1 https://www.understandingitaly.com/cards.html 1. G etting Star ted Scopa must be played with an even number of players. If there are four or more players, divi de into teams of two (see 6. Team Game ). Select a player to ac t as the dealer for the smazzata ( r ound ). The dealer role rotates each smazzata . T he dealer shuffles and deals three cards face down to each player , then pla ces four cards face up in the middle of the t able. Any remaining cards are set aside to form the deck ( tallone ). 2. How to play Play starts with the dealer and moves in a clockwise direction On their turn, each player attempts to match one card from their hand with one or more cards laid face up in the middle of the table. Cards can be matched in several ways (see 5. Matching Cards ). If the player is unable to make a match, they must select one card from th eir hand and place it face up in the middle of the table with all the other cards. Their turn is then over. Play continues in this ma nner with players taking turns to either make a card match or discard a card from their ha nd. When all players have no cards left in their hand the deal e r deals out three more cards to each player and the smazzata continues. Players keep playing until there are no cards left in the deck and the cards in their hand are gon e. If there are any cards left on the table after the final card has been played, they are collected by the player who made the last match The smazzata is now over and players may no w add up their scores and mark them down on their score sheet. The first player or team to collect 11 points wins the game. 3. About the Scopa Deck T here are 40 cards in a Scopa card deck. A deck is mad e up of four s em i ( suits ) , each containing 10 numbered cards. There are at least 16 different styles of packs used across the various regions of Italy 1 Fiori ( Clubs , Flowers ) D enari ( Coins ) Coppe ( Cups ) Spade ( Swords ) 4. Matching Cards Car ds can be matched in a va riety of ways: 1. Single Number Matching T his involves matching numbers of th e same v alue – for e xample, if a player has a 6 in their hand, and there is a 6 on the table , they wou ld simply lay their card over the card on the table b efore picking up both cards and c laiming them both. 2. C ombination Matching Where play ers don ’ t have a straight single number match , they can instead pick up any combinations of cards from the table with the same total as the card in their hand. For examp le, if they have a 7 in their ha nd, they could pick up a 3 and a 4 from the table if these ca rds are both a vailable. 3. S copa Matching As Scop a means sweep in Italian, this special case of combination matching allows p layers to ‘ sweep ’ up all the table cards in the one go if the card s on the ta ble total the same amount as a card in their hand. For exa mple, If the player had a 10 in their hand, and the four table cards were 4, 3 , 2 and 1 they could claim a Scopa. 5. Scoring The re are 5 ways to collect points at the end of each smazzata as outlined below. No point s are awarded fo r a given category in the event of a tie 1. Scopa E ach Scopa is worth one point P rim i era 7 ’ s are wo rth 21 6 ’ s are w orth 18 1 ’ s are w orth 16 5 ’ s are worth 15 4 ’ s are worth 14 3 ’ s are w orth 13 2 ’ s are worth 12 8 ’ s, 9 ’ s & 10 ’ s are worth 10 2. Carte T he player with the most cards scores one point 3. Denari T he player with the greatest number of D enari (coins) suit cards scores one point 4. Sette b ell o (Beautiful Seven) O ne point is a warded to the player who collects the Sette di De nari ( the seve n of coins ) 5. Prim i era One point is awarded to the player who has the greatest total across the highest ‑ ranking card in each suit, using Primiera values. Use the chart o n the righ t to add together the four scores. A segnapunti is maintained for each player , tallying the points scored in each smazzata. The first player to reach 11 or more points wins the partita (game) S ma zzata Scopa Carte Denari Sette b ello Prim i era Running Total 1 2 ... 6. Team Game If four or more people are playing you may form teams where p layers on the same team sit opposite one another such that turns between each team are evenly spaced. Pl ayers play each round as normal but combine their collected cards at the e nd of each smazzata before counting and sco ring. Players still score one point for each Scopa.