Buraco.docx

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Buraco

Introduction

Players and Cards Deal

Melds

Play

Scoring

Buraco Fechado

Variations

Other Brazilian Buraco pages

Introduction

This page is about the card game Buraco as played in Brazil. Similar games are

played in some other countries, and there are separate pages about:

the Italian card game Burraco

the Argentinean tile game Burako

Buraco is a game 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 ofequal 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.

Buraco originated in South America, probably in the 1940's, and is still widely

played there. A similar game Burako is played in Argentina using tiles instead

of cards, and since the 1990's a variation Burraco has become extremely popular

in Italy.

Several versions of Buraco are played in Brazil, where the game is also knownas Canastra , Biriba or Perida. Buraco Aberto (open buraco) will be described

first, then the differences in Buraco Fechado (closed buraco), and finally some

other variants.

Players and Cards

There are normally 4 players in two fixed partnerships. The deal and play are

clockwise. A 108-card pack is used, consisting of two standard 52-card packs

with four wild jokers, known as curingão. The twos, known as curinga can be

used either as wild cards or as natural twos in sequences. The card values are:

http://www.pagat.com/rummy/buraco.html#introduction


http://www.pagat.com/rummy/buraco.html#brazil_players


http://www.pagat.com/rummy/buraco.html#brazil_deal


http://www.pagat.com/rummy/buraco.html#brazil_melds


http://www.pagat.com/rummy/buraco.html#brazil_play


http://www.pagat.com/rummy/buraco.html#brazil_scoring


http://www.pagat.com/rummy/buraco.html#fechado


http://www.pagat.com/rummy/buraco.html#brazil_variations


http://www.pagat.com/rummy/buraco.html#brazil_other


http://www.pagat.com/rummy/burraco.html



http://www.pagat.com/rummy/burako.html



http://www.pagat.com/rummy/canasta.html



http://www.pagat.com/rummy/samba.html


















Each joker: 20 points

Each two: 10 points

Each ace: 15 points

Each K, Q, J, 10, 9 or 8: 10 points

Each 7, 6, 5, 4 or 3: 5 points.

Deal

The first dealer is chosen by drawing cards and thereafter the turn to deal

passes to the left. The player to dealer's right cuts the cards and forms two 11-

card piles (mortos) from the cut portion: these are put aside to be taken by the

first player of each team who runs out of cards. The dealer deals the cards one

at a time from the remainder of the pack: 11 to each player. The remaining 42

cards are stacked face down to form the draw pile (monte). The game beginswith the discard pile (lixo or bagaço) empty.

Melds

The aim of the game is to score points by putting down melds. Each team keeps

its melds together. Players can add cards to their own team's melds but not to

melds put down by their opponents.

A meld consists of a sequence (seguida) of three or more consecutive cards of asuit. For this purpose the cards rank A-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10-J-Q-K-A. It is possible

to have a 14-card sequence with an ace at each end. A meld can contain at most

one wild card (a joker or a two) as a substitute for a missing card. A two of the

correct suit can alternatively be used as a natural card, immediately below the

three, and it is possible for a sequence to contain a wild two or joker in addition

to a natural two.

A sequence that contains a wild card is dirty (suja): a sequence consisting

entirely of natural cards is clean (limpa). A sequence of seven or more cards is

called a canastra , and the team scores a bonus for this.

In Buraco Aberto there are no sets of equal cards , only sequences.

Play

The first player, to the right of the dealer, takes the top card of the draw pile,

looks at it, and decides whether or not to keep it. The options for the first player

are:



1. Keep the first card; possibly put down one or more melds; discard one card

froim hand face up to end the first player's turn.

2. Discard the first card face up; take a second card from the draw pile; possibly

put down one or more melds; discard a second card face up on top of the

first to end turn.

Thereafter, the turn to play passes counter-clockwise and each turn consists of:

1. Taking either the top card of the face-down draw pile or the whole of the

face-up discard pile.

2. Optionally putting down melds or adding cards to melds already put down

by the player's team.

3. Discarding one card face up on the discard pile.

In this open game, the cards of the discard pile are overlapped, so that all theirvalues can be seen.

