 The four Kings | |
| Origin | Spain |
|---|---|
| Type | Fishing |
| Players | 2-4 |
| Cards | 40 |
| Deck | Spanish |
| Play | Anticlockwise |
| Playing time | 20 min. |
| Related games | |
| Cassino • Scopa • Skwitz • Zwickern | |
Escoba is a Spanish variant of the Italian fishing card game Scopa, which means "broom", a name that refers to the situation in the game where all of the cards from the board are "swept" in one turn. The game is usually played with a deck of traditional Spanish playing cards, called naipes.
The object of the game is to be the first player to score 15 points through capturing cards. Points are scored in a variety of ways as detailed below. It does not necessarily follow that the player with the most captured cards in any particular round will get the greatest score.
A traditional Spanish deck of 40 cards is used to play. For traditional decks which have 1 through 12 of each suit, the 8 and 9 of each suit must be removed, leaving 40 cards. A standard deck of playing cards (having Ace, 2-10, Jack, Queen, King) can be modified by removing the 8, 9, and 10 of every suit, leaving 40 cards. At the start of each round the dealer will deal three cards to each player, face down. After all the players have been dealt cards, four board cards are dealt, face up, in the center of the table, and play commences.
On rare occasions where the four initial cards dealt to the board add up to 15, they are taken by the dealer and added to his scoring pile.
Play commences with the person to the right of the dealer. Each player in turn attempts to match one card from the hand with one or more cards on the board to produce a total of 15. When using a traditional deck, all cards are worth their face value except for the 10 sota (Jack or Page), 11 caballo (Horse) and the 12 rey (King), which are reduced in value to 8, 9 and 10, respectively. All cards matched, including the one from the player's hand, are removed from the board and placed in a scoring pile beside the player. A player unable to make a total of 15, must discard a hand card, adding it to the available cards in the centre of the table. After either scoring a hand or discarding, play then moves to the next player in anticlockwise order.
If a player can combine one hand card with all of the cards on the board to total 15, that player has scored an escoba, worth one additional point at the end of the round. Each escoba scored is typically noted by the player turning one card of their pile face up.
After players have exhausted their hands, the dealer will then deal a fresh hand of three cards each just as in the beginning of the round. The last hand in any particular round is the one which exhausts the deck. At the end of this round, the last player to have taken cards from the board receives any remaining cards regardless of their value. After this, the round is scored, and the deal progresses to the next player on the left.
Points are determined at the end of each round. Players score points based on the following categories:
If two or more players score the same in any category, none of them is awarded a point in that category, e.g., if two players each take 5 coins, neither scores a point. The first player to reach a score of 21 is declared the winner. If two players reach at least 21 on the same hand, the player with the most points wins. If there is a tie, play continues until the tie is broken.
Escova [isˈkovɐ] , also known as escopa, is the Brazilian variation of Scopa, very popular in the Brazilian State of Rio Grande do Sul.
The game is played until someone reaches 31 points. These points are gained by completing objectives. When the deck cards are finished, each player counts their own points.
The sub-objective of escova is to get escovas and montinhos. To get an escova, the player must have a card that matches with all of the cards in the middle of the table to make 15, e.g., the cards on the table are 3♠ 2♣ 1♥ and 4♦ and Sara has a 5♠. If she adds 5+3+2+1+4, she will have 15. To get a montinho, a player must have a card that matches with any card on the middle of the table to make 15.
Escova is played with Spanish playing cards but can also be played with Anglo-American cards. If played with Anglo-American cards, the 8, 9 and the 10 should be removed. Escova has no coringas (jokers).
Most cards have the same value as their numbers. These cards are 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7. The remaining cards have different values:
Since the special card in the Spanish 40 card deck is the caballo (horse) while there is no Queen, it is recommended to use the Queen for the caballo (horse) if no Spanish card deck is available. [1]
Each player receives three cards, and the other four cards go to the middle of the table, where all players can catch up. The player to the right of the one that shuffled the cards starts the game.
At the start of the game, there are four cards on the table. A player who does not have a card to make 15, places one of his cards in the middle of the table. When all of the players' cards have been played, a re-deal is made. When the stock is exhausted, the owner is the last player to get an escova or a montinho.
The diamond (♦) is the super-suit of escova. Players should try to collect a majority of diamond cards, especially the 7♦, called sete belo and worth 1 point.
Gin rummy, or simply gin, is a two-player card game variant of rummy. It has enjoyed widespread popularity as both a social and a gambling game, especially during the mid twentieth century, and remains today one of the most widely-played two-player card games.
Canasta is a card game of the rummy family of games believed to be a variant of 500 Rum. Although many variations exist for two, three, five or six players, it is most commonly played by four in two partnerships with two standard decks of cards. Players attempt to make melds of seven cards of the same rank and "go out" by playing all cards in their hands. It is "the most recent card game to have achieved worldwide status as a classic".
