Buraco

Buraco with an open or closed discard pile, with a partner or one on one, against opponents that remember what was played

Buraco, also called canastra, is a very popular double-deck card game in Brazil, a relative of rummy and canasta. It uses two 52-card decks (104 cards), or 108 with the four jokers. Each player gets 11 cards, and two piles of 11 become the mortos (dead hands). On your turn you draw a card from the stock or take the whole discard pile, lay down runs of 3 or more cards of the same suit and discard one card. The 2 is a wild (one per meld), and runs of 7 cards become canastas: a clean one, with no wild, is worth 200; a dirty one is worth 100. Whoever empties their hand first takes the morto, and going out requires the canasta set by the rules. This version plays the open buraco, the most common, and also the closed one, where the discard pile only counts if its top card goes into a meld. You choose to team up with a computer partner or play one on one, the target score (3,000 by default) and the opponent's level, from Beginner to Master. There is no single official buraco rulebook, so house rules vary from table to table, and everything that changes is in the options and the Rules summary.

Draw, select your cards and lay them down

1. Choose partners or one on one, the variant (open or closed), the target score and the computer's level, then tap Start match.
2. On your turn, tap the stock to draw a card or the discard pile to take it. Then tap cards in your hand to select them and tap Meld to start a meld, or tap a meld on the table to add the cards. You can also drag cards onto a meld, onto New meld or onto the discard pile.
3. End your turn by discarding one card: select it and tap the discard pile or Discard. When the hand ends, review the scoring (cards laid down, canastas, going out, hand and morto) and play on to the target score.

Sources and references for this tool

These references help contextualize formulas, standards, APIs and limitations used on this page. They do not replace professional validation when a result has legal, financial, medical or operational impact.

• Buraco (card game), Portuguese WikipediaWikipedia, Two decks, 2 as a wildcard (one per meld), runs of 3 or more, a 7-card canastra (clean 200, dirty 100, 500 and 1000), two mortos of 11, closed or open discard pile, hand penalty and targets of 3,000 or 5,000.
• Buraco Aberto: rules and how to play onlineJogos do Rei, 104 cards without jokers, 11 cards each, two mortos of 11, runs only, the whole discard pile taken without justification, a final out needing a clean canastra (+100) and -100 for not taking the morto.
• Buraco Fechado: full rules and how the discard pile worksJogos do Rei, 108 cards with jokers (50 points), a justified discard pile pickup (the top card must go into a meld) and a final out allowed with a dirty canastra.
• Buraco Aberto rules (Jogatina)Jogatina, 108 cards (the joker is worth 50), 11 each, two mortos, runs only, canastras worth 100, 200, 500 and 1,000, direct and indirect outs, a clean canastra to go out (+100) and -100 for not taking the morto.
• How to play Buraco (MegaJogos)MegaJogos, Card values (A 15, 2 and 8 to K 10, 3 to 7 five), a 100-point out bonus, direct and indirect outs, and the final count: add what is on the table and subtract what is left in hand.
• How to play Buraco: rules step by stepDicionário Popular, One morto per partnership, the morto becomes the stock when the stock runs out, the 500 canastra (13 cards) and the real canastra (14 cards), and the table of hand card values.
• Buraco: the card game (Tribuna de Minas)Tribuna de Minas, Records the 50-point out bonus, the 200 clean and 100 dirty canastras, and matches that usually run to 3,000 or 5,000 points.

Frequently asked questions

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