Game rules Buraco (Canastra)

Descriptions

The game is played with 4 participants, forming duos, sitting in alternate positions on the table.

• Players - 4
• Deck of Cards - two traditional 52 cards deck
• Distribution - 11 cards for each participant and 2 extra hands
• Objective - Score more than the opponents

Definitions

• Meld - three or more cards, in order, from the same suit.
  Example: 3,4,5 and 6 of Clubs; 10, Jack and Queen of Hearts. (Aces goes before the two and after the king aswell). There is a minimum of three cards to meld into the table, but more can be meld simultaneously and added during the match.
• Trump Cards - The 2's are used as trump cards, replacing any card in a meld.
  Example: Queen of Diamonds - Any 2's - Ace of Diamonds; Seven of Spades - Eight of Spades - Any 2's - Ten of Spades
• Going Out - When there are no more cards at your hand.
• Extra Hand - only the first one from the duo to go out draws it.
• Direct and Indirect Knock Out - Going out directly is when the player melds every card in his/her hand without discarding a card. Grabs the extra pile and keeps on playing, without drawing any more cards. Indirectly, the cards ends but there is one leftover that is discarded. Grabs de extra pile but will only use at his/hers next turn.
• Canasta - A seven or more cards meld, in sequence, and from the same suit; There are three types of Canasta: Natural (no trumps), Mixed (with trumps) and 1000's (From Ace to Ace without trumps) t
• Discard Pile - Cards from the table that can be drawn.
• Pack of Cards - leftover cards after distribution used to draw more cards during the match.

Scoring

The first to play draws a card from the pack, checks all possible combination at his/her hands and throws away one that doesn't interest him/her. This card starts the discard pile and only the top card from it can be seen. After discarding, the next player from the left plays, and so on, until the match ends. After each draw, the player can combine some cards - meld - before discarding one from his/her. Discarding means that this player ended playing for now and is passing the turn. The player can't go back. From the second player on, there is the option to draw a card from the pack or all cards at the discard pile. The player that knocks out with the initial 11 cards can draw the extra pile and continue playing. In duos, each extra hand is correspondent to each duo. If a duo that already draw the extra pile goes out again, the match is over, but to do this at least a natural canasta is needed. If any duo or player isn't able to draw the extra hand, a hundred points must be discounted from plus the points for each card left in hand. In case the pack of cards end before the match ends, and there is still an extra hand, this extra pile must be moved to the pack and the game continues.

Scoring

By the end of the game, all points are summed. Cards over the table plus the canasta values. Then all the points from the cards left on your hand are discounted. For the player or duo that knocks out, there is an extra hundred points. For the ones that didn't draw the extra pile, a hundred points are discounted.

Detail: If a player draws the extra pile throught an indirect knock out and the adversaries ends the match before the player uses the extra hand, the points must be discounted, like the player never got the extra hand

Points

• Go Out = 100 points.
• Trump Card (2's) = 10 points.
• From 8 to King = 10 points each card
• From 3 to 7 = 5 points each card
• Aces = 15 points each
• Natural Canasta - Worth 100 point
• Mixed Canasta - Worth 100 points.
• 1000's Canasta- Worth 1000 points