BUSCA

Hey there! Let me tell you about a super cool card game called Busca. It’s a game for 4 people, and the goal is actually pretty unique – you don’t want to win any tricks! Instead, you want to score points without getting the most or least amount of tricks. Pretty tricky, right?

Busca has some similarities to other trick-taking games, but there are some special rules that make it extra exciting. You see, in this game, you actually get penalized for taking certain cards and winning the last trick. If your penalties add up to a certain amount, you’re out of the game! The last player standing is the big winner.

SETUP

Let’s talk about how to set up a game of Busca. To start, the first dealer is chosen randomly, and then the dealer position rotates to the right at the beginning of each new round. If you’re playing with a modified 52-card deck, you’ll need to take out the 8s, 9s, and 10s. That leaves you with a deck of aces, kings, queens, jacks, 7s, 6s, 5s, 4s, 3s, and 2s – a total of 40 cards.

Alright, here’s how Busca works. First, the dealer will shuffle the cards and hand out 10 cards to each player going counterclockwise. Once everyone has their hands, we can get started.

Card Rankings and Values

Now, let’s go over the card rankings and values. The highest ranking card is the 3, followed by the 2, Ace, King, Queen, Jack, 7, 6, 5, and 4. There are no trumps in Busca, so we don’t need to worry about that.

Keep in mind that certain cards come with penalty values. Aces are a penalty of 3 points, and the 3s, 2s, Kings, Queens, and Jacks are all penalties of 1 point. However, there is one special card called the Pita. It’s the Ace of coins, or diamonds if you’re using a modified 52-card deck. The Pita card carries a hefty penalty of 8 points and has some unique rules for gameplay.

In total, there are 40 penalty points in each round, with the last trick being worth 3 points.

Let’s Play Busca

Playing Busca is as easy as pie! Just like any other trick-taking game, it’s all about leading and following tricks. We’ll start with the player to the right of the dealer and go counterclockwise.

Here’s the deal: the first player takes the lead and everyone else has to follow suit if they can. If they can’t, they can play any card they darn well please.

The player who plays the highest-ranked card of the same suit as the lead wins the trick. They also get to lead the next trick and show off their skills.

But hold on a sec, there’s a twist! The pita comes with some special rules that spice up the gameplay. You can’t start with coins or diamonds in your first trick. Plus, even if you can’t follow suit, you still can’t play the pita card in the first trick.

Tallying Up Points

So, here’s the deal. Once we’ve gone through all the tricks, it’s time to tally up our penalty scores. The goal here is to score at least one point without scoring the most. You see, if I score more or less than you, I gain what we call Buscas.

Now, if by some chance I don’t manage to score any points at all, I’ll earn one Busca. But get this, if both of us end up with no points, we each score 2 Buscas. What a twist, right?

But hold on, if I somehow pull off scoring all 40 points, things get really interesting. In that case, you and the others get hit with 3 Buscas each. Talk about a sweet victory!

But let’s say all of us manage to score at least one point. Well, here’s how it goes. The player with the most points gets Buscas based on their total. If we have 2 to 18 points, we only score one Busca. But, if we manage to reach 19 to 22 points, we go up to 2 Buscas. And for every point above 22, we get another Busca. So, if someone has 23 points, they score 3 Buscas, and if we reach the maximum of 37 points, that’ll give us a whopping 17 Buscas!

If multiple players tie for the most points, they will each earn more Buscas. When two players tie, their scores are doubled. For three players, each player gets 3 Buscas, and if all 4 players tie, each player receives 4 Buscas.

Once a player scores 31 or more Buscas, they are out of the game.

GAME OVER

The game is over when there is only one player left. That player is declared the winner.

The game is over when there is only one player left. That player is declared the winner.