Do I open or not? Three of a kind or ladder? Do I collect or not collect? Do I discard a good card to my opponents or do I ruin all my games? Hamlet's doubts in Burraco are infinite, as many as the possible combinations of the 108 cards provided by the game. On the other hand, certain answers are scarce, so we have to be satisfied with suggestions and a compass that at least points to the north. For us, the polar star is the principle of "minimum expenditure, maximum yield" and in the light of this we face the maze of alternatives that appear before us.
The first choice is imposed as soon as the cards are lifted from the ground: how to arrange them? It is not a trivial question, because the layout affects the game and, if well designed, allows you to understand, with a quick glance, if there are alternative closures to the one we were fond of.
A good way to arrange them is to group the three of a kind and to place the suitable cards alongside them to form a possible straight. On the far right instead (or on the left if you are left-handed) you can arrange the cards to be discarded, starting with the first one he intends to get rid of.
Let's take an example: you have 5 and 4 of spades, 4 of hearts, 4 and 6 of diamonds, 10 and 8 of hearts, 8 of clubs, joker, ace of diamonds and queen of spades. The hand thus stated is already placed in your hands in the best way, with the queen of spades on the far right, as the first card to be discarded. You draw the 7 of spades and place it next to the 5 and 4: it makes you a pair, but we are still in the field of hope, we are planning a future that could never materialize. Here then is the first doubt: do I lay down the set of 4s or, with all these hoped-for ladders, wait for a round, to see what my partner has? For the economic criterion stated several times (always prefer a clean game to a dirty one even if it is less "nice") it is a good idea to drop without thinking for a long time. The choice is valid if your partner hasn't played yet, but even more so if he has already played and hasn't opened anything. His silence may mean that he has very little to offer you and that you need to start getting rid of some cards; or maybe it means that he has too many wild cards and cannot reveal himself to his opponents. Also in this case a clean three of a kind will be useful for supporting a joker.
If you lay down the 4s, the Q is a better discard than the 6 of diamonds or the 5 of spades (which unfortunately are of no use to you), because they could be useful for your opponents to get rid of a few too many 4s. After all, the Q is not an "isolated card", given that you have 2 other spades in your hand (the Burraco bible, the book by Giorgio Vitale, suggests never throwing away the isolated card, because if you don't need it, someone will need it other).
Let's assume, however, that you are incurable optimists and prefer to wait a lap before placing the 4: which is, in this case, the right gap? The Q is fine, but you can also indulge yourself by discarding the 6 of diamonds, that is one of your pairs with the 4s, to test your partner's game. If your opponents intercept it you can always lay down the 4s the next round, to their deep disappointment, but if your partner picks it up you will know that he has some interest in that area and so you can continue (ahivoi) to hold the 4s a little bit'.
Whether you are attentive or aggressive, you can also throw the ace of diamonds, an extreme card and by definition an excellent initial discard. However, it must be said that the aces are worth a lot (15 points) and for this reason they are reluctantly abandoned. In this case, you also have the 6 and 4 of diamonds and if by chance you discard the 6 and your partner opens a low diamond straight, the ace can become useful for the burraco. In short, at first glance the black lady appears to be the best reject, also given the unattractive cabalistic meaning of the aforementioned.
In the list of discards we have not mentioned the 8 of clubs, which is paired only with the 8 of hearts (engaged to the 10 of hearts) and which has no other close "relatives". In fact, the 8 of clubs has all the trappings of the card that you don't want to give up until it's really worth it: it's the best medium card and isolated card. So keep it huddled among the other ten and closely in tandem with the 8 of hearts, as this pair could prove invaluable should your counterplay get particularly harsh.
How many reasonings on 11 cards! And how many doubts already at first glance, at the first discard. So let's orient our compass and continue to navigate in the next episodes, always keeping in mind the ports we have to touch: the cockpit grip, the burraco, the closure.
