Ombre – The First Card Game with Bids
When I was in high school, my family moved into a new district, and one of my courses was not offered at the new school. As a result, I spent a semester placed in a study period, rather than an actual class. While I was there, the other students introduced me to Spades, which was my first bidding card game. I had played Hearts before, so I was familiar with the concept of trick-taking.
Of course, Hearts is a point-trick game (you’re trying to avoid taking specific cards with point values). Spades, however is different, in that you guess (bid on) how many rounds (tricks) you think you will win, and the scoring is based on how close you come to that bid.
Trick-taking games are my favorite classification of card games. They challenge you not only to accurately assess the usefulness of your hand, but also to deduce the hands of your opponents well enough that you can manipulate the odds in your favor. Played skillfully, even a weak hand can win the most tricks. This is because most games require that you “follow suit” – that is, play a card within the same suit as the first card played to a trick if you have one.
When I started diving into historic games, I was fascinated to learn that the Tarot deck was invented specifically to play a trick-taking game, about 300 years before it was associated with divination. What we now call the major arcana (the picture cards) was originally meant to be a fifth suit that always beat the four numbered suits. This was in the mid-15th century, and it’s uncertain whether Trionfi (the tarot game) or Karnöffel holds the honor of being the first game with a trump suit.
What are Trumps?
The purpose of a trump suit is to beat every other suit in a trick-taking game. Occasionally, it’s limited to only a few individual cards. Some games require conditions before a trump may be played, such as having no other legal play, or that a trump card has already been used.
Ombre (“The Man,” taken from the phrase Yo soy el hombre – “I am the man”) first became popular in late-16th century Spain. By this time, trumps as a mechanic were well-established, but were generally a predetermined suit (like Spades), declared by the dealer, or chosen by turning over a random card.
Bidding for First
What Ombre brought to the table, as it were, was the idea of having a round of “bidding” after the cards were dealt, but before the first play. Essentially, bidding was a bet on the outcome of the game, and the highest bid not only got to play first, but also carried the highest risk.
Generally, Ombre is a 3-player game – the winner of the bid is actually playing against an alliance of the other two players. The allied players don’t combine their tricks, as in a modern partnership game. Instead, their goal is simply to cooperate to prevent the bid winner from collecting an individual majority of tricks. When 4 people play, the 4th usually sits out for a hand, replacing one of the other players after the hand is over.
Later, variations developed to include a fourth person as an active player. This eventually evolved into the French game Quadrille, and later into Whist.
A Spanish Deck for a Spanish Game
Ombre is played with a 40-card Spanish deck, which uses the Latin suits of Espadas (Swords), Bastos (Clubs), Oros (“Golds,” as in Golden Coins), and Copas (Cups). The face cards, in rank order from low to high, include: Sota (Page/Squire), Caballo (Horse/Knight), and Rey (King). In my illustrations, I included a couple of women for the highest rank, so they would be Reina (Queen). Only 1 through 7 are included in the number cards. Rather than dividing the deck in half by color (red/black), the Spanish deck is divided into “long” suits (Swords and Clubs), and “round” suits (Coins and Cups).
To play this game with a modern French-suited deck, simply remove the 8, 9, and 10 of each suit, and convert the suits as follows: Swords/Spades, Clubs/Clubs, Coins/Diamonds, and Cups/Hearts. Here is a quick visual comparison of my custom face cards for the four suits (so I don’t step on any copyright toes):
Setup and Initial Strategy
Depending on where you look, you will find different rules for Ombre. This might be due to regional variations, the addition of tournament rules (as in Denmark), or simply house rules as it was taught to the writer. In fact, The Compleat Gamester, written in 1657 by Charles Cotton, claims that there were several versions played even then, but that “Renegado” was the most popular. I will be using the rules to Renegado as explained by David Parlett, a well-known historian of card games. However, I still plan to use the original Spanish suits, just to keep a consistent theme here.
Goal
The object of the person playing as Ombre (after winning the bid) is to capture an individual majority of the 9 total tricks. Since there are 3 players, this might be accomplished by either capturing 5 tricks, or by capturing 4 tricks, while splitting the remaining ones 3/2 between the opposing players, sometimes referred to as Defenders. The Defenders’ goal is to cooperate to prevent the Ombre from completing their contract (winning under the terms of their bid). Neither Defender needs to win individually – they just have to stop the Ombre from succeeding. They might even do so by causing a tie game.
