Scopa
Quick Pitch
Scopa is Italy's most beloved card game — a fishing game where you capture table cards by matching their values, and a "scopa" (broom) that sweeps the table completely clean earns you a precious bonus point.
Hook
Four cards sit face-up on the table. You play a 7 from your hand — and if two of those table cards add up to 7, you capture all three. Clear the table entirely, and you've scored a "scopa," announcing it with pride. Scopa is played in cafés, kitchens, and town squares all across Italy, and once you understand the fishing mechanic, it's fast, satisfying, and surprisingly strategic for such a simple-looking game.
Equipment Needed
- One 40-card Italian deck (A, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, Jack, Queen, King in each of four suits), OR a standard 52-card deck with all 8s, 9s, and 10s removed
- Paper and pencil for score tracking
Setup
- Shuffle the 40-card deck.
- Deal 3 cards to each player.
- Deal 4 cards face-up to the center of the table — this is the table layout.
- Place the remaining deck face-down as the draw pile.
- Decide who goes first (typically the player to the dealer's right in Italian tradition).
Rules
Objective
Capture the most cards from the table, earning points for specific bonuses. First player or team to reach 11 points wins the match.
Card Values
Cards have their face values: Ace = 1, numbered cards = their number, and face cards (Jack, Queen, King) = 8, 9, and 10 respectively (in the Italian deck). If using a standard deck with face cards, simply note that face cards are worth 10 each for capture purposes.
How to Play
On your turn, you must play exactly one card from your hand. You have two options:
Option 1 — Capture: Play a card that matches the value of one table card, or that equals the sum of two or more table cards. Take the played card and all captured table cards and place them face-down in your capture pile. You keep these for scoring at the end.
- Example: You play a 7. There's a 7 on the table → capture it directly. OR there's a 3 and a 4 → capture those two with your 7. If there's a matching single AND a matching sum, you must take the single (direct match takes priority over sum match).
Option 2 — Leave on table: If you cannot or choose not to capture, place your card face-up onto the table. It joins the table layout and can be captured by your opponent later.
Scopa!: If your capture leaves the table completely empty, that's a scopa — announce it and turn one card in your capture pile face-up as a reminder. Each scopa scores 1 point at the end.
Dealing new cards: When all players have played their 3 cards, deal 3 more to each player from the draw pile. Repeat until the deck runs out.
End of hand: After the last cards are played, any cards still on the table go to the last player who made a capture (but this does NOT count as a scopa).
Scoring
After each hand, count the following and add to each player's total:
- Cards: The player with the most cards in their capture pile scores 1 point.
- Diamonds (or the coin suit if using an Italian deck): The player with the most diamond cards scores 1 point.
- Settebello (7 of Diamonds): Whoever captured the 7 of Diamonds scores 1 point.
- Primiera: The player with the best "primiera" score scores 1 point. To calculate, take your best card in each suit using this value system: 7=21, 6=18, Ace=16, 5=15, 4=14, 3=13, 2=12, face cards=10. Add up your four best cards (one per suit) — highest total wins.
- Scope: Each scopa you scored during the hand = 1 point.
First player to reach 11 points after a complete hand wins.
Expert Player
Tips
Value the 7 of Diamonds highly. The settebello is worth a guaranteed point to whoever holds it at the end. Capturing it directly is good; capturing it via a sum is even sweeter.
Plan for the scope. A scopa is satisfying AND worth a point, but don't sacrifice good cards just to clear the table. Sometimes leaving one card on the table is strategically smarter than clearing it for a scopa that costs you better capture options later.
Track what's been played. With only 40 cards in the deck, careful players keep mental notes on which high-value cards (7s, Aces) have been captured. This helps predict what your opponent is holding and what captures are still possible.
Think about primiera. Sevens are worth 21 points in the primiera calculation — far more than any other card. Capturing 7s of any suit is valuable even beyond their face value. A player who holds all four 7s almost always wins the primiera point.
Don't dump cards carelessly. When you can't capture, you have to leave a card on the table. Choose which card to leave strategically — avoid placing cards that your opponent can easily capture or sum to capture.
Variations
- Scopone: A four-player partnership variant where all cards are dealt out at the start (9 to each player, none left on the table initially). More complex and very popular in Southern Italy.
- Scopa d'Assi: A variant where playing an Ace sweeps the table regardless of whether it matches anything — an extra scopa trigger.
- Regional scoring variants: Different regions of Italy use slightly different values for the primiera calculation. Agree on the system before playing.
Learn More — History & Origins
History & Origins
Scopa is one of the oldest card games still played in continuous tradition across Italy. Its exact origin is debated, but the game is closely tied to the arrival of playing cards in Italy during the 14th and 15th centuries. Games using 40-card Italian decks with suits of coins, cups, swords, and clubs spread through Italian society from the Renaissance period onward. Scopa's fishing mechanic — capturing by match or sum — appears to derive from even older trick-and-fishing traditions common to the Mediterranean world.
The game became embedded in every region of Italy, played by workers and nobility alike. Regional variants flourished, with different rules for card suits, special cards, and scoring. By the 19th century, Scopa was firmly established as Italy's national card game in the way that Whist was England's. It remains deeply associated with Italian café culture, where strangers will sit down and play with a shared confidence that the rules need no explanation.
Cultural Context
To play Scopa is to participate in something genuinely Italian. The game is played in homes, in bars, in piazzas, and at family tables where grandparents teach grandchildren. The exclamation of "Scopa!" when you clear the table — said with pride, sometimes a bit loudly — is a recognizable social moment in Italian life. The settebello (literally "beautiful seven"), the most prized single card in the game, has become a cultural shorthand for something uniquely valuable.
Italian immigrants carried Scopa to North and South America, where it remains popular in Italian-American communities. The game also spread through Italy's historical connections to other Mediterranean cultures. Scopa's closest relatives include Basra (played across the Arab world) and Casino (which spread through 18th-century Europe), all sharing the fishing-and-summing mechanic that seems to have deep roots in Mediterranean gaming traditions.