Scopa
Image source: By Italian Playing Cards - [1], Public Domain
Summary
Scopa is a game for two players using the Italian deck of 40 cards. The deck is shuffled, and four cards are dealth to the middle of the table to form the Pool. Play occurs in multiple rounds, where each player is first dealt 3 cards. Players then take turns playing one card. If the card matches a card or cards in the pool, the player collects the matching cards and the played card. Additionally, if the pool is empty after collecting cards, the player scores a point. Otherwise, the played card is added to the central pool. At the end of the game, players score a point for having most cards, having the most coin cards, having the seven of coins, and having the highest set of high cards per suit. The player with the most points wins.
Rules of Play
These rules are summarized from https://www.pagat.com/fishing/scopa.html.
Related Games
Scopa represents fishing games. Other games in this genre include Scopone, Casino, and Escoba, along with Hanafuda flower card games like Go-Stop and Hachi-Hachi.
Information Flow
The diagram above visualizes information flow in Scopa using a single random rollout in CardStock. Visibility is attached to card locations, so all cards in a location share the same visibility; information is revealed or concealed as cards move between locations and ownership changes.
Public locations are shown in green, hidden locations in yellow, private locations in blue, and memory locations in light gray. Locations containing cards with distinct backs are indicated with bold borders. Rectangles denote ownership (players or table), and directed edges show card movement between locations and resulting visibility changes. Taken information is shown with red dotted edges (public to private/hidden), and shared information with blue dashed edges (private cards transferred to another player).
RECYCLE Code
The rules for Scopa are coded in RECYCLE, a card game description language, to encourage standardized implementations across different systems.
You can also Download the code.
;; Scopa in the GDL
;; https://www.pagat.com/fishing/scopa.html
(game
(setup
;; Set up the players, 2 players each on their own team
(create players 2)
;; Create the deck source
(create deck (game iloc STOCK)
(deck (RANK (A, TWO, THREE, FOUR, FIVE, SIX, SEVEN, J, H, K))
(SUIT (SWORDS, CUPS, COINS, BATONS)))))
(do (
(set (game points POINTS)
(((RANK : K) 10) ((RANK : H) 9) ((RANK : J) 8)
((RANK : SEVEN) 7) ((RANK : SIX) 6) ((RANK : FIVE) 5)
((RANK : FOUR) 4) ((RANK : THREE) 3) ((RANK : TWO) 2)
((RANK : A) 1)))
(set (game points PRIMIERA)
(((RANK : K) 10) ((RANK : H) 10) ((RANK : J) 10)
((RANK : SEVEN) 21) ((RANK : SIX) 18) ((RANK : FIVE) 15)
((RANK : FOUR) 14) ((RANK : THREE) 13) ((RANK : TWO) 12)
((RANK : A) 16)))
(shuffle (game iloc STOCK))
(repeat 4 (move (top (game iloc STOCK))
(top (game vloc POOL))))))
;; Stages of the game
(stage player
(end (== (size (game iloc STOCK)) 0))
;; Deal the players 3 cards each
(do (
(all player 'P
(repeat 3 (move (top (game iloc STOCK))
(top ('P iloc HAND)))))))
;; Players play their cards one at a time until their hand is empty
(stage player
(end (all player 'P (== (size ('P iloc HAND)) 0)))
;; Pick a card to play to the pool
(choice (
(any ((current player) iloc HAND) 'AC
(do (
(move 'AC (top ((current player) vloc TRICK)))
;; match one card in pool?
(any (filter (game vloc POOL) 'PC
(== (cardatt RANK 'PC)
(cardatt RANK (top ((current player) vloc TRICK))))) 'PCF
(do (
(move 'PCF (top ((current player) vloc BUNDLE)))
(set ((current player) sto MOVED) 1)
(set (game sto LAST) (pid (current player))))))
;; IF NO SINGLES, match subsets of cards?
((!= ((current player) sto MOVED) 1)
(any (filter (subsets (game vloc POOL)) 'SUB
(and (> (size 'SUB) 1)
(== (sum 'SUB using (game points POINTS))
(score (top ((current player) vloc TRICK))
using (game points POINTS))))) 'SUBMATCH
(do (
(all 'SUBMATCH 'MCARD
(move 'MCARD (top ((current player) vloc BUNDLE))))
(set ((current player) sto MOVED) 1)
(set (game sto LAST) (pid (current player))))))))))))
(do (
;; CHECK FOR SCOPA (SWEEP OF THE POOL)
;; all turns except the last one
((and (== (size (game vloc POOL)) 0)
(or (!= (size (game iloc STOCK)) 0)
(any player 'P (> (size ('P iloc HAND)) 0))))
(inc ((current player) sto SCORE)))
;; move trick card to bundle or pool
((== ((current player) sto MOVED) 0)
(move (top ((current player) vloc TRICK))
(top (game vloc POOL))))
((== ((current player) sto MOVED) 1)
(move (top ((current player) vloc TRICK))
(top ((current player) vloc BUNDLE))))
(set ((current player) sto MOVED) 0))))
;; Make sure player cycle is consistent over the rounds
(do (
(cycle next (current player)))))
;; Move remaining cards to the last player to make a capture
(do (
((> (size (game vloc POOL)) 0)
(repeat all (move (top (game vloc POOL))
(top (((game sto LAST) player) vloc BUNDLE)))))))
;; First pass through scoring
(stage player
(end (all player 'P (== ('P str SCORING) MID)))
(do (
;; best primiera scores 1 point, this gets a potential primera score
(let (partition SUIT ((current player) vloc BUNDLE)) 'PART ;; split up by suit
((== (size 'PART) 4) ;; if at least one card in each suit
(all 'PART 'PP
(inc ((current player) sto PRIMIERA) ;; add up the scores
(scoremax 'PP using (game points PRIMIERA)))))) ;; find the highest, get the score
;; mid scoring turn is done
(set ((current player) str SCORING) MID))))
;; second scoring pass, after aggregation of Primera values
(stage player
(end (all player 'P (== ('P str SCORING) END)))
(do (
;; most cards worth one point
((> (size ((current player) vloc BUNDLE))
(size ((next player) vloc BUNDLE)))
(inc ((current player) sto SCORE)))
;; Most coins worth one point
((> (size (filter ((current player) vloc BUNDLE) 'C (== (cardatt SUIT 'C) COINS)))
(size (filter ((next player) vloc BUNDLE) 'C (== (cardatt SUIT 'C) COINS))))
(inc ((current player) sto SCORE)))
;; 7 of coins worth one point
((any ((current player) vloc BUNDLE) 'C (and (== (cardatt SUIT 'C) COINS)
(== (cardatt RANK 'C) SEVEN)))
(inc ((current player) sto SCORE)))
;; highest primiera scores one point
((> ((current player) sto PRIMIERA)
((next player) sto PRIMIERA))
(inc ((current player) sto SCORE)))
;; scoring turn is done
(set ((current player) str SCORING) END))))
(scoring max ((current player) sto SCORE)))