Cuarenta

How to play Cuarenta

Cuarenta ("forty") is the national card game of Ecuador, played in homes and on street corners all over the country. It is a fast fishing game: you "catch" cards off the table by matching, adding and sweeping runs, and the first player to forty points wins. Here you play head-to-head against a bot, or online against another person in real time.

Play Cuarenta online with a friend

Choose to play online and you'll be matched with a real opponent, or share a private invite link to play with a friend in the browser — no account and no app needed. The server deals the cards, enforces the rules and keeps both players in sync in real time.

The cards

Cuarenta uses a 40-card pack — an ordinary deck with the 8s, 9s and 10s removed. The ace is low, so the run climbs A-2-3-4-5-6-7-Jack-Queen-King. The numbered cards (Ace to 7) carry an addition value equal to their pips; the pictures (Jack, Queen, King) have no value and cannot be added. You are dealt five cards at a time; when both hands are empty, five more are dealt, until the deck is used up.

Capturing

The table starts empty. On your turn you play one card. It can capture in two ways: by matching a table card of the same rank, or by addition — taking a group of number cards whose values add up to the value of the card you played (for example a 7 collects a 3 and a 4). After either capture you may keep sweeping in an escalera: the card one rank above the one you played, then the next, and the next, in an unbroken run (…6, 7, then Jack, Queen, King). Capturing is optional — you can always just lay your card on the table instead, leaving it for later. Whatever is not captured stays in the centre.

Caída, limpia and ronda

Three plays score the instant they happen. A caída ("fall", +2) is when you capture, by matching, the very card your opponent just laid down. A limpia ("clean", +2) is clearing the whole table with one capture — and a caída that also empties the table is worth the full four. A ronda (+4) is being dealt three of a kind.

Scoring and the 38 rule

At the end of each round both players count the cards they captured. Twenty cards scores 6 points, with one extra point for each card above twenty, rounded up to the next even number; if neither player reaches twenty, the larger pile scores 2. The first to 40 points wins — but a player who reaches 38 is "38 que no juega": no count, limpia or ronda can carry them higher. Only a caída can score those final two points and close the game, which keeps the finish tense to the very last card.

Strategy

Capturing the most cards is the bread-and-butter of the count, so grab runs when they appear. Watch what your opponent lays — leaving a card they can caída is costly, and shedding a picture card (which can only be matched, never added) is often the safest lay. Hold a useful card back to answer a dangerous table. Tap a card in your hand, then tap a table card to capture it; a "Lay it" button appears when you would rather not. N starts a new game.