Play Buraco online with friends, free

How to play Buraco

1. Two 52-card decks, no jokers: 104 cards. Everyone gets 11 cards, and two face-down piles of 11, the mortos, are set aside. The discard pile starts empty.
2. The player after the dealer starts. Their first card from the stock is shown to everyone and can't be thrown that turn.
3. Play goes counter-clockwise. On your turn, draw one card from the stock or take the whole discard pile into your hand. Holding one card, you can't take a pile of one card.
4. Lay down melds for your team and add cards to your team's melds, never to the opponents'. Then throw one card to end your turn.
5. Melds are runs (3 or more cards of one suit in a row; the ace goes low or high, never in the middle) or sets (3 or more cards of any one rank; suits may repeat).
6. The 2s are wild, at most one per meld. A wild may slide inside its own meld but never moves to another, and a 2 in its own spot of its suit counts as a natural card.
7. Empty your hand by laying cards down and your team takes its morto: 11 more cards, and your turn goes on. Each team takes one.
8. Close the round by throwing your last card once your team has a canasta and has taken its morto.

Buraco scoring at a glance

• Canasta: a meld of 7 or more cards. Clean, with no wild: +200. Dirty, with a wild: +100. A dirty canasta turns clean if its 2 lands in its own spot.
• Card values: 3 to 7 are worth 5, 8 to King 10, the ace 15 and a 2 is worth 20. Cards in your team's melds count for you; cards left in both partners' hands count against you.
• Closing the round: +100. A team that never took its morto: −100.
• If the stock runs out, an untaken morto becomes the new stock; when none is left, the round ends with nobody closing.
• If a round ends with no canasta on either side, both teams score −200 and nothing else counts.
• In a Full game, a team that starts a round on 1000 or more must make its first lay-down worth at least 75.
• A canasta of seven 2s wins the match at once.
• Both teams over the target in the same round: the higher total wins; a tie plays one more round.

Buraco in Rayoosh

• 2 vs 2 with your partner opposite, or 1 vs 1 with the same rules.
• Quick: first team to 1000, about 25 minutes. Full: first to 1500, about 40 minutes.
• Pearls by finishing place: 50 each for the winners of a Quick game and 80 for a Full game, plus a big-win bonus for winning by 500 or more. Never bought, never cashed out.
• The discard pile is fanned out so you can see what you would take, canastas get a ribbon (200 or 100), and the score box shows when your team must open with 75.
• A play that would leave you unable to finish your turn is stopped before you send it, with the reason.
• Works on phones, tablets, computers and TVs with a remote, in Arabic, English and Hindi.

Tips to win at Buraco

• A big pile is worth taking early: more cards mean more melds and faster canastas.
• Keep at least one canasta clean: 200 is twice 100.
• Use your wild 2 to finish a canasta or to empty your hand for the morto, not to start a short meld.
• Get your morto early: it is 11 fresh cards, and a team without one loses 100.
• Never throw a card that fits an opponent's meld, or one the next player has been collecting from the pile.
• Close when your team leads the round, or when the opponents still hold many cards.

Play Buraco with friends

Create a private table, share the link in your group chat, show the QR code or read out the room code, and your friends are seated in seconds with no download.

• Computer players fill any empty seat, so a 2 vs 2 never waits for a fourth.
• Text chat with quick phrases, voice chat, emotes and gifts at the table.
• A short lesson and practice games against the computer, any time.
• Once Rayoosh is installed, you can play the computer even without internet.