Ronda rules — how to play

Overview: Morocco’s classic

Ronda is one of Morocco’s best-loved card games, played among friends and family at home and in cafés, and known in Algeria and Tunisia too. It is a capturing game: cards lie face up on the table, each player tries to take as many of them as possible with the card they play on their turn, and extra points come from calls made at the table.

Ronda is played with the Spanish baraja, the deck that spread across North Africa and became Morocco’s everyday pack. Much of the game’s vocabulary comes from Spanish: missa, from mesa, “table”, means clearing the table, and caída, “fall”, means taking the card your opponent has just laid down. Ronda and tringa name what you hold in hand: a pair and three of a kind.

Koutchina offers Ronda in two rule sets, chosen in the table’s rules: Moroccan, the default, played to 41 points, and Quick, a house rule set with the same game played to 25 for a shorter match. Apart from the target, the rules are identical.

Players, deck and deal

The baraja has 40 cards in four suits: Oros (coins), Copas (cups), Espadas (swords) and Bastos (clubs). Each suit holds ten cards: 1 to 7, then three courts — the Sota (10), the Caballo or knight (11) and the Rey or king (12). There is no 8 and no 9. In Ronda the suit never matters: only the rank counts.

Ronda takes two to four players. Two play head to head, three each play for themselves, and four play in two partnerships: partners sit opposite each other, and their cards and points count for the whole side.

The dealer gives three cards to each player, starting with the player after them and ending with themselves, then turns four cards face up on the table. That opening table may not hold two cards of the same rank, nor four ranks in a row in Ronda order; if it does, the cards go back into the stock and four others are turned up.

Whenever every hand is empty, the dealer gives three more cards to each player — none to the table — until the stock runs out. A deal is therefore six distributions at two players, four at three and three at four, and the game flags the last one when it starts. The player after the dealer plays first, the turn then passes to the next player, and the deal passes to the next player at each new deal.

Capturing: match, then run

On your turn you play one card from your hand. If a table card has the same rank, you capture it, then keep climbing Ronda order: you take the next rank if it is on the table, then the one after, until the first missing rank ends the run. Your card and everything it took go to your pile.

Ronda order runs 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, then Sota, Caballo, Rey. The Sota follows the 7 directly, since the deck has no 8 or 9, and the Rey is the top, with nothing above it. Example: play a 6 on a table of 6, 7, Sota and Rey and you take the 6, the 7 and the Sota; the Rey stays, because the missing Caballo breaks the run.

If no table card shares your card’s rank, your card stays face up on the table — even if the rank above it is there: a run only ever starts from a match. You may play any card in your hand on any turn, but a card that matches a rank on the table always captures.

Your pile is face down: the others see only how many cards it holds, never their faces. That count matters, because the end-of-deal points are worked out from it.

The caída and the missa

A caída happens when the player before you lays a card on the table without capturing, and you play a card of the same rank and take it. A caída is worth 1 point, scored on the spot. Only a direct match of the previous player’s card counts: a card you take as part of a run is not a caída.

There is no caída on the first card of a new distribution: once three fresh cards are dealt, matching the last card the dealer laid in the previous distribution does not count. The count starts afresh with every distribution.

A missa — the Spanish mesa — is a capture that leaves the table empty: 1 point, scored on the spot. If the same play is both a caída and a missa, it scores 2. The one exception is the last card of the deal: when the dealer clears the table with the last card in hand of the final distribution, there is no missa — though a caída on that play still counts.

After a missa the table starts empty: the next player has nothing to match and must lay a card down, and that card may become the following player’s caída. That is why strong players keep track of which ranks have already gone before laying a card on an empty table.

Calling: ronda and tringa

With every new distribution of three cards, before you play the first of them, you may call what you hold. A ronda is a pair of the same rank, worth 1 point; a tringa is three of a kind, worth 5. Only what you call counts: an uncalled pair scores nothing. Each player makes one call per distribution, and a player holding a tringa who calls ronda has called truly — it counts as a ronda.

Not every caller scores. In each distribution only the strongest true call counts: a tringa always beats a ronda, and between two calls of the same kind the higher rank in Ronda order wins — the Rey highest, the 1 lowest. Partners are one side, so only the stronger of their two calls is counted. If two opposing sides call a ronda of the same rank, the point is split and rounded down, so neither scores it.

A false call costs you: call a ronda or a tringa you do not hold and your call is wiped, while your opponents score 1 for a false ronda and 5 for a false tringa. At three players the penalty goes to the player after the caller. A player is penalised at most once per deal.

Everyone sees that you called, but not the rank of your call nor whether it was true, until the deal ends. The calls are then revealed and scored along with the card points.

End of the deal and winning

A deal ends when every hand is empty and the stock is spent. Any cards still on the table go to the last player who captured — and that is never a missa.

Then the piles are counted. At two players and in partnership play, a side scores 1 point for every card over 20, a partnership counting both partners’ piles together. At three players, each player scores 1 point for every card over 13. Take 26 cards head to head and you score 6; take 20 or fewer and your cards score nothing.

The calls are added on top; caídas and missas were already scored during play. Points carry over from deal to deal, and the deal passes to the next player.

Totals are checked at the end of each deal, so a deal always runs its course even if someone passes the target during it. The first side to reach 41 points — or 25 in Quick — wins the match. If more than one side gets there in the same deal, the higher total wins, and if the top totals are equal the match is a draw.

How to play

1. Deal — Deal three cards to each player and four face up to the table. Whenever every hand is empty, deal three more to each player — none to the table — until the stock runs out.
2. Call — Before your first card of each distribution, call “ronda” if you hold a pair or “tringa” if you hold three of a kind. What you don’t call doesn’t count.
3. Capture — Play a card: if it matches a rank on the table, take it with the run above it — 1 to 7, then Sota, Caballo, Rey — up to the first missing rank. Otherwise your card stays on the table.
4. Caída and missa — Take, by its rank, the card the previous player has just laid down: a caída, 1 point. Leave the table empty: a missa, 1 point. Both in one play: 2 points.
5. Count — At the end of the deal, the cards left on the table go to the last capturer. Then score 1 point per card over 20 (over 13 at three players), and add the calls.
6. Win — The first side to reach 41 points at the end of a deal wins — 25 in Quick. If several get there, the higher total wins.

Scoring & winning

• Caída: 1 point, scored on the spot, for taking by its rank the card the previous player has just laid down. No caída on the first card of a new distribution, nor for a card taken as part of a run.
• Missa: 1 point for leaving the table empty, 2 if the same play is also a caída. No missa for the dealer’s last card of the final distribution.
• Ronda and tringa: a ronda (a pair) scores 1 and a tringa (three of a kind) 5, and only the strongest true call of each distribution counts. Two opposing rondas of the same rank score nothing.
• False call: it is wiped and the opponents score 1 for a ronda or 5 for a tringa — at most one penalty per player per deal.
• Cards: 1 point per captured card over 20 at two players and in partnerships, over 13 at three. A 26-card pile head to head scores 6.
• Example: head to head you took 24 cards, scored two caídas and a missa, and a tringa you called won its distribution: 2 + 1 + 5 + 4 = 12 points for the deal.
• Winning: the first side to 41 — or 25 in Quick — at the end of a deal wins. If more than one side is there, the higher total wins; equal top totals are a draw.

Strategy

FAQ