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Card games in Portugal

This page is part of the National and Regional Card Games Index of the Card Games Web Site.

French suited cards (hearts, diamonds, clubs and spades) are in general use. The special type of Latin cards with dragons on the aces, known to collectors as Portuguese pattern cards, have long been obsolete. However, the memory of these cards lingers in that some games (such as Sueca) rank the court cards in the order king-jack-queen instead of king-queen-jack, presumably because the jack and queen were thought to correspond to the knight and maid respectively in the Latin suited cards.

Popular Portuguese games include:

• Sueca - a point-trick game of the ace-ten group for four players.

• King - a compendium game for four players, in which most of the contract involve avoiding taking certain cards in tricks.

• Americana - a four player plain-trick game with bidding in which the 2 is the highest card if led but lowest if played to a trick.

The World Casino Directory includes a listing of Casinos in Portugal.