Paublillo
Introduction
Paublillo (sometimes pronounced as 'paulillo' or 'pablillo') is a trick-taking game from the south-east of the Tolima department of Colombia. It is mostly played in rural areas by farmers, fishermen and other primary producers. It has little presence in Ibague, the capital of Tolima, and is unknown in Bogota and the rest of the country. It is usually played for beer. Some people play for money but this is inadvisable because many players take the game very seriously and accusations of cheating in a high-stakes game could easily end in violence.
The overall format of Paublillo, played with three-card hands and betting, the aim being to win at least two of the three tricks, is reminiscent of Truco. However the underlying structure - the ranking of the cards, the presence of a trump suit, and several other details - are different, indicating that this game is not a variant of Truco but must have a separate historical origin.
This page is based on information from Felipe Sanchez Vidales.
Players, Cards, Equipment and Objective
Paublillo is a game for 2, 4, 6 or 8 players, probably most popular for six. When there are 4 or more players they are divided into two equal teams, each player sitting between two opponents.
A standard 40-card Spanish deck is used, with suits of swords (espadas), batons (bastos), cups (copas) and coins (oros). There are 10 cards in each suit: King (rey, 12), Horse (caballo, 11), Jack (sota, 10), 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, Ace (as, 1).
In each deal one of the suits is designated as trumps, and its cards rank in a different order from the other three suits. The ranking from highest to lowest is as follows.
- Trumps: 4, 3, 2, King, Horse, Jack, Ace, 7, 6, 5.
- Other suits : King, Horse, Jack, Ace, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2.
The top two trumps have special names. The 4 of trumps is called monja and the three of trumps is paublillo.
A set of 12 'stones' is used for scoring - two of these stones should look different from the other ten. Alternatively 12 tokens of any kind could be used - 10 of one type and 2 of another type.
The aim of the game is to be the first to reach or exceed the target score of 12 points. The two teams keep track of their cumulative scores using the stones as described under scoring.
The game is dealt and played anticlockwise.
Deal
The first dealer is chosen by any convenient random method and the turn to deal passes to the right after each hand.
The dealer shuffles and the player to dealer's right cuts (the opposite convention from European games, in which the cards are normally cut by the previous dealer).
The dealer deals a packet of three cards to each player, and then places the next card face up on the table for all to see, and stacks the remaining undealt cards at right angles on top of it. The suit of this face up card is trumps. If the turned up card is the top trump - the four or monja - the dealer's team immediately scores 1 point (unless they are on Alver -see below).
The turned up trump card and the remaining undealt cards are not used during the play.
Play
The cards are played out in three tricks and each team's objective is to win at least two of them. The player to dealer's right leads to the first trick and the winner of each trick leads to the next.
Any card may be led, by placing it face up on the table.
- If the card that is led is a trump, each of the other players must play a trump if possible, except that a player whose only trump is the 4 does not have to play it, but can play another card instead.
- If the card that is led is not a trump, the other players may any card they wish.
In a trick to which a trump is led, all the other players must play their cards face up. If a non-trump is led, the other players may play their cards face up or face down, but a face down card cannot win the trick. An exception to this rule is the vuelta - see below.
Each trick is won by the highest face up trump in it, or if it contains no trumps by the highest face up card of the suit that was led.
Betting (envidar)
Initially the score for the team that wins the majority of tricks is 1 point, but players may seek to increase this score by betting.
At their turn to play, before playing a card, a player may say 'envido', which is a proposal to raise the score for the current deal from 1 point to 3. The opposing team must reply, and there are three possible responses.
- 'No accepta' (fold). The opposing team refuses to raise the score but instead resigns the current deal. The play ends, the team that bet scores 1 point, and the cards are thrown in and shuffled for the next deal.
- 'Juegue' (play). The proposal is accepted, the player who bet plays to the trick and the game continues. The winners will score 3 points.
- 'Reenvido'. An counter-proposal to raise the score to 6 points. The team that said 'envido' must now decide whether to resign and give the opponents 3 points, to play on for 6 points, or to reenvido again, proposing to increase the stake from 6 to 9.
Before replying to a bet, the opponents of the bettor are allowed to see each others' cards. They pass the cards around face down between the teammates, making sure each player gets their own cards back at the end. Any player may reply to the bet on behalf of their team, and the first response is binding on the other members of the team.