Crazy Eights is a shedding-type card game for two to seven players and the best known American member of the Eights Group which also includes Pig and Spoons. The object of the game is to be the first player to discard all of their cards. The game is similar to Switch and Mau Mau.
Scopa is an Italian card game, and one of the three major national card games in Italy, the others being Briscola and Tresette(Tressette). It is also popular in Argentina and Brazil, brought in by Italian immigrants, mostly in the Scopa a Quindici variation. Scopa is also played in former Italian colonies such as Libya and Somalia or some other countries like Tunisia and even Morocco with changed appearance in the cards. It is played with a standard Italian 40-card deck, mostly between two players or four in two partnerships, but it can also be played by three or six players.
Golf is a card game where players try to earn the lowest number of points over the course of nine deals.
Rummy is a group of games notable for similar gameplay based on matching cards of the same rank or sequence and same suit. The basic goal in any form of rummy is to build melds which can be either sets or runs and either be first to go out or to amass more points than the opposition.
Truco, a variant of Truc, is a trick-taking card game originally from Valencia and the Balearic Islands, popular in South America and Italy. It is usually played using a Spanish deck. Two people may play, or two teams of two or three players each.
Desmoche is a popular rummy card game usually played for small stakes which closely resembles other games in the rummy family, like Conquian and gin rummy, more than poker. It was probably devised in Nicaragua in the first half of the 20th century.
Tichu is a proprietary card game primarily classified as a shedding game that includes elements of Bridge, Daihinmin, and Poker played between two teams of two players each. Teams work to accumulate points, and the first team to reach a predetermined score is the winner. Tichu is the trade name for what appears to be a variant of Dou di zhu, Choi Dai Di (Cantonese) or Da Lao Er (Mandarin), meaning "big two", combined with Zheng Fen. It is also marketed as Tai-Pan in Dutch. Tichu was invented by Urs Hostettler and originally released in 1991.
Craits is a shedding card game for two to five players. It was invented in the 1970s in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and is derived from Crazy Eights, which forms the origin of its name.
Liverpool rummy is a multi-player, multi-round card game similar to other variants of rummy that adds features like buying and going out. It is played the same as Contract rummy, except that if a player manages to cut the exact number of cards required to deal the hand and leave a face-up card, then the cutting player's score is reduced by 50 points.
Pasur or chahar barg is a fishing card game of Persian origin. Played widely in Iran, it is played similarly to the Italian games of Cassino or Scopa and even more similarly to the Egyptian game of Bastra. Pasur is also known by the names Chahâr Barg, Haft Khâj or Haft Va Chahâr, Yâzdah.
Switch is a shedding-type card game for two or more players that is popular in the United Kingdom, Ireland and as alternative incarnations in other regions. The sole aim of Switch is to discard all of the cards in one's hand; the first player to play their final card, and ergo have no cards left, wins the game. Switch is very similar to the games UNO, Flaps and Mau Mau, both belonging to the larger Crazy Eights or Shedding family of card games.
Basra is a popular fishing card game, similar to cassino, and very popular in Cyprus. The game is also popular in Egypt, Lebanon, and other Middle Eastern countries. The name is Greek borrowing from the Arabic word Basra. In Turkey, the game is known as pişti or pişpirik.
Khanhoo or kanhu is a non-partnership Chinese card game of the draw-and-discard structure. It was first recorded during the late Ming dynasty as a multi-trick taking game, a type of game that may be as old as T'ienkiu, revised in its rules and published in an authorized edition by Emperor Kao Tsung in 1130 AD for the information of his subjects. Meaning "watch the pot", it is very possibly the ancestor of all rummy games.
Ponytail Canasta is a variation of the card game Canasta. The rules for Canasta were standardized in North America around the 1950s and it was this version of the game that gained worldwide popularity. In many countries, classic Canasta is still played in more or less its original form, sometimes alongside a number of variations.
Marriage is a Rummy card game widely played in India. It uses three or more packs of playing cards.
Marriage is a matching card game played with three decks of cards in Nepal, Bhutan, and by the Nepali diaspora. It is based on making sets of three matching cards of the same rank (trials), the same rank and suit (tunnels), or three consecutive cards of the same suit (sequences).
German Rummy or Rommé is the most popular form of the worldwide game, Rummy, played in Austria and Germany. It is a game for 2 to 6 players and is played with two packs of French playing cards, each comprising 52 cards and 3 jokers. There are no partnerships. In Germany, the Germany Rummy Association is the umbrella organisation for local rummy clubs and organises national competitions. The game is often just known as Rommé in Germany and Rummy in Austria.
Escopa is the Brazilian variant of the Italian national card game of Scopa that was brought to Brazil by Italian immigrants. Escopa has elements of Spanish Escoba and of of the Portuguese Escova. All these games are related to the variant of Italian Scopa called Scopa di Quindici