Burraco Offline: Card Game

Burraco is the card game Italy plays: runs and sets, two face-down pozzetti waiting on the table, and a close that has to be earned. This one comes with cards big enough to read without holding the phone to your face.

Two decks, 108 cards, four jokers. Eleven cards each and two pozzetti face down. Play in pairs — you and your AI partner against two opponents — or one against one.

THE ITALIAN RULES, THE REAL ONES

You meld two ways. A scala: three or more cards in sequence, same suit. A combinazione, the set: three or more cards of the same rank, suits may repeat. One wild per meld, joker or pinella (a 2). A 2 sitting in its own place inside a run counts as a natural card, so the run is still clean.

Seven cards make a burraco. Burraco pulito is 200 points, with no wild in it at all. Semipulito is 150, when a single wild sits at the outer end of seven or more natural cards. Sporco is 100, when the wild sits in the middle.

The pozzetto is what the game turns on. The first time your team runs out of cards, it takes its pozzetto — eleven cards — and plays on. Empty your hand by melding and you take it and keep playing the same turn — al volo. Empty it with your discard and you take it face down and play it from your next turn. One pozzetto per team; a team that never takes it pays 100 points at the end of the deal.

The chiusura is worth 100 and cannot be improvised: your pozzetto already taken, at least one burraco on the table, and the last card must be discarded. That final discard may not be a wild.

Scoring, line by line: joker 30, pinella 20, ace 15, K down to 8 ten each, 7 down to 3 five each. Matches run to 2005 points; in settings you can drop to 1005 or 505 for a shorter game.

The stock stops at two cards: whoever draws the third from last discards, and the hand ends there, with no bonus.

BIG CARDS, BIG TEXT

Ranks and suits drawn large and high contrast. In settings you can push cards and text to Large or Extra large, slow the pace down, and pick one of four card backs. Nothing on screen is smaller than it needs to be.

IT PLAYS OFFLINE

No connection, no account, no sign-up, no email. On a plane, in a waiting room, anywhere. The game saves after every single move, so a phone call never costs you the hand.

IF YOU ARE LEARNING

Tap a card and only the moves that card really allows show up — an illegal move simply is not offered. If a card cannot be melded, the game says why. Stuck? Tap Hint and your partner picks for you. Watch and learn follows four AI players through a hand while you just watch, and the How to play screen explains the table, the turn, wilds and the close in four short pages.

THERE IS ALSO

Three difficulty levels. Weekly and all-time leaderboards for each level: the only thing you give is a nickname, no account and no email. A history that keeps wins, streaks, clean and dirty burracos, pozzetti taken and closes. Ten languages: Italian, English, German, Spanish, French, Portuguese, Korean, Japanese, Chinese, Russian.

NOTHING RIGGED

Cards are shuffled 100% at random. The AI never sees your hand: it knows how many cards you hold, never which ones. Every deal comes from a numeric seed you can read yourself on the Fair play screen, along with every move of the round. No chips, no credits to buy, no betting, no timer rushing you.

If you know canasta or rummy, you are already most of the way here: the melds change, the spirit does not.

Recent changes:
First release.

• Burraco with the Italian rules: runs and sets, two pozzetti, burraco pulito 200 / semipulito 150 / sporco 100, a close that ends with a discard, matches to 2005 (or 1005 and 505).
• Plays 100% offline with no account; the game saves after every move.
• Three card and text sizes, four card backs, adjustable pace.
• One against one or two against two, three AI levels, weekly and all-time leaderboards.
• Ten languages.