how to play card game 'mus'

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CXO8xS9M8uk (tu cafe) well if this blog's current 'read 'em and weep' motto has anything to do with the expression used in card games before laying the cards on the table, then that game would most certainly be 'mus'.... it's said that the anglo game 'bridge' -- apparently played by microsoft's bill gates is perhaps the greatest card game, the writer wouldn't know, not knowing the rules, however, the writer considers the card game of spain 'mus'.... to be the greatest card game of all times.... if travelling to spain, probably 1 in 5 or more spaniards would know how to play this game.... it's played in pairs of 2 people versus 2 people and each team must play together against the others, secrets facial signs are permitted allowing that partner farthest from the dealer to know his buddy's hand, however these signals must be regulation - not just any old made up signal - and these regulation signals are probably the same all over spain, regardless of the considerable regional and linguistic differences amongst the various regions in the tiny peninsula: the commonest signals are: wink with the left eye for 31 points... wink with the right eye for 31 with 'la real' (royale) (invincible combination of 31 points consisting of 3 sevens and a face card (face card = 10 points) bight the lower lip for 2 kings poke the tongue out or pout for 'chica' (low cards) - by the way, a common mus expression is 'jugador de chica, perdedor de mus' (chica player = mus loser) -- chica means small in spanish but also woman/girl (like 'shortie' in eubonic talk) jerk your jaw to the left quickly to indicate to your partner you have 3 of a kind and then bite your lower lip if those 3 of a kind are kings clearly, if your opponent sees your sign and knows your hand, he will not let you know but will bet and react accordingly the spanish deck has only 40 cards, there are no 8s 9s or 10s and in mus a 3 is the same as a king and a 2 is the same as an ace so there are 8 kings and 8 aces there are four games in every game played once the mus is cut (similar to cards no longer being dealt in poker however cards can be replaced until someone 'cuts the mus') these four games are: grande (big) chica (small) pares (pairs) juego (game) -- if no-one has cards amounting to 31 points then a substitute game, 'punto' (point) will be played where 30 is the best hand followed by 29 and 28 and so forth in descending order the player with the best grande must have 4 kings then 3 kings 1 horse, 3 kings 1 jack (sota), 3 kings one 7 running down to four aces (worse grande) the best chica is four aces, then 3 aces and a four and so forth the best pares are 4 kings then 2 kings 2 horses, 2 kings 2 sotas, 2 kings two 7s, etc (four of a kind or not necessarily better than 2 different pairs, unlike poker) the best juego is 31 points with the winner being nearest receiver to the dealer with the exception of 'real' (royale) where the holder has three 7s and a sota/caballo(horse)/rey(king) that player will be the winner bet to 30 or 40 points depending on the spaniards/part of spain and win 1 game, win 3 games and win outright placing a bet with shitty cards can scare other players leading to points accumulated: eg., you have 4 aces and want to bluff the grande to win it, someone says 'invido cinco' (i bet five) you say 'ortorgo' (i bet the lot = all 30 or 40 points) if they chicken out you win their initial bet - 5 points thus, benji's first 'mus' games, in spain, were in 1992 when benji was 16... benji was already a well trained mus player although given to overly big bluffs.... imagine going to a school where whoever wants to smoke can smoke in the tiny recreation area... everyone is busting open sunflower seeds and eating the seed and spitting out the shells like machine gun fire in staccato crunches, seniors can and occasionally do buy a small beer 'una canya' in the school bar however they do not overdrink, 18 year olds look like 25 due to facial hair.... benji's first spanish words were only related to 'mus' and learnt starting at around age four.... art students at age 16 and 17 are provided with naked models for which to draw... nobody makes a big deal out of it, that's spain for you -- everyone acts like they're 100,000 years older than they are... benji's first 'mus' games were in madrid with classmates: virginia, raquel and alicia... probably alicia was benji's partner although maybe virginia at some point too... a typical game runs thus: example: virginia deals, benji is 'mano' (hand - that player 1st to receive from dealer, benji plays with alicia) benji: mus, everyone else says 'mus'... everyone throws out shitty cards (basically everything except kings) let's say someone 'cuts the mus' before you can even change cards, probably coz they got 31 points and they are 'mano' (one of first two players nearest dealer) plus their partner has seen their secretly passed and well timed wink and has some pairs (pares) to back up their player when bonus point are counted at the end of the game for even having pares and juego + winning/scaring other away at bet time) benji (mano): paso (i pass) most normally the two manos will always 'pass' (pasar) and allow the 'postres' (= dessert but also last receiver in cards) to do the talking for them (like a lawyer) benji: paso (let's say i have winked 31 to alicia and she has seen it and has 3 of a kind which is good pares and also means she might even have juego (31+points) raquel: paso alicia: paso (my partner passes, knowing we might win the grande at the end of the game and take 1 bonus point for it) virginia: i bet 10 (invido diez) - that's alot of points (a third or a quarter of a total game (out of 3 in full))... she could be trying to 'steal' the lousy 1 bonus point or else baiting us with excellent cards, alicia, my partner is too scared to take it but i have 3 kings and an ace so i up the bet 10 more points (invido 10 mas) -- if virginia accepts this bet, the game will be played out and the 20 point bet will be decided at the end of the game (the four hands) when points are reckoned