Scopone

Full rules

1. Overview
2. The cards
3. Setup
4. Playing a turn
5. Scopa – the sweep
6. End of a hand
7. Scoring
8. Winning the game
9. Tips for beginners
10. Variants

Overview

Scopone is the four-player partnership form of Scopa, Italy's favourite fishing game. You play cards from your hand to capture cards lying face up on the table, either by matching a card of the same value or by taking several cards that add up to it. The classic form, Scopone scientifico, is described here: all 40 cards are dealt out at the start – 10 to each player and none to the table – so nothing is drawn later and you can work out who holds what as the cards fall. Your team scores for the most cards, the most diamonds, the 7♦ (the settebello), the best set of cards in each suit (the primiera) and every scopa ("broom"), when you sweep the table clean. The first team to 11 points wins.

• Players: exactly 4, in two teams of two; partners sit opposite each other.
• You need: a standard 52-card deck, and paper and pen for scoring.

The cards

Take out all 8s, 9s and 10s and the jokers. You play with 40 cards. For capturing, each card has a value:

Suits only matter when scoring: diamonds are special, and the 7♦ is the most valuable single card.

Setup

1. Direction: in Italy, dealing and play go to the right (anticlockwise).
2. Deal: the dealer shuffles and deals 10 cards to each player, face down. Nothing is dealt to the table.
3. Each team keeps a face-down pile for its captured cards; partners share one.

Playing a turn

The player to the dealer's right starts by playing any card onto the empty table. After that, players take turns to the right. On your turn, play one card from your hand face up:

• Capture by matching: if a table card has the same value, take it. If several do, choose one.
• Capture by adding: if several table cards add up to the value of your card, take all of them. If there are different ways, choose one.
• Matching comes first: if your card could take a single card or a group, you must take the single card.
• No capture possible: your card stays face up on the table.

You may play any card you like – but if the card you play can capture, you must capture. Put the captured cards and your own card face down on your team's pile.

Partners may not tell each other anything about their cards, by word or by sign. What you can learn comes from the cards that have been played.

Example: The table shows 4♣ · 5♥ · 9♠ · A♦. Anna plays the Q♥ (9). She must take the 9♠ – a match beats the sum 4 + 5. Ben plays the K♣ (10): 4 + 5 + 1 = 10 takes all three remaining cards and clears the table – a scopa.

Scopa – the sweep

If your capture takes all the cards on the table, you've made a scopa, worth 1 point. Put the card you captured with face up and crosswise in your pile, so it can be counted later. The next player has to play a card onto the empty table.

End of a hand

Each player plays all 10 cards; the dealer plays last. Cards still on the table after the last card go to the team that made the last capture.

The last card is special: if the dealer's last card captures all the cards remaining on the table, it counts as a scopa (unlike in Scopa). If the dealer's last card captures nothing, the last capturer takes the rest, and that is no scopa.

Scoring

Each team counts its pile. There are four points to win, plus the scope:

If the teams tie for most cards, most diamonds or primiera, nobody scores that point.

Primiera: pick your team's best card of each suit and add up their primiera values. The highest total wins. A team needs at least one card of every suit to have a primiera; a team with all four suits beats one with only three, whatever the totals.

Example: Anna and Carla's pile holds 22 cards, 4 diamonds and one scopa; their best cards per suit are 7♠ 7♥ 6♣ 5♦: 21 + 21 + 18 + 15 = 75. Ben and Dan's pile holds 18 cards, 6 diamonds including the 7♦; their best are 7♣ 6♠ 6♥ 7♦: 21 + 18 + 18 + 21 = 78. Anna and Carla score cards 1 + scopa 1 = 2; Ben and Dan score diamonds 1 + settebello 1 + primiera 1 = 3.

Winning the game

Play hands until a team reaches 11 points; the dealer changes each hand, passing to the right. If both teams pass 11 in the same hand, the higher score wins; if they are tied, play another hand.

Tips for beginners

• Count as you go. All the cards are in the four hands, so every card that falls tells you something. Keep track of the 7s above all – the 7♦ is a point of its own.
• Don't leave easy sums. If the table adds up to 10 or less after your turn, an opponent may sweep it with one card.
• Lead with a card you can spare. The first card lands on an empty table, and the opponent to your right gets the first chance at it.
• Read your partner. A card your partner plays that captures nothing may be a hint about what they can no longer take – and what they hope you will.
• Watch the end. The dealer's team can score a scopa with the very last card, so the team that doesn't deal must not leave a table the dealer can clear.

Variants

All optional – agree before you start.

• Ordinary Scopone: deal 3 cards to each player, 2 face up to the table, 3 more each, 2 more to the table, then 3 more each: 9 cards each and 4 on the table. Play as above – but a sweep with the very last card never counts as a scopa.
• Longer games: play to 21.
• Re bello: the K♦ is worth an extra point.
• Napola: a run of diamonds starting A-2-3 scores 1 point per card in the run.