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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:
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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:
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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
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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
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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