After an envido has been accepted, members of both teams are allowed to see their partners' cards as above until the end of the play.
There can be a series of reenvidar by alternate teams, each increasing the score by 3 points up to a maximum of 12. Normally a player will reenvidar by stating the new proposed score, so the first reenvido is made by saying 'seis' [six], the second 'nueve' [nine] and the last 'doce' [twelve].
A reenvidar can be made immediately in response to a bet, or later in the game any player of the team that accepted the most recent envido can reenvidar at their turn.
Vuelta
This exceptional rule applies only to the last card played to the second trick. When all the other players have played to this trick the last player, the player to the left of the player who led to the second trick, may play their card face down but still retain the right to win that trick as though the card had been played face up. This is known as a vuelta (turn). It is allowed even if a trump was led to the second trick.
The player who played the face down (vuelta) card acquires the right to lead to the third trick, irrespective of whether the face down card won the second trick or not.
At the end of the third trick the vuelta card is exposed to reveal which team won the second trick.
The purposes of a vuelta are:
- to gain the lead to the third trick, which can be valuable if no player has any trumps at that point, and
- to get an advantage with the betting, since the other team will be unsure who has won the second trick.
Alver
A team that has a cumulative score of 11 points is said to be on alver (which means 'to see'). When a team is on alver no betting is possible, but at the start of the play the team on alver must decide whether to play the cards for 3 points or whether to give up, throwing in the cards giving the other team 1 point. [This is in fact equivalent to an automatic envido by the team which is not on alver, which is always in their interest since they have nothing to lose by betting at this point.]
When a team is on alver, they are allowed to look privately at each other's cards, passing them around the table as in the case of an envido, before deciding whether to play. If they decide to play the other team can also look at each other's cards.
If both teams are on alver, having 11 points each, there is no betting. All players are allowed to look their partners' cards (but of course not the cards of their opponents). The cards are played out in three tricks, the winners of the majority of tricks scoring 1 point and thereby winning the game.
If the dealer's team is on alver they do not score anything for turning up the 4 of trumps as the trump indicator - it is not possible to use the point from this to win the game.
Communication
Players are allowed to speak freely during the game, to ask questions, give suggestions or give information which may be true or false. Also they are allowed to communicate by visual signals. The usual code of signs for the high trumps is:
- 4 of trumps: move the eyebrows.
- 3 of trumps: wink with one eye.
- 2 of trumps: show the tip of the tongue.
- King of trumps: move one cheek with the tongue.
- Horse of trumps: move the shoulders.
- Jack of trumps: make a "finger purse" signal, like the "che vuoi" sign described here.
- Ace of trumps: show one finger, for example by holding only one finger behind your cards.
Players can use these to indicate to their partners what useful cards they hold while the opponents are not watching, or may use false signals to mislead the opponents. Players are free to invent and use additional or different signals if they wish.
Scoring
The stones begin in a common supply in the centre of the table. A member of each team acts as scorer, and stones from the supply are kept in front of each scorer to indicate the team's current score. The first six points scored by a team are known as malas (bad points) and the second six are buenas (good points). So a score of 4 may be expressed as '4 malas' and a score of 9 would be '3 buenas'.
Malas (bads) are counted by taking ordinary stones from the supply. Buenas (goods) are indicated by taking one of the special stones. For example, if a team has 2 goods, this is represented by one special stone and one ordinary stone, for 4 goods would be represented one special stone and 3 ordinary stones, and 5 bads would just be 5 ordinary stones.
When a team gets to 6 points, also known as fuera de malas (out of bads) their scorer can either return the ordinary stones to the supply, or keep the 6 stones until they score more points. It is perhaps safer to keep the 6 ordinary stones until the next point is scored, as a reminder to take a special stone. If a scorer returns the ordinary stones and then accidentally takes an ordinary stone instead of a special stone when they next score, their score returns to 1 bad (1 point) instead of 1 good (7 points). However, if the scores are 6-5 the team that is fuera de malas must return their ordinary stones as the team with 5 bads needs 5 ordinary stones to show their score.
The first team that achieves a score of 12 points (6 goods) or more wins the game.