dealt face up to establish the initial trump suit. As noted, the trump suit can change while a trick is being played.

LEAD SUIT

The player to the dealer’s right leads the first trick of the game, playing any card of his choosing. The first card played to a trick establishes the initial lead suit of the trick. Once the face up card has been seen by all of the players, the dealer adds it to his hand. Like the trump suit, the lead suit can change while playing a trick.

PLAY

After the first card of the trick is played, the remaining three players play a single card each, starting with the player to the leader’s right and proceeding counterclockwise around the table.

The cards which you are allowed to play are limited by the following rules.

1. IF THERE ARE NO TRUMPS IN THE TRICK THEN…
    • If you have any lead suit cards ranked higher than the highest ranked lead suit card in the trick you must play one of them.
    • Otherwise, if you have any lead suit cards ranked lower than the highest lead suit card in the trick you must play one of them.
    • Otherwise, if you have any trumps (trump suit cards) you must play one of them.
    • Otherwise, you can play any one of your cards.

2. IF THERE ARE TRUMPS IN THE TRICK AND THE TRUMP SUIT IS DIFFERENT FROM THE LEAD SUIT…
    • If you have any lead suit cards you must play one of them. Its rank doesn't matter. It only has to be a lead suit card.
    • Otherwise, if you have any trumps ranked higher than the highest ranked trump in the trick you must play one of them.
    • Otherwise, you can play any one of your cards.

3. IF THERE ARE TRUMPS IN THE TRICK AND THE TRUMP SUIT IS THE SAME AS THE LEAD SUIT…
    • If you have any trumps ranked higher than the highest ranked trump in the trick you must play one of them.
    • Otherwise, if you have any trumps ranked lower than the highest ranked trump in the trick you must play one of them.
    • Otherwise, you can play any one of your cards.

As you will see, the lead suit and the trump suit can never be the same in Variable Trump Tute. A trump can be led, but this causes the trump suit to immediately change to a different suit. The case in which the lead and trump suits are the same was described here only for completeness since it's possible to have matching lead and trump suits in the original forms of Tute.

CHANGING THE LEAD SUIT AND TRUMP SUIT

When you play a trump, the lead suit then changes to the trump suit and the trump suit changes according to the following principles.

    • Cups hold coins.
    • Batons break cups.
    • Swords cut batons.
    • Coins buy swords.

The trump suit changes to the suit which acts upon it. For example, if the trump suit is Cups and you play a Cup, the trump suit then changes to Batons because batons break cups.

Let’s say the lead suit is Coins and the trump suit is Batons. When you play a Baton, the lead suit changes to Batons since Batons is the trump suit, and the trump suit changes to Swords because swords cut batons. The lead and trump suit changes are effective immediately upon the play of the card which triggers the change.

If a trump is led, the lead suit is already the trump suit and so the lead suit remains unchanged. The trump suit however changes to the next suit in the trump suit cycle.

Note: A trump of any rank triggers a suit change. It doesn’t have to be ranked higher than the highest ranked trump in the trick to trigger a suit change.

CANTICLES AND TUTE

Immediately after the completion of a trick, each player of the team that won the trick can declare the presence of a King and Horse of the same suit in his hand and show them. Such a declaration is called a canticle. Each player can only perform one canticle per trick that his team wins. 20 points will be added to a team's score for each of its one or two canticles following its winning trick. The canticles for each of the four King-Horse, same suit pairs can only be performed once during a game. In the Variable Trump variation of Tute a King-Horse pair of the trump suit only earns its team 20 points, not 40 points as is the case in the original forms of Tute.

Immediately after a team wins its first trick, if either one of that team's players holds four kings or four horses he can declare "Tute", show the four cards and win the game by doing so.

WINNING THE TRICK

When four cards have been played to the trick, the trick is complete. The final lead and trump suits are then used to determine the winner of the trick. If there are any trumps in the trick, the player who played the highest ranked trump wins the trick for his team. Otherwise the player who played the highest ranked lead suit card wins the trick for his team. The cards of the completed trick are kept by the team who won the trick and are placed face down on a stack kept in front of one of the players in the team. Cards are only played once during a game.

The final trump suit of a trick is used as the initial trump suit of the next trick. The lead suit however is reset at the beginning of each trick to the suit of the first card played to the trick. The player who wins the trick leads the next trick, and so on.