Chips for Betting
We are familiar with poker chips in different colors to represent different amounts of points or currency. Ombre, interestingly, uses different shapes for each value, and each player has their own color. Because there are often payments to and from the pool as well as separate payments between players for certain conditions, this was likely to make it easier to figure out how much money to collect from each player at the end of the game. The shapes used are:
- Fish: Sometimes a long rectangle, representing a value of one.
- Oblong: A short rectangle or square, representing a value of five.
- Round: This represents a value of ten. Sometimes, the round came in two sizes, with the larger one being twice as valuable (twenty).
According to Parlett’s source, The Game of Ombre by H.H. Gibbs (the first Baron Aldenham), three of the most common colors are yellow, green, and brown, so I’ll be using those from now on. The most common distribution of tokens at the beginning of the game are, for each player:
- One dozen Large Rounds, worth 20 each (240 total)
- One dozen Small Rounds, worth 10 each (120 total)
- One dozen Oblongs, worth 5 each (60 total)
- One score (or twenty) Fish, worth 1 each (20 total)
This gives each player a grand total of 440 points to start the game.
Dealing the Cards
One thing I couldn’t help but be amused by was the method described to choose the first player. Perhaps this is simply the proper etiquette taught to Lord Aldenham, but deference was given depending on the gender mix of the players.
“If there is but one lady playing, it is her place to deal; if but one gentleman, it is his: but if three gentlemen are playing, or three ladies, the cards are to be dealt round, one by one, and the first king deals.”
So if the genders are mixed, the odd one out deals first. If all three are the same, shuffle the deck and start dealing cards face up. The first player to receive a king takes the cards, shuffles, and deals face-down for the first hand.
Interestingly, Ombre has something like an ante, but only for the dealer. At the beginning of each hand, the dealer places five fish into the pool. Next, they deal each player a total of nine cards, three at a time, starting with the player on their right. After dealing the cards, they place the remaining 13 cards face-down onto the table. This is called the talon. We’ll come back to them in a moment.
After each hand, the deal typically passes to the right. For now, let’s take a look at our starting hands. For our example game, the Brown player deals first, with Yellow to their right, making Yellow the eldest (first) hand, followed by Green and Brown:
Card Ranking Depends on Suit
Before we get to the bidding, which is about the strength of your hand, we first need to know how the cards are ranked. Interestingly, the order of the pip cards (non-face cards) depends on which suit you’re looking at. First, we’ll look at the normal ranks, without accounting for a trump suit.
The long suits (swords and clubs) rank the way you’ve probably been taught your whole life. The highest card is the Ace (with some special rules we’ll see in a moment), followed by the face cards – Rei (or Reina), then Caballo, then Sota, and finally the number cards in order from high to low, 2 being the lowest. If you’re playing with a French-suited deck, these are the black suits.
The round suits (coins and cups) rank the pip cards (including the Ace!) in reverse order. So when it’s not a trump suit, the rank order is the face cards at the top – Rei/Reina, Caballo, Sota, and then the Ace (acting simply as a 1-pip card), followed by the other pip cards from lowest to highest, which means the 7 is the weakest card in a round suit. In a French-suited deck, this maps to the red suits.
Of course, when a suit is chosen as trumps, details change, as we’ll soon see.
Meet the Matadors
Being named the trump suit normally allows the chosen cards to be used to win a trick even when their suit isn’t the one led. As in most trick-taking games, you may only play a trump card if you don’t have any cards of the suit that was led. For example if Coins were named the trump suit, and someone led with the Sota of Swords, a 6 of Coins could beat it, despite not following suit.
Ombre, however, adds a twist to this concept. The Matadors are three cards which act as a kind of super-trump. Once a trump suit is determined, the Matadors rank at the top of it, above everything else. Two of them are always the same, while the middle Matador changes from hand to hand. In order, the Matadors consist of:
- Spadillo: The Ace of Swords
- Manillo: The “lowest” pip card of the chosen trump suit (2 for a long suit, or 7 for a round suit)
- Basto: The Ace of Clubs
Aside from their super-trump status, the three Matadors also have a special ability during play to avoid being forced to follow suit. We’ll see that in detail later.
