Scopa is played using a special Italian deck consisting of forty cards. There are different types of decks with different types of suits and face cards, but each type of scopa deck has four suits, each of which is made up of seven number cards and three face cards. While certain decks use cups, coins, spades, and clubs, others have hearts, diamonds, flowers, and spades (these are closer to typical American decks, and might be easier for American players to deal with).
The face cards will include the knave, either the knight or the queen, and the king. The individual cards used for a given deck may vary, but the game is played the same way regardless. Online scopa games most often use the Milanese style decks, which have the hearts, diamonds, flowers, and spades, and replace the knight with the queen, as these cards are more widely known in the western world.
Scopa is most often played by two players, but can also be played by four or six players split into two partnerships. Online scope can also be played by three or five players. The game begins with players arranging themselves around the playing area and members of partnerships, when applicable, sitting opposite each other. Someone is chosen to deal, and he or she deals three cards, one at a time, to each player. The dealer will also put four cards face up in the centre of the table.
Any deal that results in three or four kings on the table must be dealt again, as this makes it impossible to make a scopa. The player to the right of the dealer begins play, and either places a card on the table, or plays a card to take a “trick.” When a trick is made, the captured cards are removed from play, and are then counted towards the player’s point total at the end of the round. The player with the most points at the end of a round wins the game. If a player takes all the cards on the table at once, this is a scopa, and the player gets an extra point.
Depending on the particular variant of scope you are playing, there may be other rules, but these are the basic tenets of the game that are the same across virtually every variant of scope. If you want to play scopa online, then make sure you understand the rules of the particular variant the site you are playing on hosts. Scopa can often be thought of as a sort of rummy variant, in order to make it easier to learn for those who are familiar with rummy but not scopa.
