BURRACO RULES
Learn the burraco rules, both online and live.
Burraco is a Canasta like card game. The object of the game is to collect cards
in groups and runs that are played to earn points until a minimum of 7 cards or
more are reached.
Each smazzata (deal) ends when a player has cleared his hand, taken 11 cards
more, and cleared again his hand after reached a minimum of 7 cards or more
runs, called “Burraco Runs”.
The winner of the match is determined by the total points earned over a
predetermined number of smazzata.
GAME SETUP:
Burraco is played using two regular 52 card decks with 2 jokers in each deck
giving a total 108 cards including 4 jokers. The two decks used have different
colored backs so that no two cards are exactly the same. Before the start of the
first smazzata each player draws a card from the deck and turns it face up. The
player who draws the highest card will play first in the first smazzata. In case
of two cards of the same rank being drawn ties are resolved by the suit in order
highest to lowest: Heart, Diamond, Club, Spade. In case of two cards of the same
rank and suit being drawn two new cards are drawn until a starting player has
been determined. At the start of a smazzata the deck is shuffled. Two stacks of
11 cards each are dealt from the deck and placed face down on the table in a
cross, one stack on top of the other. These two stacks are the pozzetti (pots)
and come into play later. The pozzetti are typically placed to one side on the
table. Each player is then dealt a hand of 11 cards that they will start with.
The remaining 64 cards are placed in a stack between the players and is the draw
pile. One card is then turned face up and placed next to the draw pile starting
the discard pile. It is now time for the starting player to play the first turn
of the game. DRAWING Each players turn starts with the player picking up one or
more cards to its hand. This is done in one of two ways. 1. The player may pick
up the top card from the draw pile. 2. The player may pick up the entire discard
pile regardless of the number of cards there.
PLAYING CARDS IN THE TABLE:
After the player has drawn cards it may play cards to the table. This may be
done by playing cards from the hand to create a new meld. Playing cards may also
be done by adding cards from the hand to an already existing meld.
The melds are owned by the player who created them, when adding to an existing
meld a player may only add to its own melds not the opponents. When playing new
melds and when adding to existing melds, the resulting meld must conform to the
melding rules discussed below. This phase last as long as the player wishes.
Many plays may be made with no restrictions to the order. For instance a player
may add to an old meld, play a new meld and then continue to add cards to
existing melds. A played card may however not be returned to the hand or moved
to a different meld.
DISCARDING:
When the player has made all the plays it wishes to make it
must discard a single card. This card is added face up to the discard pile,
placing it so that it does not cover the card(s) below it. In this way all the
cards in the discard pile are visible. If a players has picked up a discard pile
containing only a single card that card may not be discarded in that turn.
This rule only applies if you picked up a single card from the discard pile, a
card drawn from the draw pile may be discarded immediately and if two or more
cards are picked up from the discard pile any one of those cards may be
discarded. After the discard the turn passes to the opponent who begins its turn
by drawing.
MELDING RULES:
Melds are placed face up on the table in front of the player who plays them. The
cards are placed in a vertical column with each card showing so its rank and
suit is visible. Later melds added are placed side by side next to melds already
on the table.
GROUPS AND RUNS:
There are two kinds of melds allowed in Burraco.
1. Groups of cards consisting of cards of equal rank, eg. ( 4S, 4C, 4C)
2. Runs of cards of same suit that are in sequence, eg. (5D, 6D, 7D)
All melds must contain at least 3 cards to be valid. For instance playing a pair
of sevens does not count as a legal group because there are too few cards. There
is no upper limit to the number of cards in a meld, all available cards that
legally fit in a meld may be played. Each player may have only one group of any
given rank. For instance if a player already has a group of jacks on the table
that player may not start a new group of jacks. Any additional jacks that the
player wants to play in a group must be played in the existing group. When
playing aces in a run the ace may be either low (ace, two, three) or high
(queen, king, ace). Runs may however not “turn the corner” with an ace in the
middle, a run (king, ace, two) is not allowed.
BURRACO WILDCARDS:
Jokers and Twos In Burraco the 4 jokers and the 8 twos are used as wildcards. A
wildcard may take the place of any card in a meld. Each meld may contain at most
one wildcard. Playing two or more wild cards in a single meld is not allowed.
In a group a wildcard is used as if it has the same rank as the other cards. For
instance a group with the cards (Joker, 8C, 8D) or (2C, 6S, 6S) may be played.
Groups consisting of only wild cards are not allowed. In a run a wildcard
assumes the same suit as the rest of the run and the rank needed to fit. A
wildcard may either extend a contiguous sequence, eg. (Joker, 8D, 9D) or fill a
gap where a card is missing, eg. (4C, 2S, 6C).
Using a two of the “wrong” suit is allowed since it is treated as wild both in
rank and suit. When the position of the wildcard is “free” it is customary to
place it as the low card in a run, in the example above the run of diamonds
would not be (8D, 9D, Joker)
When adding to an existing run a played wildcard may be moved within that run
when new cards are added. A free wildcard may be moved to the high position if a
new higher card is added. For instance a run (2D, 5D, 6D) can have an 8D added
to it, changing the wild 2D to take the place of the missing seven in (5D, 6D,
2D, 8D).