Sometimes, You Have a Punto
When a round suit (or red, with a French-suited deck) is chosen as trumps, its Ace moves a bit higher in the ranks. Normally, the Ace in a round suit is ranked just beneath the Sota and above the 2, as we saw earlier. When declared as trump, the Ace of that suit becomes the punto (“spot”), and its rank moves above the face cards, just below the Matadors. Note that it does NOT gain any Matador abilities – only the higher ranking. The Ace in the other round suit remains below the face cards as normal.
Let’s look two examples of trump rankings. First, we see the rank order from low to high when Swords are chosen. Note the lack of a Punto.
Next, we’ll see the trump card ranks when Cups is chosen. The Ace advances to the Punto position. Of course, in both cases, the top 3 cards are the Matadors.
Rearranged Hands
Now that we understand the value of the cards we just dealt, let’s rearrange each player’s hand, based on which suit looks best for each one to choose as trump if they win the bid. We’ll talk in more detail about the relative strengths of their hands in a moment.
The Auction – Bidding to Play
Most trick-taking games we know today ask you to bid how many individual tricks (or card points) you think you can win. Ombre isn’t that specific. Instead, when you choose to bid, you’re simply announcing that you think you can win the hand by taking at least 4 tricks without either opponent tying you. The way an opponent outbids you is not by declaring more tricks. Instead, they are simply claiming they can also capture a majority of tricks, but with greater difficulty.
Whoever wins the bid plays by themselves against the other two players, gets to choose the trump suit, and leads to the first trick. Starting with the eldest hand (the first player to receive cards this deal), each player must choose whether to bid or pass. Once you’ve passed, you may not rejoin the bid later.
If everyone Passes, the hand is not played. Players turn in their cards, the next dealer adds 5 fish to the jackpot, then shuffles and deals for a new hand.
Below are the levels of bid, from lowest to highest.
- Juego (“I Play”): The player believes they can win a majority of the tricks. If you win at this level, you become the Ombre, declare the trump suit, and then may exchange cards with the talon – the 13 undealt cards. Choose cards in your hand to discard, and draw replacements. The Defenders then decide between themselves who will exchange cards with whatever remains in the talon first. They may not discuss their cards, but can hint at the relative strength of their hand, and whether they think they can tie or beat the Ombre.
- Voltereta (“Tumble,” or “Turn Over”): The player thinks they can win with a random trump suit. If this bid wins, you become the Ombre, then reveal the top card of the talon. This becomes the trump suit for the hand. After this, the Ombre exchanges cards as above, followed by the Defenders.
- Solo (“Only,” or “Self”): A player who wins with this bid must use their hand as dealt. They get to declare the trump suit, but may not exchange any cards with the talon. The Defenders may still discard and draw as before, but whoever draws first may not exchange more than 8 cards.
- Oros (“Golds”): Here the Ombre plays their hand as dealt, but specifically with Coins as the trump suit. The Defenders exchange with the talon as described in the Solo bid. This last bid appears to be a house rule used by Lord Aldenham, as I haven’t seen it mentioned in other descriptions.
In The Compleat Gamester, Charles Cotton gives a little advice on choosing a trump suit. If you have it narrowed down to two options, pick the long suit before a round suit, because there are fewer of them, meaning your opponents are less likely to have one in their hands. Next, if you have a Rey or Reina, choose a suit other than that one, since it’s practically a trump of its own. Finally, if the trump you choose gives you all three Matadors, take that option if the overall betting stakes are low, because the bonus payment you’ll receive for the Matadors offsets losing the hand. If the stakes are high and you have the Aces of Swords and Clubs, you’d be better off choosing a trump suit with three or four cards, even if it doesn’t give you Manillo, the third Matador.
Now, with all that in mind, let’s think about how to bid from the perspective of each player.
Yellow Player
Yellow has a pretty weak hand, overall. They could choose Coins as trump, which would give them two excellent trump cards between the Rey and the 7 as manillo, but the 6 would be the lowest rank in that suit, and they’re not guaranteed to improve their hand with an exchange.
With someone else playing as Ombre, however, they’ve got reasonable odds on winning 2 or even 3 tricks, because they have several high-ranked cards in a variety of suits. Their best option is to Pass.
