Scala 40 is the best known melding game in Italy and can be learned in an evening, even if playing it well takes considerably longer. The aim is not to score the most points but the fewest: what you record are the cards caught in your hand when somebody else goes out, and anyone who piles up too many is knocked out. Like most Italian card games it varies from one house to the next, so what follows is the most widely played version, with the variants flagged where they matter.
Decks and the deal
The game uses two fifty-two card French decks plus two jokers, one hundred and six cards, which is enough for up to six players; a crowded table sometimes adds a third deck, and some groups keep four jokers rather than two. Each player is dealt thirteen cards, the rest goes face down in the middle as the stock and the top card is turned over to start the discard pile. Every turn has the same shape: draw one card, from the stock or from the top of the discard pile, meld whatever you can, then discard one card. Unlike Burraco, only the top card of the discard pile may be taken.
Runs and sets
There are two legal melds. A run is at least three consecutive cards of one suit; the ace may sit above the king or start the sequence below the two, but it cannot bridge the two and the king. A set is at least three cards of the same rank in different suits, and since two decks are in play most groups forbid repeating the identical card, which caps a set at four cards. A joker stands in for any card and counts as the card it replaces.
Opening with forty points
Nobody may put anything on the table until they open, and to open, the melds laid down in a single turn have to be worth at least forty points between them. For that count the ace is eleven, face cards are ten and the rest are worth their number, with the ace dropping to one when it opens an ace-two-three run. Forty points come together quickly with a set of face cards and a short run, but an awkward hand can leave you stuck for half the deal. Until you have opened you may not even lay cards off onto melds already on the table, which is how players end up holding everything.
Laying off
Once you have opened you may add cards to any meld on the table, your own or an opponent's: extending a run at either end, adding a fourth card to a set. Many groups also let you retrieve a joker that has already been played by putting the real card it stands for in its place, then reuse it in the same turn; others forbid it. Settle that in advance, because it changes the pace of the game a good deal.
Going out and counting up
A player goes out by placing every card and discarding the last one. The hand ends there: whoever went out scores zero, everybody else counts what is left in their hand. A joker is twenty-five points, an ace eleven, face cards ten and the rest their number. Many groups double the count for a player who had not yet opened, which makes a late opening far riskier. Going out without a final discard exists in plenty of houses too, usually rewarding the player who manages it or adding a penalty for everyone else. If the stock runs out before anyone goes out, the hand stops and each player counts their cards.
Elimination at 101
Points accumulate hand after hand for each player individually. Anyone who goes past one hundred is eliminated, which is where the limit gets its name: at 101 you are out. Play continues until a single player remains, and that player wins. The most common variant is the buy-back: a player who is knocked out may return once, taking the score of the highest player still in the game. Other groups prefer to play a fixed number of hands and give the win to the lowest total, which is the practical choice when time is short.
Keeping score with Score Buddy
Score Buddy sets Scala 40 to the 101-point limit, with the lowest total winning. At the end of a hand, tap each player and enter the points of the cards left in their hand; for whoever went out, type zero and confirm so that the hand is still recorded. The quick buttons +5, +10 and +25 follow the values you count most often — low cards, face cards and the joker — and the plus and minus buttons move one at a time for the final adjustment. Each card shows how far a player still is from the limit and switches to Out the moment they reach 101; whether you carry on among the survivors or stop there is left to you. New game files the finished game in your history and awards the win to the lowest total. If your group plays to a different limit, use the Free game instead: it is the only scorekeeper here whose target can be set by hand.