Scala Quaranta

International

108

From 2 to 6

Born in the ’20s of the 1900 by Ramino, it has soon supplanted it, becoming one of the most popular and well-known card games, it can, however, reveal surprises to those who know it only superficially.

The goal of Scala quaranta is to get rid of all cards before your opponents. To achieve this goal, players must form sequences or combinations of cards and get rid of all the valuable cards in their possession.

A Scala quaranta game consists of several hands. At the beginning it is decided who should be the dealer for the first hand. This player must join and shuffle the two decks, offering them to the player on their right to cut them and proceed to the distribution of cards. The hand is dealt clockwise from the first player to the dealer’s left. Each player, including the dealer, must be dealt thirteen cards. The distribution is made by single cards.

Each player holds their own cards fan-like and observes their values. After the distribution, the dealer places the remaining cards in the middle of the table, stacked and covered. Turn the first card, and place it face-up on the table next to the deck, to start the so-called discard pile, where the discarded cards will be stacked.

Each player must carefully observe the cards in their possession, trying to sort them in the most effective and convenient way.

If you already have combinations in your hand, you should check whether their total value is equal to or greater than 40 points. If so, the player can already play on the table, uncovered in front of him, combinations.

The opening is fundamental, it allows to start to get rid of your own cards. Unless the players have agreed to this, the opening can never be done using a joker.

In the game, the ten numerical cards are worth what is represented. The only exception is the Ace, which depending on how it is played during the game can be 1 (if in a straight before 2) or 11 (if in a three-of-a-kind of aces, or in a straight after the king). The three figures are worth 10 points each. The joker takes a variable value depending on the card which, from time to time, they replace in the combination where they are placed.

The first player to the dealer’s left draws the first card from the deck and considers whether to hold it, and discard in its place one of the other cards in their possession, or discard it. The discard must be placed, face up, in the discard pile. The hand is passed to the second player, who behaves in the same way and so on.

A player, on his turn, can draw the last card placed in the discard pile by the previous player. To do this, if the player has not yet opened, he must open at the same time as this draw, although it is not mandatory to use the card drawn for the opening. If, on the other hand, the player has already made his opening (therefore he is descended), he can draw either from the deck or from the discard pile.

Turn after turn each player will try to open, either to get rid of some of his cards, or for other game possibilities, such as attaching their cards to the combinations already on the table. When completing a quartet on the table, it must be removed and inserted at the base of the deck.

In the attaching on the already existing scales on the table, the rule is that no scale consisting of more than five cards is allowed. If the attaching creates a scale of six or more elements, the attacker determines how to break the sequence in two.

It is forbidden (except for the closing) to discard of a card that can be attached to any of the combinations present.

As a rule, those on turn must proceed according to a precise sequence: first the drawing of the card; then the opening, the attack of cards or the dropping of new combinations; and finally, the final discard. It is also possible to make attaching and catches of Jokers; as well as open and close the game in the same turn, making a close in hand.

If the deck is used up during a draw, the dealer takes all the cards in the discard pile and turns them over to form a new deck.

The hand ends when one of the players gets rid of all thirteen cards they have. The player who closes has to discard one last card. If they are left with two cards, and a third one makes a three-of-a-kind, they cannot play it and declare themselves winner, since they have no cards to discard; in these cases it is said that the player is wrapped.

As soon as a player finishes the hand, the game freezes. It needs to be calculated the amount of penalty points left in the hands of each of the opponents. The score is determined by adding up the value of all cards in each player’s possession, bearing in mind that the Ace is worth 11 points and the Joker 25. The exception is when a player finishes the game with only one Ace in hand, this is counted 1 point only.

Generally, the winner is the one who, in successive hands, remains the only one to have less than 101 points of penalty.

Anyone who passes this score has two chances. They either withdraw from the next hand, or pay a fixed stake and are allowed to re-enter the game with the same score as who, among the other players still in the race, is charges the highest penalty. You can re-enter several times.