spain's 'mus' cardgame -- great to play when you're shut-in by climate change

if you ever go to Spain --- you might be witness to a game of 'Mus' --- not sure how old this game is or how it started but it does seem to be played across different regional and historical lines in Spain and it's history and a study of it's diffusion and exactly where it's played across Spain would be interesting..........

the game itself is great because it uses a set of recognized 'signals' for communicating your hand to your partner so that the chances of dumb tic-tac-toe luck are reduced and you can get down to booming: LOOK AT MY MONSTER!!!! with skillz-that-killz --- if that makes any sense.......

here's how it breaks down: Mus is played by 4 people where there are 2 teams of 2 people playing against eachother.... it's played with a Spanish deck not a French deck --- so no 8s, 9s or 10 cards........ and no diamonds, hearts, clubs and spades............ the Spanish and Italian deck has swords (espadas -- sounds like spades but it's swords), cups (copas - like copa cobana and lola), gold coins (oros) and big-arse faggots (sticks --- or 'bastos')....................

as stated -- 2 people are playing against 2 other people and each team may use standardized signals (passed by face only) to express to their partner what they are carrying -- the parnter farthest from the dealer -- or dealing -- will look out for their partners and opponents hands as passed through facial signals and bet accordingly...........

Mus has 4 major games: el grande (the big one) -- here, as the name implies, big is better, so the best hand is 4 kings -- and then 3 kings and a knight --- and then 3 kings and a jack (sota) --- then 3 kings and a seven and so forth......

note that in Mus all the 2 cards are really Aces and all the 3 cards are really Kings so actually a deck has 40 cards (being that there are no 8, 9 or 10 cards) and there are 8 kings (as all the 3s are kings) and there are 8 Aces (as all the 2s are Aces) so this leaves you with 'caballos' (knights or queens) worth 10 points as are kings and 'sotas' (jacks) -- then you have 7s, 6s, 5s, 4s, (the latter all kind of trashy cards in Mus)

the 2nd major game is 'la chica' -- spanish for girl or 'small' -- in Mus it means 'small' (not 'girl').......... and there's an old Mus expression: jugador de chica, perdedor de Mus: Chica-player is a Mus loser.......... in the 'Chica' round of betting -- the strongest hand is 4 Aces then 3 Aces and a 4 --- then three Aces and a 5, then 3 Aces and a 6 and so forth ---- the exact inverse of the preceeding 'grande' hand...........

the 3rd major game or betting round in Mus is 'pairs' or 'pares' ---- normally a good Mus team either has a strong psychic connection and doesn't need to pass signs much as in Spain i'd reckon a good Mus team knows what the partner has just by looking at their partners eyes and face --- but anyway, there are many standardized signals they can pass and we'll come to this............ --- in 'pairs' or 'pares' -- the strongest hand is 4 kings and then 2 kings and 2 knights ---- then 2 kinds and 2 jacks --- then 2 kings and 2 sevens all the way down to 4 Aces --- after that the strongest hand is 3 kings and then 3 knights and then 3 jacks (3 of a kind in Mus is called 'medias') all the way down to 3 Aces and then the best hand after that would be a pair of kings and then a pair of knights --- the pair of Aces being the worst 'pares' (pairs) cards you could have

the last major game is fittingly called 'el juego' (the game) --- here at least 1 player has to have cards amounting to 31 points..... if none of the four players has 'juego' (cards amounting to 31 points or more -- then instead of 'juego' you play 'punto' (point) -- but this is unusual) --- before you start thinking this is some hokey-arse 'Perfect Strangers' crap where everything that isn't American or British is dumb so this card game must be dumb, shame on you and read on sucka!!!!!!......

in the 'juego' or 4th and last game of Mus......... 31 points is the strongest hand followed by 32 points then 40 points then 39 points, 38 points, counting down to 33 points (the worst juego hand).............. to figure out your hand: all 'figure' cards: knights (queens or 'caballos'), jacks (sotas) and kings (remember there are 8 of them in the deck) count as 10 points --- Aces (all the 2s are Aces, remember) are 1 point, 4s are 4 points and so forth........... whoever is first to receive their cards from the dealer is called 'mano' and has priority and advantage over all other betters as does 2nd mano (2nd from dealer) and so forth --- so if all players have the same cards then the 'mano' -- the one closest to the dealer is gonna win it......