A wildcard locked in the middle of a run can only be freed by adding the correct
card to replace the wildcard in that run. An example of this would be adding
(4H, 7H) to a run (6H, Joker, 8H) creating a new run (4H, Joker, 6H, 7H, 8H)
where the Joker changes to fill a new gap.
Two special rules apply to wildcards in runs.
Firstly a 2 in the same suit as the run is not counted as a wildcard if it is in
its correct place. This has effects on scoring and opens the run to allow a
wildcard on a run already containing a two. As an example you may legally play a
run consisting of (AS, 2S, 3S, 2D, 5S). Here the two of spades does not count as
a wild allowing the two of diamonds to be played as a substitute for the missing
four.
Secondly a special fourteen card run is allowed by playing all thirteen cards of
a suit (ace to king) including a two of the correct suit and then an extra
wildcard as the fourteenth card.
CLEAN and DIRTY BURRACOS:
Groups or runs consisting of seven or more cards are called Burracos.
These runs earn the player extra points and are required for a player to be
allowed to go out.
Burracos containing wildcards are known as dirty Burracos and those with no
wildcards are clean Burracos.
Clean Burracos are worth more points than dirty Burracos when calculating the
final score.
When a player has a meld containing seven or more cards (a Burraco) on the table
the bottom card(s) are rotated 90 degrees to mark that the meld is a Burraco.
Dirty Burracos have one card rotated, clean Burracos have two cards rotated.
Clean Burracos can be made dirty by adding a wildcard to them, this lowers the
score value of the Burraco but may be required to clear the players hand to go
out in some cases.
In the special case of a dirty Burraco run with a misplaced but in suit 2 being
extended to allow the 2 to assume its correct position a clean Burraco may
become clean. This would happen when adding a 4S to the dirty Burraco (3S, 2S,
5S, 6S, 7S, 8S, 9S) creating a clean Burraco (2S, 3S, 4S, 5S, 6S, 7S, 8S, 9S).
BURRACO - TAKING THE POZZETTO:
When a player has emptied its hand for the first time it will take the pozzetto,
one of the two stacks of eleven cards placed on the table at the start of the
game. The pozzetti are not linked to a player in the initial setup, the first
player who clears its hand will take the top stack and the second one is left
for the other player. These cards are added to the players hand and are used in
the same way as the initial hand. There are two ways that a player can empty its
hand. It can be by playing cards until only one card remains in hand and
discarding it or by playing all the cards in hand to the table. In the first
case discarding the last card end the players turn. The player may pick up the
pozzetto and look at the cards but must wait until the next turn to play them.
In the second case the player has not ended its turn and may continue playing in
the same turn using the eleven cards added to the hand. Taking the pozzetto in
this way is known as taking it “in flight”.
BURRACO RULES FOR TAKING POZZETTO:
- It’s needed to finish hand cards, using them all to complete melds (“on
flight”) or discarding last card remained.
- It’s not possible to take pozzetto discarding last card taken from discard
area, if the area contained only that card.
RULES FOR ENDING A SMAZZATA:
- It’s needed to have done at least one Burraco (clean or dirty)
- The opponent must have played at least one time
- It’s not possible to end a smazzata discarding a wildcard
- It’s not possible to end a smazzata discarding last card taken from discard
area, if the area contained only that card.
FINISHING of SMAZZATA by CARDS FINISHED:
When only two cards remain in the deck, the game finishes after last player
action. That player will be able to play normally, adding games to melds, but
when will discard last card, the game will be over. In this case, nobody will
take the 100 bonus points for having closed.
BURRACO SCORING: GAME POINTS, MATCH POINTS and VICTORY POINTS
When a smazzata is finished, game points are summed against all previous
smazzate. Match points are based upon game points difference, and Victory Points
are calculated thanks to a convertion table.
GAME POINTS:
Bonuses are given for:
Dirty Burraco -> 100 points
Clean Burraco -> 200 points
Finished smazzata -> 100 points
Player who doesn’t took the pozzetto will have -100 points.
Cards played in runs earn points for the player according to the rank value of
each card.
Card Value: 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 -> 5 points
8, 9, 10, J, Q, K -> 10 points
Asso -> 15 points
2 -> 20 points
Jolly -> 30 points
Any player with cards left on hand shows these cards. The value of each of these
cards is deducted from the players score according to the same card values as
scores for melded cards.
MATCH POINTS:
The “Match Point” are based upon difference of GAME POINTS: the positive value
is given to the winning player, and the same value, but negative, is given to
the loosing player.
For istance: Player A: 2.000 Game Points Player B: 1.700 Game Points
The difference is (2.000-1.700=300), then: Player A: +300 Match Point Player B:
-300 Match Point.
VICTORY POINTS:
Victory points are used to give an immediate result on a head to head play (even
if in case of even result, the match point will be used), and they are very
important during Burraco Tournaments.
Victory Points are based upon a conversion table starting from Match Points:
MP = VP
0->50 = 10/10
55->150 = 11/9
155->250 = 12/8
255->350 = 13/7
355->500 = 14/6
505->650 = 15/5
655->800 = 16/4
805->1000 = 17/3
1005->1250 = 18/2
1255->1500 = 19/1
>1500 = 20/0
For istance, in case of +300 Match Point: Player A: 13 VP Player B: 7 VP