Scopa

Overview

Scopa is Italy’s best-loved card game, and it rewards quiet arithmetic rather than luck. Four cards lie face up on the table. On your turn you play one card from your hand and take any table card of the same value — or any set of table cards that adds up to it. Clear the table completely and you score a scopa, the sweep the game is named after.

Hands are short, the deck runs out fast, and the scoring rewards what you collected rather than how many tricks you took. First to eleven points wins the match. It is played here with a standard poker deck rather than an Italian one, so nothing is unfamiliar except the rules themselves.

The cards — a standard poker deck

You do not need Italian cards to play here. This version uses the standard poker deck you already know, with the familiar four suits. The 8s, 9s and 10s are simply taken out, which leaves the forty cards Scopa is played with: Ace through 7 at face value, plus Jack, Queen and King counting 8, 9 and 10.

Those three face cards are standing in for the Italian Fante, Cavallo and Re, and Diamonds stand in for Coins — which makes the seven of Diamonds the settebello, the single most valuable card in the game. So the rules are authentic Italian Scopa, dealt from a deck anyone can pick up.

How to play

You and your opponent are dealt three cards each, and four go face up on the table. Play one card per turn. If it matches the value of a table card you capture that card; if it matches the total of several table cards you capture all of them.

A single matching card must be taken in preference to a combination — you cannot ignore the exact match to scoop a bigger pile. If your card captures nothing it simply stays on the table, and becomes something your opponent might take.

Scopa — the sweep

Clear every card off the table and you score a point immediately. That is a scopa, and it is the most satisfying moment in the game. The exception is the very last play of a hand: sweeping the table there earns nothing, and whatever is left over goes to whoever captured last.

Scoring

When the deck is exhausted, four points are decided: most cards captured, most Diamonds, the settebello, and the primiera. Each is worth one point, and every scopa you scored adds one more.

The primiera is the subtle one. Each player takes their best card in each suit, scored on a special scale where sevens count for most and face cards least, and the higher total wins the point. It rewards collecting sevens and sixes across all four suits rather than hoarding one.

Online multiplayer

Choose Online Multiplayer from the menu to play a real opponent head to head instead of the computer. Both players are dealt the same table from a shared deal, and matches are cross-platform — a browser player and an Android player can share the same table.

Controls

Click or tap a card in your hand to select it, then press Play. When your card can capture more than one combination the game asks which one you want. The table shows the deck count, both scores, and the cards each side has captured.