Green Player
Green is a little better off. Cups as trump gives them the 7 as manillo Matador, a punto (Ace of Cups), and two face cards in the trump suit, as well as the Reina of Swords, and reasonably ranked cards in Coins, as well.
Green feels confident in announcing a Juego bid, but their hand doesn’t have enough high-ranked cards in other suits to risk Voltereta (random trump decided by the top card of the talon), and isn’t quite strong enough to try a Solo bid (no card exchange). After bidding Juego, the turn passes to the Brown player.
Brown Player
Brown’s hand is very strong with Clubs as a trump suit. They have the 2, which would give them both the manillo and basto Matadors, which could only be beaten by the spadillo. Their other clubs are low or middle-ranked – there are 4 remaining cards in Clubs which could beat them.
Bidding Juego would be ideal, then discard everything that wasn’t Clubs, hoping to draw back more trumps, or better face cards in other suits.
Unfortunately, Green has already bid Juego, so Brown would have to bid higher. I wouldn’t want to risk Voltereta, since the trump suit would then be random. Bidding Solo would be a big gamble, since you can’t draw to improve your hand, and Brown only has five of the eleven trumps (including the matadors) by choosing Clubs. It could be done with careful play, but Brown decides not to take the risk, so Green wins the bid and will play as Ombre against Yellow and Brown.
Exchanging with the Talon
After winning the bid, Green declares Cups as the trump suit, and chooses to keep the Reina of Swords, but discards all their other Coins and Swords, drawing four new cards from the talon.
Yellow hints they have the stronger hand, so Brown allows them to draw first. They keep all their Cups and face cards, and exchange four cards with the talon. This leaves only five cards to draw. Brown has no trumps except for the basto Matador. They keep it, both Coins, and the Caballo of Swords, exchanging everything else to claim the last of the undealt cards.
Below, we can see the player’s final hands to begin the play, arranged in player order, with Cups as the trump suit. Green, as Ombre, will lead to the first trick, followed by Brown to their right, and Yellow plays last.
As a reminder, Brown dealt the first hand, so the pot currently contains only their ante of five fish.
In some sources, I saw an optional rule where players may raise the starting stakes by requiring a payment of one fish for each card exchanged with the talon. This wasn’t mentioned in Lord Aldenham’s account, so I didn’t use it in our example game.
A Brief Summary of the Setup
I know, that was a lot of explanation just to set up for the hand. But don’t be intimidated by the apparent complexity – not much has actually happened so far. Here’s a quick summary before we move into playing the first trick:
- Brown was the first to deal, and put 5 fish in the jackpot as an ante.
- Brown then dealt 9 total cards, 3 at a time, starting on their right with the Yellow player. This left 13 undealt cards as a talon.
- After examining their hands, Yellow was the first to bid, choosing to Pass.
- Green bid Juego (“I play”), declaring that they believed they could win the majority of tricks.
- Brown was not confident enough in their hand to outbid Green, so they also passed.
- Because Yellow already passed, Green won the auction and became Ombre. The Yellow and Brown players are Defenders for this hand.
- Green declared Cups as the trump suit, and exchanged 4 cards with the talon.
- Yellow and Brown decided to allow Yellow to draw first, and Yellow exchanged 4 cards.
- Finally, Brown exchanged 5 cards, emptying the talon.
Playing the Game
The First Trick
The actual play should be pretty familiar to anyone who has played a trick-taking game before. One player leads (plays a card) to begin the trick. Each player in turn then plays a card from their hand. If they can “follow suit” (play a card from the same suit as the card which was led), they must do so. Matadors are an exception to following suit, which I’ll explain in a moment.
Otherwise, you may play any other card from your hand. This might be a card from the trump suit, which can win against any other suit led, or something else as a discard. Remember that discards can be an important opportunity to remove weak cards from your hand – if you eliminate a non-trump suit, you might be able to play a trump suit against it later.
After everyone has played a card, the highest-ranked card of the suit led (or the highest trump, if played) wins the trick. The winner of each trick leads to the next.
Matadors Renege Against Weakness
To renege (“deny”) comes from the Latin negere (“to refuse”), with the prefix re- used as an intensifier. In Ombre, Matadors may renege against weaker cards.
