Going out in buraco: when you can end the hand
Going out is how a hand ends. To do it you need two things at the same time: your side must have taken its morto, and you must hold a clean canastra, a meld of seven or more cards with no wildcard in it. At the default table a dirty one does not let you out, which is the mistake people make most often; in some variants it does, and the table tells you which rule it is on.
It is the rule that catches most people out at the start. Running out of cards, on its own, ends nothing.
Before you sit down: the game still opens in Portuguese. The rules are the same and the table reads without much text, but we would rather say it now than after you arrive. English is written and waiting to be published.
The two requirements, one at a time
- Your side has taken the morto
- Two face-down hands of eleven cards sit on the table, one for each side. You take yours the first time you run out of cards, and the hand carries on with those eleven.
- You have a canastra
- A canastra is a meld of seven cards or more. Dirty if it holds a wildcard, clean if it holds none. Dirty scores 100 and clean scores 200.
With both done, you play your last card and the hand ends there. If either is missing, play carries on.
The common mistake: trying to end too early
The instinct is to put everything down and empty your hand as fast as possible. Emptying your hand is not going out. If you have not taken the morto yet, you take it and the hand continues. If you have taken it and hold no canastra, going out has to wait.
So it pays to look at the table before you put cards down. If one of your melds is a single card short of seven, waiting a turn is usually worth more than running out of cards with nothing to end on.
What it is worth, and what the cards left in hand cost
Going out is worth 100 points to your side, and it stops the hand for everyone at once. Nobody gets another turn.
The cards still held at that moment are subtracted from that side's score, each at its own value: an ace 15, a two 10, a three to a seven 5, and an eight to a king 10. That is why a hand full of high cards is expensive when the other side ends first, and why going out early is sometimes the whole point.
The full count, meld by meld, is in the buraco scoring guide.
Going out is not the same as winning
The two are learned the wrong way round often enough to be worth separating. Going out is worth 100 points and closes the hand. Winning is having more points when the game reaches its target.
You can go out and still lose. If the other side has two clean canastras and you went out with one, 100 points does not cover the difference. So going out is a decision about the score, not a reflex.
Questions people ask
- Can I go out without having taken the morto?
- No. Both things are needed: the morto taken and a canastra. If you run out of cards before that, you take the morto and the hand carries on.
- What happens to the cards left in my hand?
- They are subtracted from your side's score, each at its own value: an ace 15, a two 10, a three to a seven 5, and an eight to a king 10.
- Does going out mean winning?
- Not on its own. Going out is worth 100 points and closes the hand. The game is won by whichever side has more points at the end.
New to the game? The deal, the morto and the canastras are explained from the beginning on the buraco home page.