Buraco

How to play Buraco

Buraco is Brazil's beloved partnership rummy — a two-against-two game of building long sequences, freeing a hidden hand called the morto, and racing to complete canastas. Here you partner a bot against two more, sitting across from your ally. It is descended from Canasta and is played all over Brazil, Italy (as Burraco) and the Río de la Plata. You can also play online with friends — press Play online to be matched, or share a private link to play together.

Play Buraco online with friends

Prefer real opponents to the bots? Choose Play online to be matched with other players, or share a private invite link and seat up to four players — two partnerships — at the same table, right in your browser, with no account and no app. The server deals every hand and enforces the rules, keeping everyone in sync.

Goal

Score points as a team by melding cards and completing canastas. The first team to reach 3000 over several hands wins.

The cards

Two full decks plus four jokers — 108 cards. You and your partner are dealt eleven cards each, two face-down mortos of eleven are set aside, the rest forms the stock, and one card starts the discard pile. Jokers and 2s are wild.

Melds & canastas

A meld is a sequence: three or more cards of the same suit in a row (the ace runs low, A-2-3, or high, Q-K-A). A sequence may use one wildcard at most. A meld of seven or more cards is a canasta: a clean canasta (no wildcard, worth 200) or a dirty one (with a wildcard, worth 100). A 2 sitting in its own place — as in 2-3-4 — is natural, so it keeps a canasta clean.

Your turn

• Draw one card from the stock, or take the entire discard pile into your hand.
• Lay new sequences and add cards to your team's melds (your partner's sequences are yours to build on too).
• Discard one card to end your turn.

The morto and going out

The first time your team empties a hand, that player picks up a morto and keeps playing. You may only go out (bater, +100) once your team has taken its morto and owns at least one clean canasta. The hand also ends if the stock runs out. Then each team scores its melded card points and canasta bonuses, minus any cards still held.

Strategy

Hoard your wildcards for canastas, not little melds — a clean canasta is worth twice a dirty one. Watch the discard pile grow: taking a fat pile can hand you a winning hand, but it can also bury you in cards you can't use. Coordinate with your partner — every sequence on your side is shared, so feed each other's runs toward that first clean canasta. Don't go out too early and strand your partner's points in hand. Tap the stock or discard to draw, select cards and press Lay for a sequence, tap a sequence to lay a card off, and N starts a new game.