This page is about the card game Burraco as played in Italy. There are separate pages about similar games played in South America:
Burraco is related to Canasta, and in some ways similar to Samba, in that the aim is to meld combinations of seven or more cards that can be either sets of equal rank or sequences in a suit. Like several of the newer games of this family it also features a second hand of cards which is picked up by the first member of a partnership who disposes of all the cards from their first hand. It originated in South America, probably in the 1940's, and is still widely played there. Since the 1990's a version of the game has become extremely popular in Italy, and thanks to an active tournament scene and the establishment of a national organisation, the Federazione Italiano Burraco, the Italian rules have become more or less standardised.
The usual game is four players in fixed partnerships: North and South play against East and West. There are less interesting versions for 2 to 5 players, playing as individuals. Deal and play are clockwise.
Two standard international 52-card packs with 4 jokers are used – 108 cards in all. The Jokers, known as in Italian as “jolly”, are wild cards. The twos, known as “pinelle” can be used either as wild cards or (within a sequence) as the natural two of their suit.
The cards have point values:
The first dealer is chosen by drawing cards from the shuffled pack: the player who draws the lowest card deals first. For this purpose the cards rank from high to low: joker, 2, A, K, Q, J, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3. Among equal cards, the suits rank in bridge order spades (high), hearts, diamonds, clubs (low). If more than one player draws a joker, those players draw again to break the tie. The draw can also be used to determine the partnerships and seats if not decided in advance: the two highest play against the two lowest, and the player who drew the highest card sits to the dealer’s left and therefore plays first. The turn to deal passes to the left after each hand.
The dealer shuffles the cards thoroughly and offers them face down to his right-hand opponent to cut. This player lifts approximately the top third of the pack – for the deal to work smoothly he needs to take at least 22 cards and leave at least 45 behind. The dealer takes the remainder of the pack – the part that was originally at the bottom – and from the top of it deals the cards one at a time face down clockwise to the players until each has 11 cards. Meanwhile the player who cut deals cards from the bottom of the section of the pack that he lifted, to form two face-down piles called pozzetti. The cards are dealt one at a time alternately to the piles until each has 11 cards. The cutter then places these piles one on top of the other in a cross formation towards one corner of the table, and puts the remaining cards of this part of the pack face down in the middle of the table. Having dealt the four hands, the dealer places the next (45th) card face-up in the middle of the table and stacks the remaining cards next to it on top of the stack placed there by the cutter, thereby completing the cut. So now each player has a hand of 11 cards, there are two face-down 11-card stacks in a corner of the table, and in the middle is a face-down draw pile of 41 cards, with a single face-up card beside it.
The objective is to form melds which may be sets of equal cards (combinazione) or sequences of consecutive cards in a suit (sequenze), and place them face up on the table. Each team keeps its melds together, each meld or sequence in a column as shown below. Each meld (set or sequence) must contain at least three cards. You may extend your own team’s melds, whether begun by yourself or by your partner, by adding cards to them, but you can never add cards to the opponents’ melds.
A set consists of three or more cards of the same rank: A, K, Q, J, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4 or 3. At most one wild card (two or joker) may be included in a set, so the maximum number of cards in a set is nine. Sets consisting entirely of twos and/or jokers are not allowed. It is not legal for one team to have more than one set of the same rank. Examples of valid sets:
10-10-
10 ; 4-
4-
4-4-2 ; K-K-joker.
A sequence consists of three or more consecutive cards of the same suit, the order of the cards being (A)-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10-J-Q-K-(A). At most one wild card (two or joker) may be included in a sequence as a substitute for a missing card. However, a two of the correct suit may also serve as a natural card (next below the three), in which case it is possible for a sequence to contain two twos or a two and a joker. An ace can be placed at either end of a sequence, above the king or below the two, but it is not legal to place two aces in a sequence, one at each end. However a sequence can contain a wild card in addition to 13 different natural cards. It is possible for one team to have two separate sequence melds in the same suit, but sequences once placed on the table cannot be joined together or split. Examples of valid sequences:
7-8-9 ; A-2-3-2-5 ; 9-2-J ; joker-5-6.
