Burraco at a glance
- Deal: 11 cards each, two face-down 11-card pozzetti, one card starts the discard pile.
- Draw: one card from the stock OR the entire discard pile - never part of it.
- Melds: sequences or sets of 3+, at most ONE wild (joker or 2) per meld.
- Burraco: any meld of 7+ cards. Clean +200, semi-clean +150, dirty +100.
- Pozzetto: empty your hand once and 11 fresh cards replace it.
- Closing: pozzetto taken + a burraco + one final non-wild discard. +100.
- Game: first player past 2,000 points wins.
The deal
Shuffle the 108 cards. Each player receives 11 cards; two piles of 11 - the pozzetti - are set aside face down; one card is turned face up to start the discard pile and the remaining cards form the face-down stock. The non-dealer plays first, and the deal alternates between hands.
Your turn: draw, meld, discard
- Draw - either the top card of the stock, or the whole discard pile. Taking the pile is always legal: unlike Canasta there is no meld requirement and the pile is never frozen. You cannot take just part of it.
- Meld (optional) - lay down new sequences or sets, or add cards to your existing melds, as many as you like.
- Discard - end your turn by placing exactly one card face up on the pile.
One restriction: if the discard pile held a single card and you took it, you may not discard that same physical card straight back. Discarding its twin of the same rank from your hand is fine.
Melds and wild cards
Sequences are three or more consecutive cards of one suit, ordered (A)-2-3-…-Q-K-(A) - the ace may sit at either end, never both. Sets are three or more cards of equal rank (aces or 3s through kings; a set of 2s is impossible since 2s are wild). Each player may have only one set of a given rank, but two sequences in the same suit are allowed. Sets stop at 9 cards; a sequence can reach 14 (a full 13-card suit plus one wild).
Every meld tolerates at most one wild card - any joker or any 2. The key subtlety: a 2 sitting in its own suit's sequence directly between the ace and the 3 occupies its natural place and does not count as wild, so ♥A-♥2-♥3 is a fully clean start, and such a sequence can still absorb one true wild elsewhere. When the natural card a wild represents is added later, the wild slides along the sequence and may later stand for a card at either end.
The pozzetto
The first time you get rid of every card in your hand, you take a pozzetto - 11 fresh cards. There are two routes. Melding out: if your last cards go down in melds, you pick the pozzetto up immediately and keep playing the same turn, discard still owed. Discarding out: if your last card leaves as a discard, the pozzetto arrives face down and waits - you play it from your next turn while your opponent moves.
A hand that ends before you take your pozzetto costs a flat 100-point penalty - and until it is taken you can never close. Racing to the pozzetto is usually the single strongest line of play: it is 11 extra cards of scoring material.
Burrachi: clean, semi-clean, dirty
| Type | Definition | Bonus |
|---|---|---|
| Pulito (clean) | Seven or more cards, all natural | +200 |
| Semipulito (semi-clean) | 8+ cards containing 7 consecutive natural cards (or 7 equal naturals) plus a wild | +150 |
| Sporco (dirty) | 7+ cards leaning on a wild | +100 |
A meld's tier is judged at the end of the hand, so a dirty burraco can be upgraded: keep extending it with natural cards and once seven consecutive naturals stand together the wild only costs you the semi-clean discount, not the full dirty one.
Ending the hand
- Closing - after taking your pozzetto and with at least one burraco on your side, meld down to a single card and discard it. The final discard cannot be a wild card, and melding out with no card left to discard is not a legal close. Closing pays +100.
- Stock exhaustion - when the stock is drawn down to its last two cards, the hand ends after that player finishes the turn. Nobody collects a closing bonus.
- Stalemate - if the pile is a lone card and both players just exchange it without melding, the hand ends with no closing bonus.
Note the guard rule: with your pozzetto already taken but no burraco, you must always keep at least two cards in hand - the game will not let you meld down to one, because the forced discard would be an illegal close.
Scoring
| Card | Points |
|---|---|
| Joker | 30 |
| Two | 20 |
| Ace | 15 |
| King through 8 | 10 |
| 7 through 3 | 5 |
Each hand: add the value of everything you melded plus burraco bonuses plus 100 if you closed; subtract the value of every card still in your hand and 100 if you never took your pozzetto. Negative hand scores - and negative running totals - are entirely possible. The game ends when a player finishes a hand past 2,000 points; the higher total wins, and a tie plays another hand.
Variants and house rules
Our game follows the pagat.com description of Italian Burraco with the widespread semipulito bonus. Common variants you may meet:
- Four-player partnership Burraco - the tournament standard in Italy: same rules, teams share melds and take one pozzetto each per team.
- Buraco (Brazilian) - the South American branch: the replacement hand is called the morto, and several scoring details differ.
- No semipulito - some tables only know clean 200 / dirty 100; we score the middle tier at 150.
- Higher targets - clubs sometimes play to 3,005 points; we use the standard 2,000.
Frequently asked questions
Do you have to meld to take the discard pile in Burraco?
No. Taking the whole pile is always legal, with no meld requirement - the pile is never frozen. That is the big difference from Canasta, where picking up the pile has strict conditions.
How many wild cards can one meld hold in Burraco?
Exactly one - a joker or a 2. The exception in spirit is a 2 of the same suit sitting in its natural place between the ace and the 3 of its sequence: that 2 counts as a natural card, and the sequence can still take one true wild elsewhere.
What happens if the hand ends before I take my pozzetto?
You subtract a flat 100-point penalty on top of the cards still stuck in your hand. Taking the pozzetto early is both a scoring engine and insurance.
Can I close by melding all of my cards?
No - a final discard is always required, and it cannot be a wild card. If melding everything would leave you with nothing to discard, the move is illegal and you must keep at least one card back.
Is an ace-2-3 sequence clean or dirty?
Clean, when the 2 belongs to the same suit - it occupies its natural slot between the ace and the 3 and does not count as a wild. An off-suit 2 or a joker in the same position would make the sequence dirty.
How big can a sequence get in Burraco?
Fourteen cards: the complete ace-to-king run of a suit (13 naturals) plus one wild standing for the second ace at the other end. Sets are capped at nine cards.
When does a Burraco game end?
When a hand finishes with a player above 2,000 points. The higher cumulative total wins - which, after a big closing hand, is not always the player who was leading before it.
What ends a hand if nobody closes?
The stock running down to its final two cards ends the hand at the end of that turn, and a stalemate of lone-card exchanges does the same. In both cases scores are counted normally but nobody earns the 100-point closing bonus.
Related rulebooks
- Canasta rules - partner up, build canastas, race to 5000
- Rummy 500 rules - dig the discard pile, meld your way to 500
- Scopa rules - match and add to capture - sweep for a scopa
Last reviewed 2026-08-13 · play Burraco online free