These begin in a common pile and one chip is taken by each player or partnership when a point is scored. The whole game is played anticlockwise.Ĭhips may be used to keep score. The game is usually played by two players, or by four players playing as partners, with partners sitting opposite each other. Some Spanish decks also includes 8's and 9's, but these cards are not used in Ronda. The 10, 11 and 12 are the jack, horse and king. The deck has 4 suits, clubs ( khal), cups ( copas), swords ( chbada), and coins ( dhab or dinar) and are numbered 1-7, 10-12 in each suit. Note that in this game the 10 is considered adjacent to the 7. Players and cardsĪ 40 card Spanish deck is used.
Ronda is played with the 40-card Spanish pack and the objective is to capture cards from the table by playing matching cards from hand. Therefore most of the technical terms of the game exist in several alternative forms: French, Spanish and Arabic.
Ronda is a fishing game which is popular in Morocco, not only in and around Rabat, Marrakesh, and Fez but also in the north, from Tangier and Tétouan to Oujda and in Ceuta and Melilla.
Thanks to Justus Pang for his help in compiling this page, and to Wadih Bargach for clarifying some of the rules.