if there's no juego you just play a variation of 'juego' which is called 'punto' where 30 is the best score all the way down to 4 points (the worst score in punto)


now being that Mus is a team game.......... to win, in general, certain strategies should be followed: the Mano should pass signals to the Postre (furthest receiver from the dealer) and the Postre should do the dealing for the team as they are the last to speak -- of course it's possible to pass signals to the Mano and this would be done where it's difficult to pass signals because the opposing team is watching your face for signals............. in order to generally win, it's a good idea for the Mano to always go for 31 as they are gonna win 3 bonus points at the end of the game just for having this hand plus the Postre will get bonus points for their 'juego' too as he/she (the Postre) is on the winning team....... so the Mano will go for 31 and the Postre should look to win the 'pares' game ----

scoring: Mus games are played until one team wins 30 or 40 points (depending on where in Spain you play I suppose) -- winning 30 or 40 points like this is winning one full game or point and in total you can play up to 3 points or 5 points .......

how do you win your 30 or 40 points???? in order to win ONE SET or game point?
well every time you bet at the grande, chica, pares, or juego and your opponent pussies out on you you get 1 point (except in the 'punto' back-up 'juego' game where you get 2 points for that).... then at the end of the game whoever has the best 'grande' gets 1 bonus point and same for the 'chica' -- plus you can make bets with your opponents like 5 points or 2 points or raise them ad infinitum up to 40 points (ORTAGO!) at whichever hand............ at the pares you're gonna get bonus points at the end of the game if you're on the winning team (whoever didn't pussy out when it came to betting at the pares or 'pairs' game) -- so 2 pairs or four of a kind (it's all the same here, unlike Poker --- equals 3 bonus points) -- 3 of a kind equals 2 bonus points and 1 pair gets one bonus point............... 31 juego gets 3 bonus points and all other juego gets 2 bonus points -- but again only if you're on the winning team -------- that is -- you can win the juego and the pares just by scaring your opponents -- you don't even need better cards than them and at the end of the game -- if your cards really are worse -- or if they are kickarse -- you can hide them -- just showing the bare minimum to prove that you have 'pares' and 'juego' just so your opponents don't know how you're kicking their arse..........

how to pass signals: if you have 31 points you wink you're left eye........

if you have 'medias' three of a kind you jerk your jaw to the left a little - -although maybe this is only for 3 kings -- but i think it's for 3 of a kind in general coz if you have 3 kings maybe the signal would be medias and then bite your lower lip ---- go to Spain and figure it out......

remember: jugador de chica, perdedor de Mus.... but anyway --- if you want to show you have good chica -- that you'd win it -- stick your tongue out just a little while pursing your lips.......

raising both eyebrows means you have high pairs (2 pairs) and blinking or closing both eyes simultaneously means you have low pairs......

there is one special hand in Mus because of the mathematics of the game: normally the 'juego' is an important part of Mus (the last hand played) and it is won with a hand of 31 consisting of 3 x 10 point cards and one Ace............. HOWEVER, becuase of the Math of it all, 3 sevens and a 10 point cards also constitute 31 and this very rare hand is called the 'real' (royale) and the signal for this is passed with the right eye (winking) --- this hand is unbeatable in 'juego'

another signal is a lip-pouty you do (similar to 'chica' but without sticking your tongue out) -- it signifies you would win the rarely played 'punto' game (which is only played when none of the 4 players have 31 points in their hand)

gameplay is like poker at the start except that if everyone agrees to 'Mus' you can keep discarding unwanted cards until someone says 'but the Mus' or 'corto' (I cut - in spanish) -- at this point everyone is stick with their hand -- good or bad and the four games grande, chica, pares, juego or punto are played out and points are tabulated at the end of the four hands or cards are shown is players agree to an all out bet (ortago) of up to 30 or 40 points whatever one Set point constitutes......

This is a common game in Spain although I'm not sure that it is played in South America or Mexico, etc........... certainly if you're a tourist in Spain visiting for the running of the bulls in Pamplona (or elsewhere in Spain) you'd see people playing Mus there......