That is, no card, trump or otherwise, can force a Matador to be played except for a higher-ranked Matador. We saw this in the first trick, where even though Swords were led, the Yellow player was not required to play the Ace of Swords, because that is the Matador spadillo.
One important aspect of this rule is that a Matador can only force a weaker Matador to be played when it is led, not if it’s played second in a trick. However, if a Matador has been led and you hold a lesser Matador, you must play it, even if you also hold lower trumps that you’d prefer to give up.
Three More Tricks
At this point, Yellow has won the first two tricks, which looks bad for the Green player, as they are Ombre for this hand. Since we’ve covered the rules for playing tricks, let’s see how the rest of the hand plays out.
What About Surrender?
At this point, our Ombre isn’t doing too well. They’ve only won two of the first five tricks, and must win at least two more, assuming that neither opponent also captures a total of four tricks. On top of that, they don’t currently have the lead, so they’ll have to follow suit for whatever the Brown player leads. While they might hope to take the lead back with a Sota of Swords or Clubs, conceding the hand seems like a good option.
Unfortunately, Green came to this conclusion too late. While you are permitted to surrender in Ombre, it must be announced before beginning the fourth trick, and we’ve already played five. The rules to surrender in Ombre are as follows:
- Must be announced before the fourth trick begins.
- If playing a Juego or Voltereta bid, both Defenders must accept the surrender. If either refuses, the hand must be played out, with the player who refused taking over as Ombre. They aren’t allowed to change the trump suit, and they must still collect a majority of tricks as normal. This also complicates payments, which we’ll go over in a later section.
- If playing a Solo bid, the Ombre may not surrender.
- Defenders may not surrender – only the Ombre may do so.
Completing the Hand
If Green had given up after losing the first two tricks, chances are Yellow would have taken over as Ombre. Unfortunately, they realized the odds a little too late, but let’s see if they can recover, despite Brown currently having the lead. Here are the last four tricks for our example game.
Time to Pay Up
After the hand is completed – all nine tricks have been played, a surrender was accepted, or the Ombre simply wins all of the first five tricks – it’s time to figure out payments for the results. Whether the Ombre wins or loses the hand, payments vary based on how it happened. Interestingly, in some game results, the contents of the pot might carry over into the next game, rather than being awarded to anyone.
If the Ombre Succeeds
Remember, the bid only determines the restrictions that the Ombre must play under. Regardless of the winning bid, the goal remains the same – the Ombre must take at least 5 of the tricks, or if they capture only 4, the Defenders must have a 3/2 split between them. Should the Ombre succeed, this is called sacada (“to take out”). They win the current contents of the jackpot, plus 5 fish from each Defender. In addition, they might earn one or several of the following bonus payments:
- Primeras (“First”): If the Ombre captures all of the first five tricks, they receive an additional fish from each opponent, making the payment 6 fish instead of 5.
- Estuches (“Honors”): If the Ombre held all three Matadors before leading to the first trick, each Defender must pay an extra 3 fish, plus 1 more for each extra trump card sequentially below the Matadors. For example, if the trump suit were Coins, and a player starts with the Matadors, plus the Ace of Coins (punta), and the Rey of Coins, they would earn an extra 5 fish – 3 for the Matadors, plus 2 more for the top two trumps. If they just had the Rey, only the 3 fish for the Matadors would apply, because of the gap left by the Ace. Typically, the Estuches bonus is limited to a maximum of 5 fish, even if you hold all of the trumps. Estuches payments are usually paid before playing the first trick.
Alternatively, Estuches may also be earned if the Ombre started with none of the Matadors. In this case, payment would be 3 fish, plus an additional one for each trump card they were missing, again with a limit of 5 fish. - Voltereta Bid: If the Ombre succeeds on a bid of Voltereta, the base Defender payment is increased to 7 fish, before accounting for any other bonus.
- Solo Bid: If the Ombre succeeds on a bid of Solo, the base Defender payment is increased to 8 fish, before accounting for any other bonus.
Paying for Failure
When the Ombre fails their bid, they must pay a penalty, but where the payment goes depends on the severity of the loss:
- Puesta (“Putting”): Losing because at least one of the Defenders tied the Ombre in tricks captured (4-4-1, or 3-3-3) results in payment to the jackpot (putting it into the stakes for the next game). The Ombre first matches the current contents of the pot, then adds an additional 5 fish for each opponent.
