Maniha is the next card up from the shown lavira on the left at
90 degrees angle. For example if a 5 is shown on the left, the manilha is the 6 clubs, 6 hearts, 6 spades, 6 diamonds. In that order.
Fours
The top four cards are called manilhas - their names in Portuguese are given in brackets. With the exception of these four, the suits of the cards are irrelevant, so that for example all the Threes are equal in rank, as are all the Twos and so on. Note that, as in many games of Portuguese ancestry, the Queens rank lower than the Jacks.
Truco is a variant of Truc and a popular trick-taking card game originally from Valencia and Balearic Islands (Spain) and played in Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay, Italy (in Piemonte, in Lomellina, and a particular variant in the towns Porto San Giorgio, Sirolo, Numana, Porto Recanati, Potenza Picena (Marche) and Paulilatino (Sardegna) ), Uruguay, southern Chile and Venezuela. It is played using a Spanish deck, by two, four or six players, divided into two teams.
Truco is a loud and lively game, which is widely played in South America, usually as a partnership game for four players, playing counter-clockwise. There are significant differences between the forms of Truco played in different countries and regions. Detailed rules for some versions are given on the pages for Argentinean Truco, Brazilian Truco and Uruguayan Truco.
Truco is descended from the simpler game Truc, which is played in parts of Spain and Southern France. Each player is dealt three cards, which are played out in tricks. In some versions, before the tricks are played points are also scored for holding combinations of cards in the same suit. Players can bet to increase the scores, both for the tricks and for combinations. The bluffing, talking and joking that goes with this are an important part of the game.
Truco is normally played with a 40-card Spanish or French suited pack, lacking 10's, 9's and 8's, or a subset of this pack. The basic ranking of the cards is, from high to low, 3-2-A-pictures-7-6-5-4, but in most versions some special cards are promoted to rank above the threes.
Argentina
Spanish suited cards are used, and there are four cartas bravas ranking above the threes: the aces of swords and batons and the sevens of swords and coins. Points are scores for flor, if a player's three cards are all the same suit. If no one has a flor, the best two cards or single card of a suit score for envido. Finally the truco point is scored by the side than wins more tricks.
Brazil
At least three different versions of Truco are played in Brazil.
* Truco Mineiro and Truco Paulista are described in detail on the Brazilian Truco page. In these versions there are no scores for combinations, only for the tricks. These games are often played with French suited cards, though Spanish suited cards are sometimes used. The main difference between them is in the four top cards that rank above the threes. in Truco Mineiro these are the club4, heart7, spadeA and diamond7, while in Truco Paulista they are four cards of the same rank, determined by turning a card face up after the deal.
* In the southern province Rio Grande do Sul they use Spanish cards to play Truco Gaucho, which is essentially the same game as Argentinean Truco.