Mus: Instructions
How to play
A new game can be started by simply clicking “New Game“. The player may then define a number of settings to determine who may join the game, the opponents’ skill level, etc. Alternatively, the player is free to join another game already set up by a fellow gamer.
At the beginning of the game, each player can see his/her own 4 cards. The name of the players and their points are displayed below the cards. Next to these details is a face. By clicking on this face, a window pops up displaying a number of faces with different gestures, which the players can use to communicate with their partners. A description of the gesture is activated by hovering the mouse over the each of the faces. The gesture is made by clicking on the desired face. All of the players can see the gestures. The face is highlighted in red for the intended partner to catch his/her attention. Should the player decide not to make a gesture, he/she need only click again on the face next to the name to close the window.
To the right of the game room is the game chat as well as the buttons “Player Info.”, “New Friend“, etc.
A pink leaf is shown next to the player who is the ‘first player’ at the time (the player directly to the right of the dealer), while a green arrow shows whose turn it is. Should it be the player’s turn, he/she will see a red exclamation mark in the middle of the table, below which a large field will show which bet is at stake as well as the current stake. Below this, a number of buttons are displayed representing the options the player has in his/her turn. If a raise is possible, a sliding bar is also shown below these buttons. The player can use the mouse to move the marker along the bar to change the value of the raise.
The calls of the player are illustrated via speech bubbles. These speech bubbles also used to pose questions to the playing partner, e.g. “Fold?”. If the partner clicks on “Agree”, for example, the question mark in the speech bubble disappears and the move is carried out.
Following the final betting round, a list with the details of the individual bets is shown in the middle of the table: name of the bet, the bet stake, the bonus (if applicable) and the name of the winner (if applicable).
Automatic help windows appear during the game. These come in the form of small boxes with up to three handy tips relating to the current situation in the game. To scroll through all of the tips, the player can use the small arrow to the top left of the box. If the player no longer wishes to see the current tips, he/she can close them by clicking on the green cross in the top right-hand corner of the box. Should the player not wish to see any further tips, the function can be disabled by clicking on the red cross next to “Show tips?”. Should the player later wish to see the tips again, they can be turned back on by clicking on the question mark at the top left of the screen. If the player wishes to continue seeing the tips, he/she must confirm this by clicking next to the question “Show tips?”.
Rules
Mus is a card game for 4 players and it is played with 40 Spanish cards. All 3s count as Kings and all Aces count as 2s. Therefore in Mus there are 8 Kings and 8 Aces. The aim of the game is to reach 40 points. The game is over as soon as one of the teams reaches this target. At the beginning of the game, the players are divided into two teams that play against each other. The partners of a team always sit opposite each other and they have the opportunity to communicate by using a number of different signals or gestures. Each player receives 4 cards.
After receiving the cards, the players must call either “Mus” or “No Mus”. “Mus” means that the player would like to exchange cards. An exchange can only take place if all of the players call “Mus”. In this case, each player can exchange any or all of his/her cards. Once the exchange has taken place, the question is once again asked. As soon as a played calls “No Mus” the game begins.
Four betting rounds are then played: Biggest and Smallest, Pairs and Game or Point Bets.
Biggest:
The team with the highest card wins. Should both teams have an equally high card, the second highest cards decide, and so on.
Smallest:
The team with the lowest card wins. Should both teams have an equally low card, the second lowest cards decide, and so on.
Pairs:
There are three different types of pair: Single Pair (e.g. 7,6, Ace and 2), Two Pairs (e.g. King, King, 5, 5) and Three-of-a-Kind (e.g. King, King, 3, 7). The player with the highest pair wins. Three-of-a-Kind beats One Pair. Two Pairs beats a Three-of-a-Kind. Should two players have Two Pairs whereby the higher pair is of equal value, the highest second pair wins.
Game and Point:
In this round the point values of the cards are added together. The order of the best hands is as follows: 31, 32, 40, 37, 36, 35, 34, 33. If a player has 31 points, he/she wins the game and the team receives 3 bonus points. For every other game, the team receives 2 bonus points. Only players with cards of a value of more than 30 points can take part in the Game Bet. If no players have cards that total more than 30 points, the Points Bet is played. In this round, the total values of the cards are compared and the team with the highest value wins.
During these betting rounds, the teams can score points. At the beginning of a round, the player can either “raise” or “wait”. If every player, for example, chooses to “wait”, the round will be played for one point. If a team chooses to “raise”, the amount to be raised is determined by the slider. The other team has the opportunity to fold, see or also to raise. To ‘see’ means that the team accepts the raise and agrees to the showdown. The options fold, see and raise are always suggested by one member of the team, which then allows the team mate to either agree or select another of the three given options. If the first partner, however, chooses to see, the second partner may not choose to fold. If the first partner raises, the team mate can either agree to the raise or raise by a higher amount. For example: One player selects “fold”. As a result, his/her partner is presented with the question “Fold?”. The partner can click on the “Fold” button to confirm or can choose “See” or “Raise”.
