How to win at Macao.
Macao looks like a game of luck, and over a single match it is. Over ten, the winner is whoever spends their cards in the right order. The advice below is for the variant played at the tables here.
Guide·updated ·5 min read
Cards are not equal, not even close
You hold two kinds of cards: the ones that get you out and the ones that give you control. An 8♥ gets you out. A 4, an ace and a joker give you control.
The mistake everyone makes at first is to play them all as if they were the same, which means playing whatever fits, in the order it fits. That works until the first opponent who holds on to their 4.
The practical rule: play the cards that get you out early, and save the control cards for the end of the match, when someone is close to going out.
The 4 is the most underrated card in the game
When a 4 lands on you, you get the only choice in the whole game that resembles a pass: you can sit out the turn EVEN IF you have a 4 in your hand.
Almost everyone plays it right away so as not to lose the turn. That’s almost always wrong. The turn you lose now costs you one move; the 4 you save blocks someone later, exactly when they’re down to two cards and you have four.
With two players the math changes completely: “sit out a turn” means YOU play again. There the 4 is the strongest card in the deck and worth playing aggressively.
Play the red joker late, or not at all
Ten cards drawn is the heaviest penalty in the game. But it’s also the hardest to place: it only goes on red or on another joker.
Thrown early, it lands on an opponent who still holds eight cards and barely feels it. They recover in four turns. Held to the end, it’s the card that stops someone who’s down to one card and calling “Macao!”.
The risk, to be honest: if the match ends with it still in your hand, you carried it for nothing. It’s worth it anyway, because the alternative is spending it on nothing.
The ace: ask for what the next player lacks, not what you have
The most common mistake: asking for the suit you hold the most of, so you can keep going. But the next turn isn’t yours, it’s theirs.
What you should ask for is the suit they DON’T have. And you can know that: if they’ve drawn two or three times in a row during a stretch when lots of clubs were played, they probably have no clubs.
A well-chosen ace makes the next player draw without you playing a single penalty card. It’s the cheapest damage in the game.
Stack, don’t swallow
Before you draw four cards from a chain, check whether you have a penalty card that matches. Matching works as usual: same suit OR same rank.
On a 3♣ you can play 2♣ and 3♣ for suit, as well as 3♦ or 3♠ for rank. On a 2♠ any other 2 works. What does NOT work on a 3♣ is a 2♥: neither suit nor rank.
Jokers go by color only: on a 3♣ you can play the black joker, not the red one. And on a joker there’s no suit or rank to respect, so any 2 or 3 of the same color works, or the other joker, of either color.
A chain carried on three times adds up to ten or twelve cards. Whoever stops it has all but lost the match.
Count, but count small
You don’t have to memorize the whole deck. Three things are enough:
How many 4s have come out. There are four in play; if you’ve seen three, the last one is somewhere, and someone is saving it exactly the way you’d save yours.
Whether the jokers have come out. There are two. As long as neither has appeared, any chain can explode.
Which suit was asked for and who drew after it. That tells you what’s missing from whose hand.
When the deck runs out, memory becomes an edge
When there are no cards left to draw, the last card played stays on the table and the ones under it become the new deck IN THE ORDER THEY WERE PLAYED. They aren’t shuffled.
That means the first card played in the match is the first one drawn. Anyone who paid attention knows exactly what they’re about to draw, and it’s the only moment in Macao when luck disappears completely.
Call “Macao!”, don’t forget it
When you’re down to one card you have to call it. The button appears on its own, but the window closes when your next turn starts.
If you forget, anyone can catch you and you draw five cards, except while a penalty chain is open, when no cards are drawn. Going from one card to six is the shortest road from victory to last place, and it takes one second of inattention.
The advice: press it as soon as it appears, before you look at what your opponent played.