Rules of Buraco

The Buraco is a card game for 2 or 4 players very popular in Brazil and Italy of the same family as Tranca.

The object of the game is to create straight flushes or groups of 3 or more cards of the same rank to score points. This game mode uses 2 standard decks of 52 cards and includes the jokers (4 in total).

Available game modes:

• Open-Dirty for 4 players in pairs.

Other kinds of the game are: Open, Closed, Closed dirty, Closed NSCR (no sets, clean run).

The pair with the most points at the end of the round wins.

How to play Buraco (Open-Dirty)

All players start with 11 cards each. Two piles of 11 cards are left aside on the table called the “stock” (in Portuguese the “dead” pile). The remaining cards make up the draw deck.

Each player, on their turn, must:

1. Draw a card from the draw pile.
2. …Or pick up all the available cards from the discard pile in the middle of the table.

The player in turn may place cards or melds on the table to score points for their team.

• The player may create new combinations of 3 or more cards.
• They can also add single cards to the melds of their team already on the table.

The turn ends when the player discards a card face-up on the discard pile.

Wild cards

Twos and jokers function as wild cards in any combination. In total there are 12 wild cards, counting all twos and jokers.

• Only one wild card can be used per combination.
• In a combination, there can be two twos, as long as one acts as a wild card and the other retains its real value.

When the “2” acts as a wild card in a combination, it can be replaced by the card it substitutes.

• If the 2 is of the same suit as the combination, it will move to its real place when replaced. For example, by adding a 3 to this straight 2 4 5, it will become 2 3 4 5.
• If it cannot take its real place, it will continue to function as a wild card on the far right or left of the combination.

The stock (the “dead” pile)

When a player runs out of cards, they must take one of the “stocks” (11 cards each).

Each pair can only use one stock during the round.

If there are no cards left in the draw pile, one of the “stocks” will replace it.

Runs (“canastas”)

A “canasta” (run) is a combination of at least 7 cards. There are different types of runs:

Dirty run

It contains a wild card.

Clean run

It does not contain a wild card.

Royal run

A clean run from ace to king (the ace is placed after the king).

In this game mode, it is not possible to make ace to ace straights.

Bater - A player runs out of cards

It's called “bater” (“going out”) when a player runs out of cards in their hand. There are several situations:

Direct “Batida”

The player combines their last card, picks up a stock and continues playing in the same turn.
Not available in “Open-Dirty” mode.

Indirect “Batida”

The player discards their last card, picks up a stock and ends their turn.

End of the round

El jugador puede cerrar la ronda (“batida final”) cuando se queda sin cartas, su equipo ha recogido el “muerto” (si está disponible) y tiene una canasta.

Count up points

In this mode, the wild cards have a special value and there is no ace to ace straights.

Teams may also lose points in the following cases:

• You will lose points for each card left in your hand.
• Not picking up the “stock” will deduct 100 points.

Summary

End of the game

In this mode, the game ends:

• When a player discards the last card and can no longer pick up the “stock”.
• When there are no cards left in the draw pile.

In case of a tie, the team that started the game wins.

Experience points and ranking