Generally in Mus the rounds cannot be drawn. If two players have exactly the same cards, the player closest to the first player wins. If the first player, for example, has 31 points as well as another player, the first player always wins the round.
If a player chooses to fold, the opponent wins the point value of the last raise that was accepted. For example: Player A raises to 5, player B wishes to raise to 20. If player A folds, player B wins 5 points.
When betting, the player has the opportunity to choose “Órdago” (“here it is”) by using the slider. Should the opposing team accept the “Órdago”, the game goes to a showdown. If the opposing team folds, however, the first team wins the stake of the previous bet.
For Pair and Game Bets, the player is automatically shown whether he/she can take part given the current cards. If none of the players have a Pair or the cards for the Game Bet, these rounds are skipped. Should just one of the teams have a Pair or the cards for a Game Bet, this team wins the round. If one player in each of the teams has the appropriate cards, the round is played by just these two players. Should no team have 31 points in the Game round, the Point Bet is played.
Upon completion of the four betting rounds the players are shown a list details of who won which rounds. The game comes to an end as soon as a team reaches 40 points. If a team reaches 40 points before the final betting round, this team wins the game, unless the other team wins with “Órdago” in one of the other rounds. When an “Órdago“ is won, the remaining rounds are not played.
During the game the players on each team have the opportunity to communicate with each other. This can be done by using the selection of illustrated faces with differing gestures. Each gesture corresponds to a particular situation in the game and is explained as follows:
Points
The cards are worth the following points in this order:
King/3: 10 points
Knight: 10 points
Jack: 10 points
7-4: points according to the face value of the card
Ace/2: 1 point
The number of points won in the bets depends on the cards held by the teams.
A new game can be started by simply clicking “New Game“. The player may then define a number of settings to determine who may join the game, the opponents’ skill level, etc. Alternatively, the player is free to join another game already set up by a fellow gamer.
At the beginning of the game, each player can see his/her own 4 cards. The name of the players and their points are displayed below the cards. Next to these details is a face. By clicking on this face, a window pops up displaying a number of faces with different gestures, which the players can use to communicate with their partners. A description of the gesture is activated by hovering the mouse over the each of the faces. The gesture is made by clicking on the desired face. All of the players can see the gestures. The face is highlighted in red for the intended partner to catch his/her attention. Should the player decide not to make a gesture, he/she need only click again on the face next to the name to close the window.
To the right of the game room is the game chat as well as the buttons “Player Info.”, “New Friend“, etc.
A pink leaf is shown next to the player who is the ‘first player’ at the time (the player directly to the right of the dealer), while a green arrow shows whose turn it is. Should it be the player’s turn, he/she will see a red exclamation mark in the middle of the table, below which a large field will show which bet is at stake as well as the current stake. Below this, a number of buttons are displayed representing the options the player has in his/her turn. If a raise is possible, a sliding bar is also shown below these buttons. The player can use the mouse to move the marker along the bar to change the value of the raise.
The calls of the player are illustrated via speech bubbles. These speech bubbles also used to pose questions to the playing partner, e.g. “Fold?”. If the partner clicks on “Agree”, for example, the question mark in the speech bubble disappears and the move is carried out.
Following the final betting round, a list with the details of the individual bets is shown in the middle of the table: name of the bet, the bet stake, the bonus (if applicable) and the name of the winner (if applicable).
Automatic help windows appear during the game. These come in the form of small boxes with up to three handy tips relating to the current situation in the game. To scroll through all of the tips, the player can use the small arrow to the top left of the box. If the player no longer wishes to see the current tips, he/she can close them by clicking on the green cross in the top right-hand corner of the box. Should the player not wish to see any further tips, the function can be disabled by clicking on the red cross next to “Show tips?”. Should the player later wish to see the tips again, they can be turned back on by clicking on the question mark at the top left of the screen. If the player wishes to continue seeing the tips, he/she must confirm this by clicking next to the question “Show tips?”.
Rules
Mus is a card game for 4 players and it is played with 40 Spanish cards. All 3s count as Kings and all Aces count as 2s. Therefore in Mus there are 8 Kings and 8 Aces. The aim of the game is to reach 40 points. The game is over as soon as one of the teams reaches this target. At the beginning of the game, the players are divided into two teams that play against each other. The partners of a team always sit opposite each other and they have the opportunity to communicate by using a number of different signals or gestures. Each player receives 4 cards.
