Scopa

Scopa is played with a 40-card deck — here, an ordinary poker deck (♥ ♦ ♣ ♠) with the 8s, 9s and 10s removed (ranks A, 2–7, J, Q, K). Coins (Denari) are shown as diamonds ♦. Capture values: A = 1 … 7 = 7, Jack (Fante) = 8, Queen (Cavallo) = 9, King (Re) = 10. First to 11 points wins.

1. Setup: each player gets 3 cards; 4 cards are dealt face-up to the table (once — the table is never refilled). You play first.
2. Your turn: select a card, then press Play Card.
3. Capturing (compulsory if possible):
   • Single match: if any table card has the same value as your card, you must take a single matching card — this takes precedence over any combination. (If several match, you choose which.)
   • Combination: only if no single matches, you may capture a set of two or more table cards whose values sum to your card's value.
   • You cannot discard while a capture is available.
4. A monte: if no capture is possible, your card stays face-up on the table.
5. Scopa (+1): clearing the table with a capture is a "sweep" — except on the very last card of the final deal.
6. Re-deal: when both hands are empty and the stock has cards, deal 3 more each (the table is untouched). Repeat until the deck is exhausted.
7. Last trick: any cards left on the table go to the player who made the last capture.
8. Scoring each deal (1 pt each, ties score 0):
   • Most cards captured (need 21+)
   • Most coins ♦ captured (need 6+)
   • Settebello — the 7 of coins (7♦)
   • Primiera — best "prime" total (7s are worth most, then 6s, aces…)
   • +1 per scopa (sweep)

Scopa — the name means "broom," for sweeping the table clean — is one of Italy's most popular traditional card games, commonly associated with 18th-century Naples and counted among the country's "big three" alongside Briscola and Tressette. It is played wherever Italians gather: cafés, kitchens, and seaside towns the length of the peninsula.

Traditional Italian decks use regional patterns (Napoletane, Piacentine, and others) with four suits — Denari (Coins), Coppe (Cups), Spade (Swords) and Bastoni (Batons) — and three court cards: Fante (Knave), Cavallo (Horse) and Re (King). This digital version substitutes French-suited art, so Coins appear as diamonds ♦, but the values and rules are unchanged.

Much of Scopa's drama centres on the settebello, the 7 of Coins: a single, hotly contested card worth a guaranteed point, and the linchpin of the primiera, the subtle "prime" count in which 7s are worth more than any face card. The game rewards memory, timing, and the patience to set up — or deny — a sweep.