A meld that consists entirely of natural cards is clean (pulito) and a meld that contains a wild card is dirty (sporco). A meld of seven or more cards is called a burraco, and earns a bonus for the team that owns it: a clean burraco scores more than a dirty one. A sequence that contains a two of the correct suit in its place is of course clean. A burraco is usually indicated by placing its last card crosswise if it is dirty, or its last two cards crosswise if it is clean, as shown below.
The player to dealer's left begins. Players take turns to play, in clockwise order around the table, until someone goes out or the play ends because the stock is exhausted.
A turn consists of:
The first player who gets rid of the last card from his or her hand picks up takes the first pozzetto of 11 cards to use as a new hand. The second pozzetto is taken by the first player of the other team who runs out of cards. There are two ways to take a pozzetto.
The play can end in one of three ways.
Note that it is not legal to go out by melding all one's cards. A final discard is always required. Also, it is not legal to go out if one's team does not have a burraco. If your team has taken a pozzetto but you do not have and are unable to make a burraco, then you must keep at least two cards in your hand after melding: one to discard and another to hold in your hand to continue playing.
Please note the following.
2-6-7 and not 6-7-2. It can nevertheless be extended in either direction, in this case by the 4, 5, 8 or 9. This custom is followed to prevent a player suggesting to partner by the placement of cards in which direction the sequence should preferably be extended. For example a player who also held the 10 would like partner to add the 8 or 9 and definitely not the 4, but is not allowed to indicate this.8-joker-10 and a member of the team holds the 9. This player can add the 9, making joker-8-9-10. The sequence can then be further extended by adding the 6, 7, J or Q. If the Q is added, it becomes 8-9-10-joker-Q; in the other cases the joker would remain at the lower end of the sequence.3-4-2-6 and you hold A and a joker, you might like to substitute the joker for the 2, move the 2 to its natural position and add your A. Although the resulting sequence looks valid, the move is illegal, because the only card that can replace the 2 in this sequence is the 5. If you have the 5 you can put it in the sequence and move the 2 to its natural place, and then add the A as well if you have it. Since the 2 has now become natural, you could also add a joker or another two to make a burraco.2-3-4-5-6-7 on the table, a 9 can be added from hand to make a dirty burraco3-4-5-6-7-2-9. The burraco can become clean again if the 8 is substituted for the 2, which then returns to its place at the bottom of the sequence.5, and a player holds the other 5 in hand, it is legal to pick up the 5 from the pile and discard the other 5 - it is not the same card, even though it looks the same!When the play ends, both teams score as follows, and add their scores to their cumulative totals.
| cards in melds on the table | plus card value |
| cards in players' hands | minus card value |
| burraco pulito (clean meld of 7+ cards) | 200 points extra |
| burraco sporco (7+ card meld including wild card) | 100 points extra |
| for going out (closing) | 100 points extra |
| a team that has not taken its pozzetto | minus 100 points |
Notes on scoring:
The game ends when either team has a score of more than 2000 points, and the team with the higher score wins.
Some play that a burraco of 8 or more cards that contains a sequence of 7 consecutive natural cards and a wild card or consists of at least 7 equal cards with a wild card, is "semi-clean" (semipulito) and is worth 150 points. This is indicated by placing the second to last card crosswise.
Some play that in case of a stalemate, after all four players in turn have done nothing but take a single card from the discard pile and discard, the play does not end. Instead, the next player in turn must end the stalemate by drawing a card from the draw pile.
Burraco for three players. Each player is dealt 11 cards and there are two pozzetti: one of 18 cards and one of 11. The first player who melds all his or her cards takes the 18-card pozzetto and plays alone. The other two play as partners and the first of them to meld all their cards takes the second pozzetto. The play and scoring are the same as in the four-player game, the partners dividing their total score between them. Note that in this game there is no point in melding cards before the partnerships are determined, until you are able to put down your whole hand and take the first pozzetto (a possible exception is if you have a complete burraco in your hand).
Burraco for two players. Each player is dealt 11 cards and there are two pozzetti of 11 cards each. The play and scoring are exactly as in the four-player game, but since you have no partner there is no advantage in putting down melds unless you are able to take your pozzetto or fear that your opponent will go out before your next turn.
On other pages of this web site there are details of Brazilian Buraco and Argentinean Burako.
Antonin Jaun's German language site canasta.ch has rules and information for Burraco.
A computer Burraco game for Windows is available from Alberosa.