Basque bluffing in pairs, with signals across the table.
The Basque card game, played in pairs across northern Spain, and the only widely played game where signalling to your partner is not merely allowed but essential. Four players, and it is loud.
40 cards, Spanish suited. Four cards each. Threes count as kings and twos count as aces, so there are eight of each.
Before anything is bet, players go round asking for mus. If all four agree, everyone discards as many cards as they like and draws replacements. This repeats until someone cuts it off, and only then does the betting start.
Each is bet on separately, in this order:
Grande — the highest hand, compared card by card from the top. Chica — the lowest hand, compared the same way from the bottom. Pares — pairs. You announce whether you have any, then bet, then compare: four of a kind beats a full house beats a single pair. Juego — whether your four cards total 31 or more, counting court cards as 10 and the rest at face value. 31 is the best total, then 32, then 40 downward. If nobody has 31 or more, the round is played as punto instead, for whoever is closest to 30.
Bets are made in stones (piedras). Either side may raise, and a side that declines a bet concedes that round for the amount on the table before the raise.
Partners signal their holdings with agreed facial gestures — a bitten lip for the best pair, raised eyebrows for the two aces, and so on. The opposing pair is watching for them, and being caught is part of the game.
Game is 40 stones, usually best of three.