Sueca

How to play Sueca

Sueca is the card game of Portugal — and a fixture of Brazil and Angola too — a four-player partnership trick game played at a brisk, cheerful pace. There's no bidding: the deal sets the trump, and from there it's all about following suit, capturing the high-value cards, and reading your partner across the table. You play here with one bot partner against two more, or play online and partner up with friends in real time.

Play Sueca online with friends

Play online to be matched with real opponents, or share a private invite link so your foursome can sit down together — all four seats in the browser, no account and no app. The server deals, tracks the tricks and keeps everyone in sync.

The cards

A 40-card deck — the eights, nines and tens are removed. The cards rank, high to low, Ace, 7, King, Jack, Queen, then 6 down to 2. Only five carry points: the Ace is 11, the 7 (the "manilha") is 10, the King 4, the Jack 3 and the Queen 2 — 120 points in all. The other cards are empty, useful only for winning tricks or throwing away.

Trump & the deal

Each player is dealt ten cards. The dealer's last card sets the trump suit (the dealer keeps it). The player to the dealer's right leads the first trick.

Playing a trick

• You must follow the led suit if you can.
• If you can't follow, you may play anything — there is no obligation to trump.
• The highest trump wins; with no trump in the trick, the highest card of the led suit wins. The winner leads the next.

Scoring

Add up the points your side captured. Over 60 of the 120 wins the deal: 61–90 scores 1 game point, 91–119 scores 2, and taking all 120 (a capote) scores 4. Exactly 60–60 is a tie and nobody scores. The first partnership to 4 game points wins the match.

Strategy

The Ace and 7 of each suit hold 21 points between them — protect your own and hunt your opponents'. Lead a plain Ace early to cash it before it can be trumped, and keep low trumps to steal the fat tricks your opponents try to win. Watch your partner: if they're winning a trick, throw them your points (a King or Jack) instead of wasting them; if an opponent is winning and you can't beat it, ditch an empty card. The 7s are precious — never feed one to a trick you might lose. Tap a card to play it; legal cards are highlighted. N starts a new game.