Burraco rules for 4 players

Card games are timeless and filled with historical charm, but above all they are capable of giving rise to exciting games without needing much preparation. All you need is a deck of cards, the desire to learn the rules, a pinch of luck and a good dose of effort.

One of the most famous classic card games is certainly Burraco. One of Burraco's main strengths, in addition to the simplicity of its rules, is the fact that it is truly suitable for anyone. It can be played alone or in pairs.

It is also possible to play the three-player variant, but the most popular is the four-player version, which revolves around cooperation between the two playing pairs. The aim is to close - that is, to put all the cards on the table without having any more cards in hand - and to have made a Burraco, meaning having placed a run of at least seven cards, in ascending or descending order or in any type of combination, on the table.

How to play Burraco with 4 players

The four-player version is the most common and allows cooperation with a partner, so that at least one of the two finishes the game without any cards in hand. Two packets of 11 cards each (called pozzetti) are formed, arranged in a cross on one side of the table, and each player is dealt 11 cards.

The remaining cards are placed face down in the centre of the table, while the first card of this packet is turned face up and placed next to the deck. These are the discards. Each player draws from this deck and at each turn must also discard a card; as the turns progress, players must also be able to form combinations and place them on the table.

A minimum of three cards can be placed. In the deck, Jokers and Pinelle (twos) can substitute any card within a sequence. The game ends when one player in the pair places and discards all 11 of their cards, takes one of the pozzetti and tries to get rid of that too. When they have nothing left in their hand, they are said to have made a “Burraco”, the game ends and points are counted.

Point counting

Points are counted based on the type of Burraco that was just made. The clean Burraco, without Jokers or Pinelle, is worth 200 points, while the dirty one is worth 100. The semi-clean Burraco occurs in two circumstances: when the combination includes a wild card that follows or precedes the other six cards, or when the combination is formed with at least eight cards including one wild card. The score for a semi-clean Burraco is 150 points.

The points of the cards remaining in the player's hand must be deducted from the final total. Even though it may seem difficult to remember the value of every card, in practice once the rules have been understood it is very easy to play Burraco. No two games are ever the same and the cooperation between players makes this game stimulating and entertaining.