The Blackouts Made us Rediscover the Game of Ronda

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Greetings, everyone.

As I have been telling you, the recent blackouts that Venezuelans have been suffering have changed our habits even more. We had already faced scarcity of food and medicines; we had gotten used to waiting in endless lines every day to do the most common things, such as getting money in an ATM or paying utility bills, to waiting for a bus or getting a passport. Now we have to add to our ordeals endless hours without power (which paralyzes the whole country), the dumbest explanations from government officials, and mosquitoes (which are actually not as bad as government officials).

One good thing that has come out of all this reinventing of our routines is the fact that we are sharing more time with our loved ones. In the absence of technology we have had to go back to old fashion talking, storytelling, star gazing, and a great rediscovery: card games!

Today I want to tell you about Ronda, a game I played when I was growing up and that had not played probably in 25 years. Just in case you do not know what this game is all about, allow me to introduce it to you:

Ronda

Type of Game: Fishing.

Goal: to capture cards with matching cards in hand.

Number of Players: 2 preferably (it can also be played by 4, and even by 3)

Number of Cards : 40-card regular Spanish deck.

Cards' Ranks : 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 10 (jack or sota), 11 (horse or caballo), 12 (king or rey), 1 (ace or as ranks highest). This type of deck does not include 8 and 9, thus the sota follows the 7.

Audience: All Ages (starting as early as kids can follow the rules)

PRELIMINARIES

Ronda is a popular card game in Venezuela. It is said that it originated in the Iberian Peninsula, settling also in the neighboring African countries, especially Morocco. Due to this fact, the game has French, Spanish, and Arabic forms. Like any other card game, it has variations. I will show you how we play it in Cumaná, Venezuela.

Ronda is played with a 40-card regular Spanish deck.

The deck has 4 suits
: bastos (clubs), copas (cups), espadas (swords), and oros (golden coins).

Mesa perfecta.jpg

DEALING

The player who is designated as dealer shuffles the deck and the other player cuts it. After that, the dealer deals out 3 cards to the other player, and finally four cards are dealt face up on the table (a variation of this, which I recommend is to deal one card on the table first, then one at the time to the players in combination with the remaining three cards on the table). If played by 4, the dealer begins with the player to their right and moves counterclockwise, ending the deal with themselves.

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Example of a bad table. A repeated card or duplicate makes the dealer lose a point

The table cards must be of different ranks (numbers). If a pair/duplicate is placed on the table, the second card is shuffled into the deck and a new card is dealt in its place. The player who is not dealing gets one point for every duplicate card placed by the dealer on the table. If the dealer does not place any paired card s/he gets one point (a good hand). Additionally, if the dealer places the ranks from ace to four (1-4) in their corresponding place, s/he gets as many points as their rank indicates (one for the ace if placed first, 2 for any 2 if placed second, etc.).

PLAYING

During a turn, players fish or capture matching cards on the table, or play them face-up if they do not have any matching card or would rather keep them for later as part of their game strategy. Cards that are captured are kept in a pile, face-down, in front of the capturer.

After everyone has played their 3 cards in hand, the dealer deals the second batch of 3 cards, following the same dealing mechanism as before. No more cards are dealt to the table after the first round. Once these hands are played, the round ends. The cards that were captured are scored and the position of dealer moves in the next game. If there are cards left on the table, the player who captured last gets them.

RONDA, TOLETE, and PATRULLA

Ronda de reyes.jpg
Example of Ronda

After the deal, players examine their cards and, if they can, announce either Ronda, Patrulla, or Tolete. Players can call
Ronda
if they have a pair of cards that are equal in rank, a
Patrulla
if they have a sequence (1, 2, 3; 2, 3, 4; 10, 11, 12; etc.), and
Tolete
is they have three cards of equal rank. A Ronda is worth 1 point, a Patrulla is worth 2, and a Tolete is worth 3 points. The rank of the cards is not announced until the end of the hand, if more than one player has either of the possible calls (although the Tolete would be automatically inferred after each player has played one card). The player with the higher ranking combination wins the points. If there happens to be a tie, both players get the same amount of points. In case there are different calls at the same time, a Patrulla beats a Ronda and a Tolete beats a Patrulla. The highest call gets the points.

Patrulla.JPG
Example of Patrulla

Players must announce if they have Ronda, Patrulla or Tolete before they play their first card; if they don’t, they other player gets the number of points of whatever set the other player had.

Tolete.jpg
Example of Tolete

If a player falsely announces a Ronda or Patrulla and is caught by the opponent, the opponent gets the points. The only case where a false call leads to a legal victory is in case either party is close to winning and one player calls a Ronda. The other player may also call Ronda to delay the granting of points hoping to score for a caida or a mesa limpia before the trick is discovered.

CAPTURING

During play, if you play a card which is equal in rank to a card on the table, you capture the matching card and place it in your pile. Also, you can capture cards which are of higher rank but are in sequence with the pair. For example, if you capture a 5, you may pick up a 6, 7, 10, 11, and 12, in that order. During a turn, you may play only one card. If that card matches, you must capture all cards you possibly can. If the card played matches nothing, it sits on the table face-up. If you fail/forget to capture card(s) you could have captured, the other player can call soplada (blow), take as many cards as were neglected on the table, and add them to his/her pile.

If you capture a card that was just put down by the player before you, you score 1 point. The player capturing must announce “fall/you fell.” In the first hand, the player who is not dealing can call out the last card placed by the dealer saying “give me the… + the last card played (example: dealer plays a 7, the other player calls, “give me the 7”. If s/he gets a 7 for the next hand, s/he can capture it and get 1 point).

