Playcard games

Mus: questions and answers

Short answers to the questions people ask most about Mus. Everything else is in the full rules.

What cards are used in Mus?
The 40-card Spanish pack — or a 52-card deck without the eights, nines and tens. Threes count as kings and twos as aces, so there are eight kings and eight aces. Four players in two pairs, four cards each.
What is the mus?
Before any betting, each player in turn says mus — they want to change cards — or no mus. If all four say mus, everybody throws away as many cards as they like and draws again, and it goes round once more. One no mus ends it, and the betting starts.
What are the four rounds of Mus?
Grande, the highest hand compared card by card from the top; chica, the lowest, compared from the bottom; pares, pairs; and juego, whether your four cards add up to 31 or more. If nobody has juego, the fourth round is punto, for the highest total of 30 or less.
How do pares work in Mus?
Only players with a pair take part. Duples — two pairs, or four of a kind — beat medias, three of a kind, which beat a single pair. Between two of the same kind, the higher cards win.
What is the best juego?
31, then 32, then 40, 37, 36 and so on down to 33, which is the worst. Court cards count 10, so a king, a horse, a jack and an ace make 31 — and so does a three, which is a king here.
How does betting work in Mus?
Bets are in stones. In each round you can pass or bet; the other side can accept, refuse or raise. A refused bet pays what was on the table before it. If everyone passes, the round is still worth a stone to whoever has the better cards, and that is settled when the hands are shown.
Who wins a tie in Mus?
The mano, the player to the dealer's left, who speaks first — and after them whoever sits closest to the mano. That is why being mano is an advantage.
Can you signal to your partner online?
Not here. At a real table partners signal their hands with agreed faces and the other pair watches for them. On screen there are no faces and no chat, so the rest of the game is what is left — and you bet on a partner's hand you have not seen.