How to Play Escopa

Escopa is the Brazilian name for this sum-to-15 capturing game, brought over by Italian immigrants and played with the same rules as Escoba and Scopa di Quindici. Learn the rules here, then play free as part of our Ultimate Scopa Collection.

Overview

Escopa is a capturing game built around one simple idea: combinations of cards that add up to fifteen. It rewards mental arithmetic and table awareness — a good player is constantly scanning the table for combinations before they play a card, not after.

How to Play

1. Deal. Each player is dealt three cards, and four cards are placed face-up on the table.
2. Play a card. On your turn, play one card from your hand face-up onto the table.
3. Make fifteen. If your card, combined with one or more cards already on the table, adds up to exactly fifteen, you capture all of those cards plus the one you played. Numbered cards count at face value; Jacks count as 10, Queens as 11, Kings as 12.
4. No match, no capture. If nothing on the table adds to fifteen with your card, it simply stays on the table.
5. Sweep the table. Capturing every remaining card at once is a escopa — the game's namesake move — worth a bonus point.
6. Redeal three cards each (no new table cards) once hands are empty, and continue until the deck is exhausted.
7. Last capture of the hand takes any cards left on the table (not counted as a sweep), then the hand is scored.

Scoring at the End of Each Hand

• Escopas — 1 point for each sweep made during play.
• Most cards — 1 point to whoever captured more cards overall.
• Most Ouros — 1 point to whoever captured more cards of the Ouros suit.
• Seven of Ouros — 1 point for capturing it.
• Primera — 1 point for the best combination of one card per suit, using each game's agreed value ranking.

Strategy Tips

• Scan before you play, not after — look for every fifteen combination on the table before choosing your card.
• Avoid leaving easy fifteens for your opponent, especially late in a hand when the table is thin.
• Hold onto Kings and low cards when possible — they combine into more fifteens than the middle-value cards.
• Track the Ouros — with only ten in the deck, you'll often know exactly how many are left and whether that point is still in play.

Frequently Asked Questions

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