Caída glossary

By the Caída team · Updated October 28, 2026

These are the words you’ll hear at a Caída table, in alphabetical order. Each one says what it means in the game and, when it helps, links to the full rule. Words that stay in Spanish in the game, like the names of the cantos, are listed under their Spanish name, and the Spanish term for the rest is in parentheses.

On this page

A

Ace (as): The 1 of each suit. In the table deal it scores 1 point if it comes up right when “1” is called, and together with the 11 and the 12 it makes a Registro.

C

Caída: Taking, with a card from your hand, the card the previous player just played. It’s the move the game is named after, and it’s worth 1 point for an ace through 7, 2 for a jack, 3 for a knight and 4 for a king. You can’t make one on your own card or on the last card of the previous hand. The full rule.
Caída beats canto (Caída mata canto): A variant where your canto hangs in the air until you play your third card. If the player after you makes a caída on you with their next play, the canto is lost. How it works.
Calling the canto (pedir canto): If your canto takes you to 24, the game calls it for you when your turn starts. If no opponent has a canto, you win right then and everyone sees your three cards; if anyone has one, the game goes on as if nothing happened. It doesn’t exist in Caída beats canto. How it’s called.
Canto: The combination formed by the three cards you’re dealt. The others find out that you have a canto and what kind, but not which cards. It scores when you play the third card, and if more than one player has a canto in the same deal, only the highest in the ranking scores. All the cantos.
Capture (captura): Taking a card from the table with one of the same value when the previous player didn’t play it. It doesn’t score right away: the cards go to your pile and count at the end of the cycle.
Casa Chica: A regional canto you turn on separately when setting up a game: a 1 and two knights. Worth 11 points.
Casa Grande: A regional canto with a 1 and two kings. Worth 12 points, more than any other canto except a Tribilín when it wins the game.
Clean Table (mesa limpia): Leaving the table empty with your play, whether it’s a capture or a caída. Worth 4 points, on top of the caída points if there was one. It doesn’t count in the last deal of the cycle. The rule.
Count (conteo): What happens when the cycle ends: the last player who captured takes whatever is left on the table, and everyone counts their pile. Each card over the quota is one point. End of the cycle and the count.
Cycle (ciclo): Everything that happens with one deck, from the table deal to the count. With two players a cycle has six hands; with three, four, and with four, three. If nobody has reached 24 at the end, the deck is shuffled again, the points carry over and the next player becomes the dealer.

D

Deal (reparto): Each time the dealer gives three cards to every player, starting with the player on their right. A new deal breaks the caída: the last card of the previous hand can be captured, but without caída points.
Dealer (echador): The player who deals and lays out the table. At the start of the game everyone draws a card and the highest one deals; each new cycle, it’s the next player’s turn. The dealer plays last in every hand and is the reference for breaking canto ties.
Deck (mazo): The cards still left to deal. When it runs out, the cycle ends.

E

Expert mode (Experto): A mode where the game stops working out your plays: you choose which card you play and what you take from the table, and you announce your own cantos. An invalid move or a wrongly announced canto costs you 1 point. Game options.

H

Hand (mano): Each round of three cards per player. It’s played until everyone has played all three and then, if there are cards left, the dealer deals again. A hand, move by move.

J

Jack (sota): The 10. A caída on a jack is worth 2 points.

K

King (rey): The 12, the highest card. A caída on a king is worth 4 points.
Knight (caballo): The 11. A caída on a knight is worth 3 points.

M

Misdeal (mal echada): When the dealer misses all four cards of the table deal. The next player then gets 1 point.
Multiple capture (captura múltiple): If, besides the card you capture, the table has the ones that follow it in order, you take them all, one per value and with no gaps. With a 6, and a 6, a 7 and a 10 on the table, you take all three.

P

Patrulla: A canto of three cards in a row, like 4-5-6, 6-7-10 or 10-11-12. Worth 6 points. More on the Patrulla.
Pile (montón): The cards you’ve taken. They’re never played again and only count in the count.

Q

Quota (cuota): The number of cards you need before the count gives you points. With two players it’s 20 each; with three, 13 for the first to play, 14 for the second and 13 for the third; with four, 10 each, and in teams, 20 per team.

R

Ranking (jerarquía): The order of the cantos from highest to lowest: Casa Grande, Casa Chica, Registríco, Registro, Vigía, Patrulla, Tribilín and Ronda. It follows the points, and with Tribilín wins the game, the Tribilín moves to the top.
Registríco: A regional canto with 1, 10 and 11. Worth 10 points, and you have to turn it on when setting up the game.
Registro: A canto with the 11, the 12 and the 1, of any suit. Worth 8 points.
Riales: The game’s currency in the app and on the web. Each game costs 1 Rial, and if you win you get it back. You collect them for free every day, and they can’t be bought or exchanged for money. How they work.
Ronda: A pair and a different card that isn’t next to it in value. It’s worth points by its pair: 1 for an ace through 7, 2 for jacks, 3 for knights and 4 for kings. More on the Ronda.
Run (escalera): The cards in a row you take in a multiple capture, always in deck order: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 10, 11 and 12.

S

Skunked (zapatero): Ending the game with 0 points; in teams, both partners. In Spanish you’re left as the “zapatero”. It doesn’t change who wins, but the game announces it and nobody at the table forgets.
Soplado: An Expert mode option. If someone leaves two cards of the same value on the table, any other player can take them at any time, even when it isn’t their turn, along with the cards that follow in order. The player who left them can’t, but their partner can. It doesn’t score.
Spanish deck (baraja española): The deck Caída is played with: 40 cards in four suits (coins, cups, swords and clubs), from 1 to 7 plus the jack, the knight and the king. It has no 8s or 9s, which is why the 10 comes right after the 7 in a run.

T

Table deal (echada): The four cards the dealer lays on the table at the start of the cycle, calling out “1, 2, 3, 4” or “4, 3, 2, 1”. Each card that matches the number being called gives the dealer that many points, and the four always have different values. The table deal in detail.
Teams (parejas): With four players you can play two on two. Partners sit across from each other, add up their points together and count their cards as a team.
Tribilín: Three cards of the same value. Worth 5 points. More on the Tribilín.
Tribilín wins the game (Tribilín mata partida): A variant where the Tribilín is worth 24 and wins the game on the spot, with its cards shown to everyone.
Turn: Your moment to play. In the app you have 10 seconds; if they run out, the game plays a card for you.

V

Vigía: A pair and a card right before or right after it, like 1-1-2 or 6-6-7. Worth 7 points, and it beats the Ronda. More on the Vigía.
Viveza: An Expert mode option with one False canto and one Steal per player per cycle. The others can accuse you from your avatar: if you’re caught you lose 1 point, and if they accuse you wrongly, they lose it. The Viveza rule.

With these words you can follow any game.

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