"Auntie" Up

So I had a pretty "traditional" Labor Day", what with the barbecue and the sitting outside in the sun with friends and family. There was, however, a slighlty less-than-traditional element involved this time, and it consisted of a card game. But let me back up a little first.

Back in the mid-nineties, I attended my friend Jean's wedding. He had a lot of family visiting, one of whom was his Aunt. At the time, she was about75 years old, but she was no wet blanket. Au contraire, she was going to teach us how to play Mus! Mus is a Basque card game that requires quite a bit of concentration, so being three or four sheets to the wind that my friend Alan and I were at the time did not help at all. Oh, and you have to communicate in Basque...you know, that whacky language that doesn't seem to have any distinct origin.
Anyway, Jean's aunt was busy trying to explain the game to us, but between her limited English and our limited brain capacity, it began to feel a lot like a game of Fizzbin!

So fast-forward to last weekend..we were at it again, however this time, I wasn't drinking and we had the Internet(Huray Internet!). We googled "mus" and fuond the rules. If you can call them rules. Talk about screwy...Here's a breakdown(and yes, I will provide a link later to the source):

The person drawing the lowest card deals.

Deal goes counterclockwise

8's,9's and 10's are pulled from the deck, King is the highest card, Ace is the lowest.

Then there is the play, where you actually have four ways to play and bet and a fifth "if necessary". I kid you not.

Since we had a print out of the rules and the words you have to use to keep the game going, it was a lot easier to play and sometimes even win. Also, we did not look like a couple of rubes who just fell off the last sheep wagon rolling into town.
Alan and I got pretty good at bandying about the Basque words and phrases, although we did start to modify them into "Basqulish" which just confused the other people at the table who could actually speak the language.

All in all, it is an awesome game. "Cheating" is encouraged! Yes, you're expected to make little facial ticks to your partner, but be careful you don't get caught, otherwise the opposing team will be on to you.

Hopefully we'll get another chance to play and if you want in, then go to this site for more information.
Here's a site that will allow you to hear how the words are pronounced. I got pretty good at "Jokua ez".