# Anyone know how to play Scopa? **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Created:** [October 18, 2017, 10:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-know-how-to-play-scopa/799257 "2017-10-18T22:52:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Llama\_Llogophile](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/49beb7/32.png) [@Llama\_Llogophile](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Llama_Llogophile)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2017, 10:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-know-how-to-play-scopa/799257/1 "2017-10-18T22:52:36Z")
Scopa is an Italian card game and my friend from Italy is teaching me to play. I’m having trouble understanding one aspect of the scoring, and because of that I’m failing to grasp much of the strategy. Also having a hell of time just recognizing which cards are which because they don’t have numbers. Could someone give me an explanation of how to score the “primiera”, or what my friend calls the “settanta”? Her explanation of this really confused me at first, and what I’ve read hasn’t completely cleared it up. While I now understand it’s for figuring out just one aspect of the scoring, it’s still not really making sense for me. ---
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2017, 11:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-know-how-to-play-scopa/799257/2 "2017-10-18T23:13:25Z")
Haven’t played in a while, and there are variations. But basically there is a scale of points for figuring out the primiera, something like: 7 = 21 points 6 = 18 points 1 (ace) = 16 points 5 = 15 points 4 = 14 points 3 = 13 points 2 = 12 points Face cards = 10 points and you count your highest card in each suit (so your partnership needs at least one card from each of the four suits, and your score must be highest). Primiera is worth one point towards the win. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2017, 1:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-know-how-to-play-scopa/799257/3 "2017-10-19T01:27:40Z")
[Moderating] Moved from CS to the Game Room. ---
**Author:** ![TRC4941](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/trc4941/32/6792_2.png) [@TRC4941](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TRC4941)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2017, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-know-how-to-play-scopa/799257/4 "2017-10-19T14:26:05Z")
I just started playing this game. I’m of Italian heritage so I thought it would be fun to learn the game. I also read a book that took place in Italy and Scopa was mentioned quite often in the story so I was really curious. I found an app for my phone and have been playing it that way which is good because like you I’m having a hard time with the primiera part of the scoring. So luckily the app keeps track of that! It’s very addicting and I think I’ve gotten pretty good at it - I’m playing at the “difficult” level now and win the majority of the time. I’m sure it would be different if I was playing with an actual person tho!