How to Play Buraco
How to Play Buraco
Buraco is a team card game for four players, and you need a normal deck of cards to get started. You can find a regular deck of playing cards from Playmore for your game night. This guide uses one common Brazilian open-Buraco version; regional and family house rules can vary.
Quick facts
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| Players | 4 players in 2 fixed partnerships |
| Cards | 2 standard 52-card decks plus 4 jokers |
| Starting hand | 11 cards per player |
| Main aim | Make melds, especially seven-card canastas |
| Common target | 3,000 points |
What you are trying to do
Your partnership tries to collect more points than the other pair. You score by placing melds on the table. A meld is a group of cards played together. In this open version of Buraco, melds are suited sequences: three or more cards in order from the same suit, such as 5, 6, 7, and 8 of hearts. Your team shares its melds, so either partner may add to them.
A sequence with seven or more cards is a canasta. A clean canasta has no wild card and earns a larger bonus. A dirty canasta contains a wild card. The twos and jokers are wild cards, meaning they can stand in for missing cards, although a two can also be used naturally in a sequence.
What you need
Combine two ordinary 52-card decks and include the four jokers, making 108 cards. You also need a clear table and paper or a notes app for scoring. Sit so partners face each other. Choose a dealer, then pass the deal around the table after each hand.
Card values help with scoring: jokers are worth 20 points, twos and cards from 8 through king are worth 10 points, aces are worth 15 points, and cards from 3 through 7 are worth 5 points.
Set it up
Shuffle all the cards. The player to the dealer’s right cuts the deck and makes two face-down piles of 11 cards each. These are the mortos, or extra hands. Put them aside without looking at them. Deal 11 cards to each player. Stack the remaining cards face down as the draw pile, also called the stock. Start with no discard pile. The player to the dealer’s right takes the first turn.
How to play
- Begin the first turn. The opening player draws one card from the stock. They may keep it, or discard it and draw one more card. After that choice, the player may make melds and ends by discarding one card face up.
- Draw on later turns. Starting with the next player, choose either the top card of the stock or the entire face-up discard pile. In this open version, the discard pile is spread or overlapped so everyone can see the cards. Taking the pile gives you every card in it, not just the top card.
- Make or extend melds. You may lay down one or more suited sequences of at least three consecutive cards. If your team has reached 1,500 points or more, the first meld or group of melds you put down in that hand must total at least 75 card points. A sequence may run A-2-3 or continue through the king to an ace; an ace can appear at either end, and a long sequence may have an ace at both ends. Each meld may contain no more than one wild card. A natural two is the two of its suit in its normal place below the three, while a wild two substitutes for another card.
- Play with your partner. Put your team’s melds together in front of the partnership. You may add cards to either partner’s melds, but never to the other team’s melds. A meld stays a single sequence; do not split it into smaller sequences.
- Discard to finish. End every ordinary turn by placing one card face up on the discard pile. Think carefully before discarding a card that could complete an opponent’s useful sequence. If you take the pile, you still finish by discarding a card from your hand.
- Take the first morto. When a player gets rid of every card in their original hand, that player takes one 11-card morto and continues. If the last card was melded, this is a direct pickup and the new cards may be played immediately. If the last card was discarded, the player takes the morto but waits until their next turn to use it. Each team gets one morto.
- Close the hand. After your team has taken its morto, a player may go out only by melding all but one card, discarding the final card, and having the team already own at least one clean canasta. The team that closes earns the closing bonus.
How you win
When a team closes, or when play ends because the stock and both mortos have been used, total the hand. Add the values of cards in your team’s melds and add canasta bonuses: 200 points for a clean canasta and 100 points for a dirty canasta. Add 100 points for closing. Then subtract the values of cards still held by both partners. A team that never picked up its morto loses 100 points.
For a simple first game, play hands until one partnership reaches or passes 3,000 points. The team with the higher total wins. Some groups use a different target or special bonuses, so agree on the scoring target before dealing.
Easy first-game tips
Keep cards that belong together, but do not rush to place every possible meld. A hidden 6 and 7 may become much stronger when you find the matching 5 and 8. Clean sequences are especially valuable because they help your team meet the closing requirement. Watch the discard pile and remember which suits your opponents seem to collect.
Talk with your partner only in ways your group allows; usually, the cards on the table are the shared information. Save a wild card for a nearly complete sequence rather than using it just to create three cards. Finally, keep your hand organized by suit and rank. That makes legal sequences much easier to spot.
Quick questions
Can a Buraco meld contain equal-rank cards?
Not in this open version. A meld is a same-suit sequence, such as 9, 10, jack, and queen. Sets of equal rank belong to other Buraco variations.
Can we go out as soon as we empty our first hand?
No. Emptying the first hand lets that player take the team’s morto. To close, the team must have taken its morto and made at least one clean canasta.