Escoba rules

The Spanish member of the scopa family, and the simplest to explain: every capture must add up to exactly fifteen. Each player holds three cards and plays one a turn, taking any table cards that make fifteen with it. Clear the whole table and you score an escoba, the sweep the game is named after, and further points go to the most cards, the most coins and the sevens. A match runs to 21 or 30, and the counting keeps even a quick game interesting.

The deck

40 Spanish-suited cards, or a 52-card deck without eights, nines and tens. Ace counts 1 through to seven, then jack 8, horse 9, king 10.

The layout

Three cards each and four face up on the table.

Your turn

Play one card. If it, together with one or more cards on the table, adds up to exactly fifteen, you capture all of them. If no combination reaches fifteen, your card stays on the table.

That is the whole rule. There is no pairing and no other total.

Escoba

A capture that clears the table completely scores a point immediately — the escoba the game is named for. Mark it by turning a card sideways in your pile.

If the four cards laid out at the start already total fifteen by themselves, the dealer scores an escoba before anyone plays.

When hands empty, three more are dealt. When the deck runs out, the last player to capture takes whatever is left on the table.

Scoring, one point each

Most cards. Most coins. The seven of coins. Most sevens.

Plus one point per escoba. Game is 21 or 30 points.

Because fifteen is the only target, counting the sevens and sixes out of the deck is the whole of the strategy — once you know they are gone, you know what your opponent cannot do.

Escoba: an example game

One game of Escoba followed from the deal to the finish, move by move, with the reason for each choice.

The deal

Two players, you and Ada, with a 40-card pack. Coins are diamonds here (♦), so the 7♦ is the velo. Ada deals four cards face up — 3♣, 5♥, J♠ and 2♦ — and three to each of you. The jack counts 8, so the table comes to 18, not fifteen: no escoba for the dealer.

You hold 7♦, K♥ and 4♣. Ada holds 6♠, A♥ and Q♣. The player to the dealer's left plays first, which is you.

Taking the velo

Your cards can make fifteen in several ways: K♥ with 5♥, 4♣ with 3♣ and J♠, 7♦ with J♠ or with 3♣ and 5♥. You play 7♦ and take 3♣ and 5♥ — the velo is in your pile, where nobody can take it back. The table is J♠ and 2♦: ten.

Ada cannot make fifteen with anything. She lays down A♥, and the table comes to 11 — which is fifteen with a four.

An escoba

You play 4♣ and take J♠, 2♦ and A♥: 4 + 8 + 2 + 1 is fifteen, and the table is empty. That is an escoba, a point straight away, and the 2♦ is a coin.

Ada has to lay a card on the bare table and puts down 6♠. Your K♥ needs a five and there is none, so it goes down too: the table is 16. Ada's Q♣, worth 9, takes the 6♠, and the K♥ is left alone — ten on the table, fifteen with any five.

A second escoba

New hands of three: you get 5♣, 7♠ and 2♥; Ada gets 7♥, 4♦ and Q♦. You play first, and 5♣ with K♥ is fifteen: a second escoba.

Ada lays 4♦ on the bare table. Neither of your cards can take it, so you have to leave one. The 2♥ would make the table 6, which any queen clears, and three queens are unseen. The 7♠ makes it 11, which needs a four, and only two fours are unseen. You lay 7♠.

Leaving a safe table

Ada cannot make fifteen either and lays 7♥: the table is 4, 7 and 7, eighteen, out of reach of any card. You lay 2♥, and Ada's Q♦ takes 4♦ and 2♥ — two coins for her.

The table is 7♠ and 7♥, fourteen: any ace clears it. Later in the deal Ada takes both sevens and an escoba of her own, and she catches 7♣ as well.

The count

Four more rounds of three are dealt before the pack runs out. At the end you have 21 cards to Ada's 19, the coins are five each, and the velo is yours. Ada has three sevens to your one.

Most cards and the velo are your two points; most coins is tied and goes to nobody; most sevens is Ada's. With the escobas, the deal ends 4–2 to you. The game is to 21, so there is a long way to go.