How many cards does buraco use?

It depends on the table. Open buraco uses two 52-card decks with no jokers, 104 cards, and the 2s stand in as wildcards. Closed buraco adds the four jokers and comes to 108. Either way each player is dealt eleven cards and two face-down mortos of eleven are set aside.

What do I need before I can go out?

Three things at once: your side has taken its morto, there is a canastra on the table, and you have no cards left in hand. On an open table the canastra has to be clean. On a closed table a dirty one is enough, unless the table has been set to ask for a clean one.

Do three of a kind count as a meld?

Only at a closed table. Open buraco melds sequences of the same suit and nothing else, so three kings sitting together are three loose cards until they become part of a run.

Buraco rules

The deck, the deal, the two mortos, taking the discard pile, the canastra and how a hand ends. Buraco is the Brazilian branch of the canasta family, and what follows is the rule set our tables actually deal, not a survey of every version in print.

Before you sit down: the game still opens in Portuguese. The rules are the ones on this page, and a table reads without much text, but we would rather say it now than after you arrive. English is written and waiting to be published.

Open the game

Where these rules come from

Most rules pages have to reconcile sources that disagree with each other, because buraco is a family game and every region trimmed it a little. This one has an easier job. Every number below is read off the server that deals the cards, so if a meld is described here, the table accepts it, and if it is not, the table refuses it.

Where a table can honestly be set two ways, the page says so rather than picking one and calling it the rule.

The deck and the deal

Buraco is played with two full decks of French playing cards. Whether the jokers are in them is the first thing that separates the two main tables.

Open buraco: Two 52-card decks, 104 cards, no jokers. The 2s are the wildcards.
Closed buraco: The same two decks plus their four jokers, 108 cards. Jokers and 2s are both wildcards.

The deal is identical either way. Eleven cards to each player, and two face-down hands of eleven set aside, one for each side. Those two are the mortos. Tables seat two players or four in pairs, partners facing each other.

A turn

A turn is three steps and always the same three.

Draw. One card from the stock, or the discard pile, which is the interesting choice and the one the next section is about.
Meld. Lay down new melds, or add cards to melds your side already has on the table. This step is optional.
Discard. One card onto the pile. That ends your turn.

Melds belong to the partnership, not to the player who laid them. What your partner puts down is yours to extend, which is most of what makes buraco a game of two people rather than two solitaires.

Taking the discard pile

This is where the two tables really part company, and it is worth understanding before you pick one.

At an open table the pile lies face up, all of it. You can read every card that has been thrown away, and you can take the pile whenever you like, with no condition attached. What you take is the whole pile, not the top card.

At a closed table only the top card is visible. To take the pile you have to use that top card in a meld straight away, which is called justifying the pickup. Do it, and the whole pile is still yours.

In both cases the pile arrives complete. A large pile is tempting and heavy at the same time: cards that fit nothing are points against you at the end of the hand.

Melds and the canastra

A sequence is three or more cards of the same suit in order. The ace works at either end, below the 2 or above the king, and a run that uses it at both ends is the longest meld in the game.

A set is three or more cards of the same rank. Sets count at a closed table and do not count at an open one, where sequences are the only legal meld.

A meld of seven cards or more is a canastra. It is clean when no wildcard sits in it and dirty when one does, and at most one wildcard may go into any meld. A dirty canastra can be promoted later: slide the wildcard out to its natural position when the real card turns up and it becomes clean, which is worth a hundred points.

Above those there are two larger grades, and both have to be built from natural cards with no wildcard in them. A sequence of thirteen scores 500, and a sequence of fourteen, with an ace at both ends, is the Royal and scores 1000.

The morto

Running out of cards does not end the hand. The first time it happens, you pick up your side's morto, eleven fresh cards, and carry on playing with them. That is the mechanism that gives the game its name and the reason a hand you thought was finished keeps going.

A side that reaches the end of the hand without ever having taken its morto loses a hundred points for it.

Going out

Going out ends the hand, and it needs three conditions met together: your side has taken its morto, there is a canastra on your table, and your hand is empty. Emptying your hand before the morto is gone does not end anything, it just brings the morto in.

What kind of canastra will do depends on the table. An open table asks for a clean one. A closed table accepts a dirty one by default, and a private table can be set to demand a clean one instead. Going out is worth a hundred points on top of everything else.

What the cards are worth

Ace: 15 points.
King down to 8: 10 points each.
2: 10 points, and it also acts as a wildcard.
7 down to 3: 5 points each.
Joker: 50 points, and it is only in the deck at a closed table.

At the end of a hand each side adds up the cards it has on the table plus its bonuses, then subtracts whatever is still in hand. Bonuses are 200 for a clean canastra, 100 for a dirty one, 500 and 1000 for the two larger grades, and 100 for going out. The penalty for an untaken morto is 100.

The full table, with the arithmetic worked through on an example hand, is on the buraco scoring page.

How long a match lasts

A match runs across several hands until one side passes the target. You can pick 1000, 1500, 2000 or 3000 points at your own table, and matchmaking with strangers plays to 1500. A first match is dealt at 1500 as well.

Frequently asked questions

How many cards does buraco use?: It depends on the table. Open buraco uses two 52-card decks with no jokers, 104 cards, and the 2s stand in as wildcards. Closed buraco adds the four jokers and comes to 108. Either way each player is dealt eleven cards and two face-down mortos of eleven are set aside.
What do I need before I can go out?: Three things at once: your side has taken its morto, there is a canastra on the table, and you have no cards left in hand. On an open table the canastra has to be clean. On a closed table a dirty one is enough, unless the table has been set to ask for a clean one.
Do three of a kind count as a meld?: Only at a closed table. Open buraco melds sequences of the same suit and nothing else, so three kings sitting together are three loose cards until they become part of a run.

Keep reading

Open buraco, where the discard pile stays face up.
Closed buraco, with the four jokers and a justified pickup.
How many cards buraco uses, deck by deck.
Buraco scoring, the point table and the end-of-hand count.

Tables are free in the browser, with nothing to install and no card asked for. There is an offline mode against the computer for learning at your own pace, and private tables with an invite code when you would rather play with people you know. No adverts run during a hand.