OBJECT OF THE GAME

Once all of the cards have been played and all of the tricks have been claimed by the two teams, the point values of the cards are totaled for each team. Card values are listed in the appendix. The team who wins the final trick earns an extra ten points. Points for any canticles performed are added to the team's scores. The team with the most points wins the game. If there's a tie, the team that claimed the last trick wins the game.

The team that wins the initially agreed upon number of games (such as 6 or 8) wins the match.

EXAMPLES

In each of the following examples the initial trump suit is shown above the table. Cards are played to the trick in the order that they appear in the table, from top to bottom. The initial lead suit is the suit of the first card played. Each row shows the lead and trump suits after the card in that row has been played.

EXAMPLE 1

Initial Trump Suit: Coins

In this example the initial trump suit is Coins. North leads the trick with the Jack of Batons. This establishes Batons as the initial lead suit. The trump suit remains Coins. West follows with the Horse of Batons. The lead and trump suits remain the same.

South plays the four of Coins, the trump suit. Now, since a trump was played, the lead suit changes to the trump suit and the trump suit changes to the next suit in the trump suit cycle. So the lead suit becomes Coins (since Coins is the trump suit) and the trump suit becomes Cups (since cups hold coins).

East plays the seven of Coins, the current lead suit. The lead suit and trump suit remain the same. So the final lead suit of the trick is Coins and the final trump suit is Cups. There are no Cups in the completed trick, only Batons and Coins. Since East has the highest ranked lead suit card, the seven of Coins, he wins the trick for his team, East-West.

The final trump suit of the trick, Cups, is carried forward to become the initial trump suit of the next trick. Since East won this trick he leads the next trick with any card of his choosing, establishing the lead suit of that trick.

EXAMPLE 2

Initial Trump Suit: Cups

In this example the initial trump suit is Cups. East leads with the three of Swords establishing the initial lead suit as Swords and leaving the trump suit unchanged. North follows with the Ace of Swords leaving the lead and trump suits unchanged. West plays a trump, the six of Cups, triggering a change of suits. The lead suit becomes Cups (the trump suit) and the trump suit becomes Batons (since batons break cups).

South plays a trump, the two of Batons, again triggering a change of suits. The lead suit becomes Batons (the trump suit) and the trump suit becomes Swords (since swords cut batons). So Batons is the final lead suit and Swords is the final trump suit. North wins the trick with the highest trump, the Ace of Swords.

North leads the next trick with any card of his choosing, and the trump suit starts out as Swords.

EXAMPLE 3

Initial Trump Suit: Swords

In this example the initial trump suit is Swords. North leads with a trump, the Horse of Swords, which triggers a suit change. The rules call for the lead suit to change to the trump suit, Swords, but since the lead suit is already Swords it simply remains Swords. The trump suit does change though and becomes Coins (since coins buy swords).

West plays the five of Coins, triggering another suit change. The lead suit becomes Coins (the trump suit) and the trump suit becomes Cups (since cups hold coins). South plays the two of Batons leaving the lead and trump suits unchanged.

East plays the seven of Cups triggering yet another suit change. The lead suit becomes Cups (the trump suit) and the trump suit becomes Batons (since batons break cups). So the final lead suit is Cups and the final trump suit is Batons. Since South has the only trump in the trick, the two of Batons, South wins the trick. South leads the next trick with any card of his choosing, and the trump suit starts out as Batons.

EXAMPLE 4

Initial Trump Suit: Batons

In this example West plays the final card of the trick, the six of Coins. Note that the six of Coins triggers a suit change even though a higher ranked Coin, the Jack of Coins, was already in the trick. Any trump will trigger a suit change, regardless of rank. South wins the trick with the highest ranked lead suit card, and the final trump suit, Cups, is carried forward to become the initial trump suit of the next trick.

AUTHOR'S NOTE

Feel free to publish this rule sheet, and to program the game of Variable Trump Tute for online or offline play. No licensing fee or royalties are expected. However please don’t change the name or the rules, and please attribute the game to me, Mark Steere. My other games can be found at marksteeregames.com.

APPENDIX

OPTIONAL RULES

• The initial trump suit is designated to be Coins, and the player who holds the two of Coins leads the first trick of the game.
• If a team wins 101 points or more, it is credited for two winning games.

CARD RANKS AND VALUES

Cards are listed by rank, starting with the highest.

CARD SUITS

The Spanish deck has a unique set of four suits.