How to play Buraco
Buraco (also called canastra) is Brazil's favourite card game - a rummy of sequences only, played with two decks plus four jokers, where a face-down morto hands you a second life and clean sequences of seven or more cards - the canastras - decide the score. This is the two-player Buraco Aberto against the computer.
Just want the rules? Read the complete Buraco rulebook.
- The deal - 11 cards each, two 11-card mortos set aside, and an empty discard pile: the first player draws and may keep the card or swap it once.
- The draw - one card from the stock, or the ENTIRE discard pile. No meld duty, no partial takes.
- Melds - sequences of 3+ suited cards only; no sets. At most one wild (joker or 2) per sequence, and a 2 in its own suit's slot counts natural.
- Canastras - 7+ cards: suja (wild) 100, limpa 200, the clean 13-card meia real 500, and the natural ace-to-ace 14-card real 1,000.
- The morto - empty your hand and 11 fresh cards take over. If the stock empties first, an untaken morto becomes the new stock.
- Closing (bater) - morto taken, at least one CLEAN canastra, and a final discard. Game to 3,000 points.
Strategy tips that win at Buraco
- Clean canastras are the whole game. You cannot even close without one, and the limpa-real ladder (200 → 500 → 1,000) dwarfs card points. Guard your natural runs and never wild them up casually.
- Chase the ace-to-ace. A long clean run in one suit should keep growing - the jump from a 200-point limpa to the 1,000-point canastra real is the biggest single swing in the game.
- Race for the morto. Eleven fresh cards plus insurance against the -100. And in Buraco the stakes are higher: if the stock runs dry first, your morto becomes the draw pile and the chance is gone forever.
- The pile is usually worth it. With sequences only, suited connectors multiply in value - a fat pile with two or three cards touching your runs pays for all its passengers.
- Feed wilds to dead-end runs. A 2 or joker belongs where no natural card can ever arrive - typically bridging a gap whose cards are all visible elsewhere. Keep live runs clean.
- Watch the first-turn swap. Starting a hand, swap a lone unconnected card - but keep anything that touches your suits: the swap founds your opponent's pile.
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between Buraco and Burraco?
Buraco is the Brazilian original; Burraco is the Italian branch of the same family. The biggest rule differences: Brazilian Buraco Aberto allows only sequences (no sets of equal cards), closing requires a CLEAN canastra, the 13-card and ace-to-ace 14-card clean sequences pay huge bonuses (500 and 1,000), jokers are worth 20 rather than 30, and the game runs to 3,000 points. We offer both games separately.
What is the morto in Buraco?
A face-down replacement hand of eleven cards. The first time you get rid of every card, the morto becomes your new hand - immediately if you melded out (batida direta), or from your next turn if you went out with a discard (batida indireta). Finishing a hand without your morto costs 100 points, and if the draw pile empties first, an untaken morto is converted into the new draw pile.
What is a canastra and how much is it worth?
Any sequence of seven or more cards. A canastra suja (with a wild card) is worth 100 bonus points and a limpa (all natural) 200. Clean sequences keep growing in value: a natural 13-card sequence is the canastra meia real worth 500, and the full ace-to-ace 14-card natural sequence is the canastra real worth 1,000.
Can a sequence have an ace at both ends in Buraco?
Yes - that is unique to the Brazilian game. A suit's complete run from ace to ace (A-2-3-…-Q-K-A) uses both aces naturally and forms the 14-card canastra real. In the Italian game the ace may only sit at one end.
How do you go out (bater) in Buraco?
Your team must have taken its morto and melded at least one CLEAN canastra - a suja is not enough. You then meld all but one card and discard the last one. Melding every card with nothing left to discard is not a legal close. Going out earns 100 bonus points.
What happens on the very first turn of a Buraco hand?
The discard pile starts empty, so the first player draws the top card of the stock and chooses: keep it, or discard it face up and draw one replacement card. That discarded card founds the pile. From then on every turn is the usual choice - draw one card or take the entire pile.
More free card games
Curious about the Italian branch? Play Burraco. Love two-deck meld races? Deal into Canasta. Prefer digging through a spread pile? Try Rummy 500.