- Codille (“Elbow”): If either Defender captures a majority of tricks, whether by taking at least 5, or a dominant 4 (taking 4 tricks without either opponent tying them), the Ombre must pay the same penalty as for Puesta, but directly to that player instead of into the jackpot. One could say the Ombre was elbowed out of the game.
Penalties Also Have Bonuses
Yes, many of the bonuses above also apply to the penalties the Ombre must pay if they fail. These payments go toward the jackpot if the loss was by Puesta, or to the appropriate Defender in the case of codille.
- Estuches (“Honors”): Just like above, if the Ombre held all the Matadors at the beginning of the game, but still lost, they must pay 3 fish, plus 1 additional fish for each sequential trump below the Matadors. If they started with no Matadors, then the payment is 3 fish plus 1 fish for each trump they lacked. In either case, this penalty is limited to 5 fish. Note that if payment for Estuches was made before starting the hand, this penalty is “doubled,” since Ombre is returning what they were previously paid in addition to paying the penalty.
- Voltereta Bid: Failing at Voltereta increases the penalty payment per Defender to 7 fish.
- Solo Bid: Failing at Solo increases the penalty payment per Defender to 8 fish.
Challenging the Vole (“The Volley”)
When playing as Ombre, if you win the first 5 tricks, the game is usually over, and you simply enjoy the primeras bonus. However, if you lead a card to begin the sixth trick, you have chosen to “challenge the vole,” and you must now attempt to win all 9 tricks.
You may even bid to challenge the vole during the auction. To do so outranks a bid of Solo – in fact, a bid of Vole requires the same restrictions as if you had bid Solo (you get to declare trumps, but must play your hand as dealt. However, if someone else was strong enough to bid Solo, a Vole challenge is unlikely to succeed, so it’s usually best to wait until you’ve won primeras.
Once you have challenged the vole, losing even a single trick means you have lost, and the hand immediately ends. Losing vole overrides any win by sacada you may have started out with. This is treated as a loss by puesta, paying into the jackpot, and now the payment per Defender is 30 fish.
After a Surrender
When the Ombre surrenders before beginning the fourth trick, and both Defenders accept, it is treated as a loss by puesta, and the Ombre pays the appropriate penalty into the jackpot.
However, if a Defender refuses to accept the surrender, things get a little trickier. First, that Defender becomes the new Ombre, and must now win the hand with the current trump suit. Note that whoever has the lead at this point remains the same. This new Ombre may not surrender, and must play the complete hand.
Second, the original Ombre must set aside the penalty for a loss by puesta, paying it neither to the new Ombre nor the jackpot yet.
If the new Ombre succeeds in winning a majority of tricks, the original Ombre takes back the puesta they set aside, and must now pay the winning player as though the loss had been by codille.
BUT, if the new Ombre fails to win a majority of tricks, then both the original and the new Ombres must pay a puesta penalty into the jackpot (even if they both lose by codille later). These are called twins. Basically, when a Defender challenges a surrender, they are doubling the stakes of the hand.
Let’s turn back the clock and imagine Green had surrendered after Yellow had won the first two tricks, including forcing the Matadors out of everyone’s hand.
Yellow, feeling extremely confident, refuses to allow the surrender, which means they become the new Ombre and must play out the rest of the hand while winning at least 2 more tricks for a dominant 4.
Green sets their puesta payment of 15 fish aside, using two oblongs to represent a total of 10 fish.
Now let’s imagine the rest of the tricks played out the same way as before, with Brown making an impressive comeback to take a total of 5 tricks by the end of the game.
Even though both Yellow and Green have now lost by codille, they both pay into the pot as though they had each lost by puesta. Green simply puts in what they had set aside, while Yellow chooses to give up 1 oblong and 1 small round, representing 5 and 10 fish respectively.
Reserved Puestas Limit the Jackpot
Finally, players may agree at the start to limit how large the jackpot may grow. Remember, a loss requires that the Ombre pay the current total in the pot plus the penalty for each Defender. The total of the pot gets larger in two different ways:
- Dealer Ante: Don’t forget that at the beginning of each hand, the dealer adds 5 fish to the jackpot before shuffling the cards.
