Italian card game definitely fun one

It is always fascinating to explore games which are relatively unknown in our area, yet are culturally significant in other parts of the world.

Part of the interest is just the fact games are often culturally relevant. That might be less so today, with the world becoming a ‘smaller’ place, in terms of how things are exported and assimilated in other countries, including games, but certain games still hold greater importance in some countries than others.

While granted Crokinole is not as widely played today as in my youth, it is still very much Canadian in terms of its base for player participation.

And so it is with the card game Scopa.

“Scopa is an Italian card game, and one of the two major national card games in Italy. It is played with a standard Italian 40-card deck, mostly between two players or four in two partnerships, but it can also be played by 3, 5, or 6 players,” notes Wikipedia.

“The name is an Italian noun meaning “broom”, since taking a scopa means “to sweep” all the cards from the table. Watching a game of Scopa can be a highly entertaining activity, since games traditionally involve lively, colorful, and somewhat strong-worded banter in between hands. However, skill and chance are more important to the outcome of the game.”

It is the Italian card deck which is most interesting here.

“Despite the name, Italian suits normally refer to only suits found in northeastern Italy (essentially around the former Republic of Venice) while the rest of the country uses Spanish (Sardinia and the south), French (northwest), or German (South Tyrol) suits. They are most commonly found in packs of 40 cards but 52 card sets are also available,” explains Wikipedia. “The Tarocco Piemontese and Tarocco Bolognese have 78 and 62 cards respectively. Unlike the French deck, some Italian cards do not have any numbers (or letters) identifying their value. The cards’ value is determined by identifying the face card or counting the number of suit characters.”

For the game Scopa, with its origins in the 1600s, it is the smaller deck which is used.

“There are 40 cards in each Scopa deck. Each deck is made up of four suits: Coins, Clubs, Cups and Swords, which each contain 10 numbered cards. The card designs are based on a classic Italian design although these may vary from region to region,” denoted the ruleset in the boxed version of the game I acquired.

Scopa is basically a set collection game as the rules lay out;

“Play starts with the dealer and moves clockwise. The dealer looks at the three cards in his hand before attempting to match one card from their hand with one or more of the four cards laid face up in the middle of the table. There are several ways in which a player can make a card match.

“If the player is unable to make a match they must select one card from their hand and place it face up in the middle of the table with all the other cards. Their turn is over.

“Play continues in this manner with players taking turns to either make a card match or discard a card from their hand. When all players have no cards left in their hand the dealer deals out three more cards to each player and the round continues.

“Players keep playing until there are no cards left in the deck and the cards in their hands are gone.

“If there are any cards on the table after the last card of the last hand has been played, it’s that player who picks up all the remaining cards. The round is now over and players may now add up their scores and mark them down on their score sheet. The first player or team to collect 11 points wins the game.”

As you might anticipate with the card deck other games are possible, for example rules for Briscola are included in the set box.

Like any new card game there is something of a learning curve here, made perhaps a bit steeper by the unfamiliar card deck, but it’s not too bad.

The journey is made easier these days by a quick ‘Net search which will lead prospective players to ‘how-to-play’ videos. You can short-cut the search by heading to my favourite games site www.boardgamegeek.com and searching Scopa. The page dedicated to the game includes a couple of excellent videos.

So want a card game with a different flavour, search out the specialized deck, not that hard to find, even in Saskatchewan, and try Scopa.