Burraco is one of the many rummy games that are played around the world. It can feature only 4 players and they are divided in 2 teams, forming a partnership game. The object of the game is to lay down melds while also trying to score some possible bonuses. We can consider Burraco to be a Canasta Variation, which is a game that appeared in Argentina and Uruguay around the middle of the forties. The name Burraco is taken from the Portuguese “buraco”, which means hole. Holes are basically applied as minus scores.
We do not know when Burraco appeared but we do know where it is going. Nowadays this game is 
starting to be featured in many online rummy rooms and casinos due to the fact that its popularity is constantly rising. While it is still not at the same level as the original Canasta game, we do expect to constantly see new players appearing and filling online tables.
In a similar manner as canasta, Burraco Origins tell us that in order to play the game we will need 2 regular decks of cards. The members of the same team will be seated in opposite seats and the deck will be cut at the start of the game in order to see who will play first. After the dealer is established the player to its right will cut the deck. If exactly 22 cards are cut then the team will receive 100 bonus points immediately.
What is interesting in Burraco is that all the runs are shared between team members. Also, they can add cards to the melds on every single turn but if you are from the other team you will not be able to add cards on those runs. There are 2 types of runs that can be built. The first one is a sequence, which is basically a group of cards that are consecutive and share the same suit. The second one is a set (also referred to as group) and is made out of a minimum of 3 face cards that have the exact same value. Every run that will feature a minimum of 7 cards will give away special bonuses. We thus have clean runs and dirty runs. A clean run is a group of seven or more cards that do not include any wild-cards. A dirty run is similar but also includes wild-cards.
In Burraco we do need to talk a little about wild-cards. Every single deuce will be a wild card but we do not have jokers as in regular Canasta. You can use wild-cards to replace any card that is placed in a run. The problem is that one run can just include 1 wild-card. One sequence is allowed to include 2 deuces in the event that one of them represents the actual value it has (2) and not any other card.
Burraco is a highly entertainment game that you will surely love playing. It is perfect for those that like Canasta but want some diversity and since it is also featured in online rummy rooms players can enjoy a great game in the Internet world as well. For more info about the interesting origins of this game, we suggest you to read our Burraco history dedicated page.