Note: the special procedure for the first player is almost equivalent to having

turned up a card after the deal to start the discard pile and giving the first

player a normal turn, choosing between this and drawing an unknown card

from the stock pile. The only real difference is that if the first player keeps the

first card drawn, the other players do not know what it was.

The first player who gets rid of the last card from his or her hand picks up takesthe first morto of 11 cards to use as a new hand. The second morto is taken by the

first player of the other team who runs out of cards. Running out of cards is

known as a batida and there are two types:

1. batida direta (or batida seco) in which all the player's cards are melded. The

player picks up the morto and carries on melding, until the turn is ended by

discarding from the new hand.

2. batida indireta: when a player discards his or her last card to claim a morto ,

the new 11-card hand cannot be used until the player's next turn.

When a team has taken its morto , either player of that team can end the play

with a second batida if the following conditions are fulfilled:

The player melds all but one card from hand, and discards this last card.

The team has melded at least one canastra limpa - a clean sequence of seven or

more cards without a wild card.

If the draw pile runs out before both the mortos have been taken, then a morto is

converted into a new draw pile of 11 cards, and play continues. If the draw pile



becomes empty and both mortos have been used, the play ends. The turn of the

player who took the last morto is completed, and the points are then counted.

Scoring

When the play ends, both teams score as follows:

cards in melds on the table plus card value

cards in players' hands minus card value

canastra limpa (clean sequence of 7+ cards) 200 points extra

canastra suja (7+ card sequence including wild card) 100 points extra

canastra meia real (clean 13-card sequence) 500 points extra

canastra real (clean 14-card sequence) 1000 points extra

for going out (closing) 100 points extra

if one team has not taken its morto , that team scores minus 100 points

If a player takes a morto after discarding (batida indireta), but never plays a turn

with it because someone else goes out before the player's next turn, the team is

charged the 100 point penalty for the unused morto , rather than adding up the

values of the cards in it. Note that if neither team has taken its morto , the 100-point penalty does not apply to either side.

The game is normally played to 3000 points: when a team reaches or passes this

total, the team with the higher score wins.

A team whose cumulative score is at least half the target score (at least 1500

when playing to 3000) is said to be vulnerable. The first meld(s) put down by a

vulnerable team must have a card value of at least 75 points.

Buraco Fechado

This game is called "closed buraco" because the cards of the discard pile are

stacked so that only the top card is visible. It is usually played with several

other differences from the above rules.

It is possible to meld a set of three or more equal cards, known as

a lavadeira or charuto or tripa. At most one wild card can be included in the

set. A set of seven or more forms a canastra suja or canastra limpa , depending











on whether it contains a wild card, and scores accordingly. It is possible to

meld a set of twos, and a canastra of twos scores 1000 points.

The discard pile can only be taken if its top card is immediately used in a

meld. This meld can include other cards from the pile, and if the team is

vulnerable, meldable cards from the pile can be used towards the 75 pointsto justify its first meld. If the top card of the discard pile is a wild card (two

or joker), the pile can only be taken is the wild card is used as part of

a new meld.

A player can go out if the player's team has taken its morto and made at least

one canastra - the canastra does not have to be clean.

Variations

Some play to a target of 2000 or 3500 points rather than 3000.

Some players round all scores up to a multiples of 10 - for example 485 is

recorded as 490.

Some play without vulnerability - there is no minimum meld value.

Some play that jokers are worth 50 points each rather than 20.

Some score 150 for a dirty canastra and 300 for a clean canastra.

In buraco fechado , some count any clean set of all 8 cards of a rank, such as eight

9's, as a canastra real , worth 1000 points.

Some award a bonus of 100 points to the non-dealing team if the player making

the cut does so in such a way as to leave exactly 44 cards, so that the dealer has

exactly enough cards to deal to the players. However, when playing with this

rule, if the cutter leaves the dealer with fewer than 44 cards, the cutter's team is

charged a 100-point penalty.

Some play that the person who cuts the deck can look at the bottom car from

the upper portion of the cut. If that card is a joker or a 2 (that is, any wild card),

they can keep it as a card for their hand. Dealing happens normally, but the

person who cut and already has their first card is skipped during the first

dealing round

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