What Is Scopa?
Scopa is one of Italy’s most popular card games, particularly in central and southern Italy. Players take turns playing cards from their hand to ‘capture’ cards on the table that add up to the same value as the card played. The special prize is a ‘Scopa’ — clearing the entire table in one move. The name itself means ‘broom’ in Italian.
What You Need
- A 40-card deck: remove 8s, 9s, and 10s from a standard deck
- 2 to 6 players (best with 2 or 2 teams of 2)
- Score pad
Card Values
- Cards 1–7: their number value
- Jack: 8
- Queen: 9
- King: 10
Setup
- Deal 3 cards to each player.
- Deal 4 cards face-up to the center table.
- If all 4 table cards are Kings, re-deal (Kings can’t be captured directly).
- Remaining cards form the stock — deal new hands when players run out.
How to Play — Step by Step
- On your turn, play one card from your hand.
- If your card matches one table card in value, capture both cards and take them to your pile.
- If your card matches the sum of multiple table cards, capture them all (e.g., play a 7 to capture a 4 and a 3).
- You must capture if you can. If you can capture in multiple ways, you choose.
- If you can’t capture anything, your card stays on the table (this is called ‘trailing’).
- Scopa! If you capture all remaining table cards, you score a bonus Scopa point immediately and call out ‘Scopa!’ Turn the captured pile face-up to track Scope (plural of Scopa).
- When all players run out of cards, deal 3 more cards each. Repeat until the stock is gone. Any remaining table cards go to the last player who made a capture.
Scoring at End of Hand
- Carte (most cards): 1 point to whoever captured the most cards.
- Denari (most coins/diamonds): 1 point to whoever captured the most diamond cards (or the coins suit in Italian decks).
- Settebello (Seven of Diamonds): 1 point for capturing the 7♦.
- Primiera: 1 point to whoever has the best ‘primiera’ card in each suit (7=21, 6=18, A=16, 5=15, 4=14, 3=13, 2=12, face cards=10).
- Scopa: 1 point per Scopa scored during play.
Winning
First player to reach 11 points (or agreed target) wins.
Strategy Tips
- Trail high cards onto an empty table — if you clear the table with a Scopa, you trail a card that no one else can capture before the deal ends.
- Don’t feed the 7 of Diamonds to opponents — it’s worth a point just by itself.
- Count cards to track the Primiera — holding a 7 in any suit is very powerful.