After receiving the cards, the players must call either “Mus” or “No Mus”. “Mus” means that the player would like to exchange cards. An exchange can only take place if all of the players call “Mus”. In this case, each player can exchange any or all of his/her cards. Once the exchange has taken place, the question is once again asked. As soon as a played calls “No Mus” the game begins.
Four betting rounds are then played: Biggest and Smallest, Pairs and Game or Point Bets.
Biggest:
The team with the highest card wins. Should both teams have an equally high card, the second highest cards decide, and so on.
Smallest:
The team with the lowest card wins. Should both teams have an equally low card, the second lowest cards decide, and so on.
Pairs:
There are three different types of pair: Single Pair (e.g. 7,6, Ace and 2), Two Pairs (e.g. King, King, 5, 5) and Three-of-a-Kind (e.g. King, King, 3, 7). The player with the highest pair wins. Three-of-a-Kind beats One Pair. Two Pairs beats a Three-of-a-Kind. Should two players have Two Pairs whereby the higher pair is of equal value, the highest second pair wins.
Game and Point:
In this round the point values of the cards are added together. The order of the best hands is as follows: 31, 32, 40, 37, 36, 35, 34, 33. If a player has 31 points, he/she wins the game and the team receives 3 bonus points. For every other game, the team receives 2 bonus points. Only players with cards of a value of more than 30 points can take part in the Game Bet. If no players have cards that total more than 30 points, the Points Bet is played. In this round, the total values of the cards are compared and the team with the highest value wins.
During these betting rounds, the teams can score points. At the beginning of a round, the player can either “raise” or “wait”. If every player, for example, chooses to “wait”, the round will be played for one point. If a team chooses to “raise”, the amount to be raised is determined by the slider. The other team has the opportunity to fold, see or also to raise. To ‘see’ means that the team accepts the raise and agrees to the showdown. The options fold, see and raise are always suggested by one member of the team, which then allows the team mate to either agree or select another of the three given options. If the first partner, however, chooses to see, the second partner may not choose to fold. If the first partner raises, the team mate can either agree to the raise or raise by a higher amount. For example: One player selects “fold”. As a result, his/her partner is presented with the question “Fold?”. The partner can click on the “Fold” button to confirm or can choose “See” or “Raise”.
Generally in Mus the rounds cannot be drawn. If two players have exactly the same cards, the player closest to the first player wins. If the first player, for example, has 31 points as well as another player, the first player always wins the round.
If a player chooses to fold, the opponent wins the point value of the last raise that was accepted. For example: Player A raises to 5, player B wishes to raise to 20. If player A folds, player B wins 5 points.
When betting, the player has the opportunity to choose “Órdago” (“here it is”) by using the slider. Should the opposing team accept the “Órdago”, the game goes to a showdown. If the opposing team folds, however, the first team wins the stake of the previous bet.
For Pair and Game Bets, the player is automatically shown whether he/she can take part given the current cards. If none of the players have a Pair or the cards for the Game Bet, these rounds are skipped. Should just one of the teams have a Pair or the cards for a Game Bet, this team wins the round. If one player in each of the teams has the appropriate cards, the round is played by just these two players. Should no team have 31 points in the Game round, the Point Bet is played.
Upon completion of the four betting rounds the players are shown a list details of who won which rounds. The game comes to an end as soon as a team reaches 40 points. If a team reaches 40 points before the final betting round, this team wins the game, unless the other team wins with “Órdago” in one of the other rounds. When an “Órdago“ is won, the remaining rounds are not played.
During the game the players on each team have the opportunity to communicate with each other. This can be done by using the selection of illustrated faces with differing gestures. Each gesture corresponds to a particular situation in the game and is explained as follows:
| Gesture | Meaning |
| Straight face | none |
| Closed eyes | “Need Mus!” |
| Biting middle of bottom lip | “Got 2 Kings!” |
| Biting left of bottom lip | “Got 3 Kings!“ |
| Biting right of bottom lip | “Got 3 Kings!“ |
| Sticking tongue out | “Got 2 Aces!“ |
| Sticking tongue out to the left | “Got 3 Aces!“ |
| Sticking tongue out to the right | “Got 3 Aces!“ |
| Raising eyebrows | “Got Two Pairs!“ |
| Pursing lips | “Got Three-of-a-Kind!“ |
| Winking | “Got 31!“ |
| Blowing a kiss | “Got 3 Kings and an Ace!“ |
Points
The cards are worth the following points in this order:
King/3: 10 points
Knight: 10 points
Jack: 10 points
7-4: points according to the face value of the card
Ace/2: 1 point
The number of points won in the bets depends on the cards held by the teams.
