How to Play Cirulla

Cirulla is a Ligurian variant of Scopa with four ways to capture, hand bonuses you can declare mid-round, and an instant match-win for sweeping every Diamond. Beat your opponent across seven scoring categories, first to 51 wins. Learn the rules here, then play free as part of our Ultimate Scopa Collection.

Overview

Cirulla is a Ligurian variant of Scopa that stacks extra ways to score on top of the familiar match-and-sum capture — four capture methods instead of the usual two, hand bonuses you can declare mid-round, and an instant-win condition for sweeping every Diamond in a single round. Diamonds is the special suit here: it carries sette bello, la piccola and la grande, and capturing all of it wins the match outright. Beat your opponent across seven scoring categories, first to 51 points wins.

How to Play

1. Deal. 4 cards go face-up on the table, and 3 cards to each player's hand.
2. Misdeal check. If the table shows two or more Aces, everything is reshuffled and dealt again.
3. Play a card from your hand.
4. Capture or discard — see the four capture methods below — or discard if none apply.
5. Redeal. When hands are empty, 3 more cards are dealt to each side (no new table cards), repeating until the deck runs out.
6. Leftover cards at the very end go to the last player who captured.
7. Score the categories below and keep dealing rounds until someone reaches 51 points.

How Capturing Works

Play a card from your hand — it can capture table cards in any of these ways, and if several apply at once, you choose which:

• Same value — play a 5 to capture a single 5 sitting on the table.
• Sum to played card — play a Jack (value 8) to capture 3+5 from the table (3+5=8).
• Sum to 15 — play a 6 to capture the 9 on the table (6+9=15), together with your card.
• Ace sweeps all — playing an Ace when the table has no other Ace captures every card on it.

Capturing is mandatory whenever your played card has a valid combination available.

Card Ranks & Face Cards

Ace is worth 1, numbered cards are worth their own number, and the Jack, Queen and King are worth 8, 9 and 10 respectively for every capture calculation, whichever card art style you've chosen.

Sette Bello — The 7 of Diamonds

The most famous card in Cirulla. Whoever captures it scores 1 guaranteed point — always prioritise it.

Scopa — Clearing the Table

If your capture takes the last cards off the table, you score a Scopa — an instant bonus point. The automatic pickup of leftover cards at the very end of a round does not count as a Scopa.

Hand Bonuses — Barsega & Barsegon

This is what makes Cirulla so different from ordinary Scopa. The moment you receive a fresh 3-card hand — at the start of the round or at any later dealing stage — check it:

• Barsega — 3 points. Your 3 cards add up to 9 or less.
• Barsegon — 10 points. Your 3 cards are all the same value (e.g. three 5s).

If a hand qualifies for both, only the 10-point Barsegon is awarded, never both. To claim it, knock before playing your first card of that hand and turn all 3 cards face-up for your opponent to see — miss that moment and the bonus is lost for those cards. The 7 of Hearts is wild for this purpose only: you may declare it as any value from 1 to 10 if that helps make a Barsega or Barsegon, though it always counts as a normal 7 of Hearts for scoring elsewhere.

Dealer's Opening Bonus

If the four cards dealt to the table add up to exactly 15, the dealer takes them all and scores 1 Scopa. If they add up to exactly 30, the dealer scores 2 Scope instead.

End of Round — Scoring Categories

Cappotto — Instant Win

If you capture every single Diamond in one round — la piccola's 6, la grande's 3, and sette bello together, all 10 — you win the entire match instantly, no matter what the running score was.

Match Play — First to 51

The first player to reach 51 points wins the match. If both sides reach 51 points in the same round with equal totals, further rounds are played until one side pulls ahead.

Strategy Tips

• Check every fresh hand for a Barsega or Barsegon before you play a card from it — miss the window and it's gone for good.
• Hold the 7 of Hearts back when your hand is close to qualifying — it can turn a near-miss into a Barsega or even a Barsegon.
• Chase Diamonds relentlessly. Between sette bello, la piccola, la grande and the outright cappotto win, Diamonds is worth far more attention than any other suit.
• Don't discard an Ace carelessly. Played into an empty-of-Aces table, it sweeps everything — save it for a table worth taking.
• Watch for the dealer's opening bonus. A dealt table summing to 15 or 30 hands the dealer a free Scopa or two before anyone's even played a card.

Frequently Asked Questions

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