Truc

Truc is a bluffing and counter-bluffing trick-taking card game dating to the fifteenth century, likened to a two-player form of poker for the way it mixes card play with escalating bets. It is thought to have originated in Spain toward the end of the Middle Ages, and its name derives from a Valencian word for trick or deception, referring to the false announcements players use to unsettle an opponent. A round is won by taking two of three tricks, by winning the first trick when the other two are split, or by forcing an opponent to fold after a raise; either player may raise the stakes mid-hand, requiring the other to accept the new value or concede the hand. The game remains played in Occitania, in Sarthe as trut, in Poitou as tru, in the Basque Country as truka, and especially in the Valencia region, and its more elaborate South American descendant, Truco, spread widely after game designer Sid Sackson described the French version in his 1969 book A Gamut of Games.