Tute

How to play Tute

Tute is a game of tricks and points: what counts at the end is not how many tricks you took but the points inside them, plus anything you sang. Play goes to the right, counter-clockwise, as it always has in Spain.

A hand of Tute follows the same pattern every time:

• The cards are dealt. The dealer's last card is shown, and its suit is trumps, the triunfo or pinta, for the whole hand.
• A player leads any card. Everyone else plays one card in turn, following the arrastre rules described below.
• The highest trump in the trick wins it. If no trump was played, the highest card of the suit that was led wins.
• The winner of a trick may sing a cante, then leads the next trick.
• When every card is played, each side adds its card points, cantes and the 10 for the last trick. The higher total wins.
• The first side to win 3, 5 or 7 hands takes the match.

Tute rules for 2, 3 and 4 players (tute por parejas)

**Four players: tute por parejas.** The most popular way to play. Partners sit opposite, each player gets 10 cards and the dealer's last card shows trumps. Your partner's tricks and cantes count for your side.

**Three players.** The 2 of Oros is removed so 39 cards split evenly: 13 each, every player for themselves.

**Two players: tute a dos, also called tute con robo.** Each player gets 8 cards and the next card goes face up under the stock to show trumps. After every trick the winner draws first, then the other player. The face-up trump is the last card drawn.

While the stock lasts you may play any card, with no need to follow suit. Once it is empty, full arrastre applies.

Two-player Tute also has the classic swap of the seven. If you hold the 7 of trumps and the face-up trump card is a figure, an As or a 3, you may exchange your 7 for it. You do this on your lead, after winning a trick. If the face-up card is lower than the 7, the 2 of trumps makes the swap instead.

Card values and points in Tute

Tute uses the 40-card Spanish deck with four suits: Oros (coins), Copas (cups), Espadas (swords) and Bastos (clubs). Each suit runs from the As to the 7, then the three figures: Sota (10), Caballo (11) and Rey (12). There are no 8s or 9s.

From highest to lowest in every suit the order is: As, 3, Rey, Caballo, Sota, 7, 6, 5, 4, 2. The 3 sitting just under the As is the one thing newcomers must remember.

Only five ranks carry points:

• As: 11 points
• 3: 10 points
• Rey (King): 4 points
• Caballo (Knight): 3 points
• Sota (Jack): 2 points
• 7, 6, 5, 4 and 2: no points
• Las diez de últimas: 10 extra points for whoever wins the last trick

Tute scoring: how many points are there?

The cards add up to 120 points. With the 10 for the last trick, there are 130 points to share in every hand, before any cantes. The side with more points, counting cards, cantes and las diez de últimas, wins the hand. If the totals are level, the side that took the last trick wins.

A match is counted in hands won: play to 3, 5 or 7 (default 3). The scoreboard shows hands won and a round history.

Cantes: las veinte y las cuarenta

Singing is what makes Tute more than a plain trick-taking game. If you hold the Rey and the Caballo of the same suit, you can declare them, which is called cantar. A pair in an ordinary suit is worth 20 points, las veinte. A pair in the trump suit is worth 40, las cuarenta.

The timing rules are strict. Only the player who has just won a trick may sing, and only once for each trick won, before leading the next card. In tute por parejas that means your partner cannot sing on a trick you won: it has to be the winner of the trick. Each suit can be sung only once per hand.

Because you need a trick to sing, a pair is worthless if you never win one, so cante holders chase an early trick.

What is a tute in the card game?

A tute is the rarest and best declaration in the game: all four Reyes, or all four Caballos, in one hand. You sing it the same way as a cante, after winning a trick, and it wins the hand outright. There is no need to count points.

This is where the game gets its name.

Arrastre rules: montar and fallar

Arrastre is the set of obligations on which card you may play. It always applies with 3 or 4 players, and in two-player Tute once the stock runs out. The game highlights your legal cards.

• Follow suit: if you have a card of the suit that was led, you must play one.
• Montar (beat it): when you follow suit, you must play a card that beats the card currently winning the trick, if you can.
• Fallar (trump it): if you have none of the suit led, you must play a trump.
• Overtrump: if the trick has already been trumped, you must play a higher trump if you can. If you cannot, you may play any card.
• If you can neither follow suit nor trump, you may play any card.
• Partner rule: strict Tute makes you beat your partner's winning card too, and that is our default. Switch off You must beat your partner's card too in the house rules to relax it.

Tute strategy and tips

These habits help from the first game:

• Count the Ases and 3s. Together they hold 84 of the 120 card points..
• Win a trick early when you hold a cante. Las cuarenta are worth more than three Ases, but only if you get to sing them.
• Sing the bigger pair first. You can sing only once per trick won, so if you hold both las cuarenta and las veinte, take the 40 at the first chance.
• Protect your Rey and Caballo. Arrastre can force you to beat a trick with one of them, so keep other cards in that suit.
• Feed points to your partner. In tute por parejas, when your partner is winning a trick and the last player cannot beat them, play your As or 3 on it.
• Remember las diez de últimas. Ten points for the last trick often decides a close hand, so keep a strong trump for the end.
• In two-player Tute, play cheap cards while the stock lasts. There is no obligation to follow suit yet, so save your strong cards for when arrastre begins.

Play Tute online with friends or against the computer

To play alone, pick a computer level. Easy plays simple, sensible cards. Normal counts points and saves its trumps. Hard tracks every card played, infers who is out of which suit and simulates the remaining hands before each card.

To play Tute online with friends, open a room and share the link or the six-character room code, for example with the WhatsApp button. The computer fills any empty seat. The table has chat with emojis and quick phrases, plus optional voice chat.

Play on a phone, tablet or computer with no download and no sign-up. Settings cover speed, sound and a French-suited deck (Oros as Diamonds, Copas Hearts, Espadas Spades, Bastos Clubs). Statistics and achievements are saved in the browser, and wins count towards the leaderboard.

Tute variants: tute habanero, tute subastado and more

Tute is a family of games, and the name changes from town to town. The version described on this page is the common one: tute arrastrado for 3 and 4 players, tute por parejas for four, and tute a dos or tute con robo for two. Those are the ones you can play here.

Other variants exist that we do not implement. Tute habanero is a regional version with its own conventions on cantes and scoring. Tute subastado adds an auction: players bid on how many points they will make, and the highest bidder chooses the trump and plays against the rest.

History of Tute

Tute belongs to a large European family of card games built on marriages, where a King and a Queen, or in Spain a Rey and a Caballo, score when declared together. Its card order and point values, As then 3 then Rey, are the same as in Brisca, the other great Spanish trick-taking game. The name is usually linked to the Italian word tutti, meaning all, a nod to holding all four Kings or Knights.

Tute became a fixture of Spanish bars, social clubs and family tables, and it sits alongside Mus and Chinchón as a game almost every Spanish family knows.

En español: jugar al tute online gratis

Juega al tute online gratis, sin descargas ni registro, desde el móvil, la tableta o el ordenador. Puedes jugar contra la máquina en tres niveles o crear una sala y compartir el enlace con tus amigos para jugar al tute por parejas. Están las reglas de siempre: arrastre, cantes de las veinte y las cuarenta, tute de reyes o de caballos y las diez de últimas. Para dos jugadores hay tute con robo, con el cambio del siete de triunfo, y puedes elegir entre la baraja española y la francesa.