One by one, the caller picks a card from the deck and announces it to the players by its name, sometimes using a verse before reading the card name. To start the game, the caller ( cantor, Spanish for 'singer') shuffles the deck. The traditional Lotería card deck is composed of a set of 54 different cards, each with a different picture. Players choose a tabla (Spanish word for 'board') to play with, from a variety of previously created tablas, each with a different selection of images.
Each player has at least one tabla, a board with a randomly created 4 x 4 grid of pictures with their corresponding name and number. Every image has a name and an assigned number, but the number is usually ignored. Lotería (Spanish word meaning 'lottery') is a traditional game of chance, similar to bingo,and is played on a deck of cards instead of numbered ping pong balls.