- Loss by Puesta: An Ombre losing by puesta pays the current jackpot total, plus an additional 5 fish for each Defender, into the pool. This might be more for a higher bid, or if a surrender was refused and both the new Ombre lost.
As you can imagine, unless an Ombre wins and takes the pot, it can rapidly grow quite large. To avoid this, the players might agree on an upper limit for the central pool. Once it exceeds this amount, only antes continue to be paid in. Puesta payments instead become reserved puestas.
Rather than putting them into the pot, set aside a reserve puesta, making sure to keep any additional ones separated from each other. When the central jackpot is won, replace it with one of the reserved puestas, starting with the largest one first (not necessarily the first one to be set aside).
Optional Rules
That covers how the most common variation of Ombre is normally played. The following rules are completely optional.
- Forced Spadillo: During the auction, if everyone passes, rather than starting a new hand, whoever holds the Ace of Swords (if anyone) must take on the role of Ombre as though they had bid Juego.
- Cascarillo (“Shell”): Again, if everyone passes, starting with the eldest hand, a player may bid Cascarillo. In this case, they exchange 8 (or even all 9!) cards with the talon, then declare a trump suit and take on the role of Ombre with this new hand. Playing a Cascarillo bid adds 3 fish to the total won or lost.
- Contravole (“Counter-Volley”): Another option when everyone passes is for a player to offer to capture zero tricks after choosing a trump suit (of which they must hold at least one card). If they succeed, payments are the same as for a normal Juego bid, while failure incurs a normal puesta penalty. The game ends as soon as the Ombre takes even a single trick.
- Favor: This is an optional bid above Juego but below Voltereta, similar to the Oros bid out-ranking a bid of Solo. This is essentially a bid of Juego with Coins as trump.
Other Player Counts
While Ombre is normally played by 3 people, it has been adapted when different numbers of people wish to participate.
- Two Players: Remove one of the Round suits (Coins or Cups), reducing the deck to 30 cards. Deal 8 cards in sets of 2, and bid as normal. Ombre must capture at least 5 tricks. A 4-4 tie results in a payment of puesta. If the Defending player takes 5 tricks, the Ombre loses by codille. After the trump suit is named, the bonus payment is made immediately if either player holds all three Matadors.
- Four Players: In most hands, the player opposite the dealer receives no cards, but takes part in payments as though they were a third Defender. This also means that if the Ombre loses, they must account for the extra Defender in their penalty. However, if nobody bids during the auction, the fourth player picks up the entire talon, discards 4 cards, declares a trump suit, and takes on the role of Ombre against all three of the other players. A fourth hand means that it’s possible to succeed with as few as 3 tricks, assuming a 2-2-2 split among the Defenders.
- Five Players: In this game, sometimes called Cinquillo, the ante is a payment of 1 fish from each player, rather than 5 fish from the dealer. Deal each player 8 cards, which leaves no talon for discards. In this game, there are only two possible bids. First is Ask Leave, in which a player requests a partner to join them and capture 5 tricks together. If nobody agrees to partner up, the bidder may play Solo, in which they must win at least 5 of the 8 tricks by themselves. In either case, the winner of the bid, now called Ombre, chooses a trump suit and leads to the first trick. Upon success, an Ombre playing solo wins the jackpot without anything extra from the Defenders. With a partner, the Ombre takes 2/3 of the total jackpot, while 1/3 goes to the partner, regardless of how the tricks taken were distributed between them. If the Ombre and their partner take no more than 3 tricks together, they must instead match and pay into the jackpot – 2/3 from Ombre, and 1/3 from the partner, as before.
Final Thoughts
Usually, people assume that games evolve from simple rulesets into more complex ones. However, I am constantly fascinated by the challenges I find in older game rules which were once extremely popular, but fell out of favor as some new variant came along. Consider how simplistic the bidding itself was compared to figuring out exactly how many tricks you think you can take today. And yet the interplay of how you choose trumps, the extra super-trump cards, being able to ignore following suit, and especially the payment system all combine to make a rich card game. I’m happy that the Danes continue to keep this piece of history alive with regular tournament play.
So find two friends and a deck of Spanish cards, or substitute a regular deck if you have to. Give Ombre a shot and flex those strategic muscles.
