Burraco

Italy’s favorite rummy. Sets and runs with one wild each, a spare hand called the pozzetto, and seven-card burracos before you can go out. 2–4 players, in partnerships.

Also known as Buraco.

Who To Play With

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How to play Burraco

  1. 1Two decks plus four jokers. Two or three players play alone; four play as partners sitting across from each other. Everyone gets eleven cards, and each side also gets a face-down pozzetto of eleven more to use later.
  2. 2Jokers and 2s are wild. A 2 in its own place in a run of its suit (A-2-3) counts as an ordinary card.
  3. 3On your turn, draw the top card of the stock or take the whole discard pile (every card in it is face up). Then lay down melds or add to your side's melds if you like, and discard one card. A pile of one card you take can't go straight back.
  4. 4Melds are three or more cards: a set of one rank (not 2s), or a run in one suit, ace low or high. Each meld may hold one wild card at most. Partners share their melds. A meld of seven or more is a burraco: clean with no wild card, dirty with one.
  5. 5The first time you run out of cards, by melding or discarding, pick up your side's pozzetto and carry on. Once your side has its pozzetto and at least one burraco, you may go out by discarding your last card; until then keep at least two cards.
  6. 6The deal ends when someone goes out, or when the stock runs out. Scoring: every card melded (jokers 30, 2s 20, aces 15, kings to 8s 10, 7s to 3s 5), 200 for each clean burraco and 100 for each dirty one, 100 for going out, minus 100 if your side never picked up its pozzetto, minus the cards left in hand. The first side past 2,005 wins.

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