How to play Scopa: rules of the Italian card game
Rules in short: each player gets three cards and four go face up on the table. In turn you play one card. If it matches the value of a table card, you capture that card; if not, you can capture several cards that add up to its value. If nothing matches, your card stays on the table. Clearing the table is a scopa, worth a point. When the pack is used up, you score a point each for most cards, most coins, the settebello (seven of coins) and the primiera. The first player to 11 points wins.
The deck The deal Capturing Scopa End of the hand Scoring Example Variations Strategy FAQ
Quick answers
- Players
- Two (or four in pairs); Snug Table plays the two-player game.
- Cards
- 40: ace to 7, jack, knight and king in coins, cups, swords and clubs.
- Values
- Ace 1, number cards their number, jack 8, knight 9, king 10.
- Hand
- Three cards, three more each time both hands are empty, six deals in all.
- Capture
- One card of the same value, or (if there is none) several cards adding up to it. Capturing is compulsory.
- Goal
- 11 points (Snug Table also offers 16 or 21).
The deck
Scopa uses the 40-card Italian deck. The four suits are denari (coins), coppe (cups), spade (swords) and bastoni (clubs or batons). Each suit has an ace, the numbers 2 to 7, and three court cards: the fante (jack), the cavallo (knight, a rider on a horse) and the re (king). Italian regions have their own designs: Neapolitan, Piacentine, Sicilian and more. Snug Table draws its own Italian cards, and you can switch to a standard pack in Settings: coins become diamonds, cups hearts, swords spades and clubs clubs, and the knight shows as a queen.
The deal
The dealer gives three cards to each player, one at a time, starting with the opponent, then lays four cards face up on the table. If those four include three or four kings, the deal is cancelled and the cards are shuffled and dealt again. (Two kings on the table can be captured one at a time, but three would leave a king that nobody can ever sweep.)
The dealer’s opponent plays first. When both players have played their three cards, the dealer deals three more to each from the stock. No more cards go to the table. The dealer changes every hand.
Capturing
On your turn you play one card from your hand face up:
- If a table card has the same value, you capture it. If two or more do, you pick one.
- If no single card matches, but two or more table cards add up to your card’s value, you capture all of them. If several sets add up, you pick one.
- A single match always comes first. With a 7 in hand and a 7, a 3 and a 4 on the table, you must take the 7, not the 3 and 4.
- If your card can capture, it must. If it captures nothing, it stays on the table.
You may play any card you like, though. Holding a card that could capture doesn’t force you to play it.
Captured cards, together with the card you played, go face down in front of you. In Snug Table, when a card could capture in more than one way, buttons under the table let you choose.
Scopa: sweeping the table
If your capture takes every card on the table, you have made a scopa (“broom”), worth 1 point. Players traditionally mark it by putting the capturing card face up and crosswise in their pile. There is one exception: the very last card of the hand never scores a scopa, even if it clears the table.
End of the hand
After the sixth deal is played out, any cards still on the table go to the player who made the last capture. Then each player counts their cards.
Scoring
| Point | Who gets it |
|---|---|
| Cards | The player with more cards (21 or more). At 20 each, nobody. |
| Coins | The player with more coins (6 or more). At 5 each, nobody. |
| Settebello | The player who captured the seven of coins. |
| Primiera | The player with the best primiera (see below). A tie scores nothing. |
| Scopa | One point for every sweep. |
The primiera
Each player picks their best card in each of the four suits and adds up these special values:
| Card | 7 | 6 | Ace | 5 | 4 | 3 | 2 | Jack, knight, king |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Primiera value | 21 | 18 | 16 | 15 | 14 | 13 | 12 | 10 |
The higher total wins the point. A player who has no card at all in one suit can’t score the primiera. If neither player has all four suits, nobody scores it. This is why sevens are the cards everyone wants: four sevens make 84, the best primiera possible.
The first player to reach 11 wins. If both pass 11 in the same hand, the higher score wins; if they are level, another hand is played.
Example
The table shows a 2 of cups, a 5 of clubs and a knight of swords (worth 9). You hold a 7 of cups, a 5 of swords and a king.
The 7 of cups can take the 2 and the 5 together (2 + 5 = 7), leaving the knight. The 5 of swords must take the 5 of clubs, because a single match comes first. The king captures nothing and would stay on the table.
Playing the 7 is tempting, but the knight is left alone: if your opponent holds a knight, they sweep it for a scopa. Taking the 5 instead leaves 2 + 9 = 11, which no single card can sweep, and you still capture two cards. Keep the 7 for later: it is your best card for the primiera.
Variations
- Scopone: four players in pairs, all 40 cards dealt (nine each, four on the table, or ten each and none on the table). Not on Snug Table yet.
- Scopa d’assi (or Asso piglia tutto): an ace captures every card on the table.
- Re bello: an extra point for the king of coins. Napola: extra points for the ace, two and three of coins (and more in a row).
- Twenty-one or sixteen: longer games, both available in New game.
- Some players allow the table to be redealt for other combinations, or play that a single match does not take priority over a sum. Snug Table follows the standard rules above.
Strategy
- Don’t leave an easy sweep. Before you put a card down, add up what stays on the table. If the total is 10 or less, a single card of that value sweeps it. Totals above 10 are safe from a scopa.
- Guard the settebello. If the seven of coins is on the table, take it whenever you can. If it is in your hand, wait until it can capture something rather than putting it down.
- Sevens and sixes win the primiera. Capture them when you can; a hand full of jacks and kings rarely wins it.
- Count the cards. With only 40 cards, you can know how many sevens or kings are still out. When three of a value are gone, the fourth can’t be matched by anyone else. In the last deal, every unseen card is in your opponent’s hand.
- The last capture matters. The cards left at the end go to whoever captured last, which often settles the point for cards.
Scopa FAQ
What does “scopa” mean?
It is Italian for “broom”. Sweeping the table clean is a scopa, and the game is named after it.
How do you pronounce it?
“SKOH-pah”, with the stress on the first syllable. The plural, for several sweeps, is “scope” (SKOH-peh).
If a single card and a sum both match, can I take the sum?
No. In standard Scopa a single card of the same value must be taken first.
Do I have to capture if I can?
The card you play must capture if it can. But you choose which card to play, so you can play a card that captures nothing instead.
Does the last card of the hand count as a scopa?
No. Capturing everything with the very last card of the hand is never a scopa.
Does the computer see my cards?
No. It decides only from what a player in its seat would know: its own hand, the table and the cards each of you has captured. In the last deal every unseen card must be in your hand, which any careful player can work out too. Each deal is sealed before it starts, and you can verify the shuffle when the hand ends.