If a card played serves to capture all the cards on the table, that player or that team wins 1 point. This is referred to as mesa limpia (Spanish for clean/wiped table). If a player captures the last card played by another player and is able to clean the table, then s/he calls caida y mesa limpia and scores 2 points.

SCORING

Once the game is finished, the cards in the capture pile are counted. The team or player that captures the most cards earns 1 point per extra cards captured, up to 20 cards. If a player or team reaches 24 points they win automatically and the game ends. This may happen at any time during play or during the scoring. When I was a kid we played in two rounds of 12 points each. We used a pool of corn, black beans, or just little pebbles to keep score. The first player to get to 12 points called “I’m in,” put the “chips” back in the pool, and placed some object (a bigger rock a stick) next their side to indicate that the next 12 points were to end the game.

Possible scorings:

1 point for a

Ronda

1 point for each caida (fall)
1 point for a mesa limpia (clean table)
1 point for a good hand (for dealer at game opening)
1 point for a bad hand (to the player or team that is not dealing)
2 points for a

Patrulla

2 points for a caida and mesa limpia
3 points for a

Tolete

Points for each card (rank 1 to 4) placed faced up in corresponding place on table on first deal.

Demo video 1

Demo Video 2

Demo Video 3

Thanks for your visit. I hope you can get to play this fun game.

Add some music, drinks, and something to bet on and it can get really exciting.


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Visítanos en: www.equipocardumen.com.ve

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Only when something happens we get to rediscover what's still great! Gotta see if I can get someone to play this with me in some family reunion party in the future :)

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That's right.
I hope you have the chance to play this game. It can be really fun. Kids make it really competitive.
Thanks for stopping by

We experienced the same thing. When you have no power you go back to basics and you spend more time together as a family. It forces you to as you have no choice. What are you going to do otherwise when black outs are 6 or 8 hours long.

Greetings,
Thanks for stpping by. I have been following some the incidenct in SA. Hopefully it won't degenerate into the chaos we have over here.

I hope not and it will all depend on what route they take. I really hope your country comes right soon as it must be terrible going through what you guys are right now.

Hi hlezama,

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Hey @hlezama thank you for showing a new card game with this deck. It seems super interesting to me. The only game I know with this deck is Scopa. Do you know this game? It is actually also quite fun to play :)

Greetings, @mcnestler.
I did not know about that one. I looked into it and it sounds interesting too. One more to add to the list.
Thanks

We shouldn't get used to the blackouts yet we can't possibly do anything to avoid them though. Looking at the "bright" side of things, It's really good you are finding ways to spare time while playing traditional card games such as Ronda. Regards mate!

I agree, man. Getting used to this humilating situation is not an option. I have noticed recently that people do not even cheer when power is back. There is nothing to celebrate. We should not even be havig power cuts in the first place.
That being said, we need to keep our sanity.
My mother-in-law is about to collapse. She is losing it. She is having a hard time engaging in activities to distract her attention from the heat and the limitations brought by the cuts.
She is getting sick easier now and one affection leads to another.
If this shit lasts as long as the government has announced and if they don't fall in the process, there will be many people seriously sick, or even dead, the cause of which, tecnically speaking would have been a "simple" blackout.

That looks like a fun game to play, I love cards. I'm sorry there are still struggles happening and to that extent. I am glad to know that you are passing your time doing good things, I know bad things can happen from all this. I just wanted to tell you how awesome you are for surviving this.

Thanks for your kind words. I will keep posting some of the things we are doing to get distracted, some more wild than others (coming up next, kill mosquitos with useless money). :)

Hi @hlezama, it is really hard to see what is happening in Venezuela now, especially the simple people now in 21th century who could get help been banned from it. I hope the politicians will come to some solution and the country will start coming back to normal. As you say yourself, in old time there were many games that people played and from one side it was a social games so people could also communicate and laugh together. That is only a positive side. It is interesting game but I have never heard about it before. That is great that you added videos too, it makes it clear. When my son was little we used to play such games with cards too :)

Thanks for stopping by.
Hope you can play this one with friends or relatives.

Thanks for stopping by.
Hope you can play this one with
Friends or relatives.

                 - hlezama


I'm a bot. I detect haiku.

Haha. Cool
Thanks, @haikubot

I really like your comment that [blood sucking] mosquitoes are not as bad as government officials. Former president, Ronald Reagan, said "The most terrifying words in the English language are: I'm from the government and I'm here to help."

Proud member of #powerhousecreatives

Hahaha. So true. Reagan knew what he was saying. A conservative who promised not to raise taxes only to raise them like a liberal.
I think that our politicians get all the medals, though. Scholars of political studies will debate how these bastards (or geniuses) managed to remain in power after not being able to deliver one single promise (for deades!).

Hi there @hlezama!

I think we share the same culture. We resort to card games or board games during blackouts. Indeed it is a fub way to pass the time and eventually a great excuse for family or frienda bonding.

Though i have never played this game you called Ronda but its kinda interesting to try it out. We have lots of card games here too and far different from yours. We might try this someday.

Thanks for showing us how the game is being played. Its awesome!

Cheers! ❤

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Thanks for stopping by.
I hope you get to play it, but not because of more blackouts but because things go back to normalcy and we can just enjoy free time with family and friends.
That's not too much to ask, I think :) (some gods may be on vacation)

I understand that life today relies on the larger use of gadgets more than personal interaction. We need to get back to the time when gadgets were not that in demand.

And yes we will defitenitely try this out with my family. Im sure they will enjoy it. Thanks again!

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