Escoba is a Spanish variant of the Italian fishing card game Scopa, which means "broom", a name that refers to the situation in the game where all of the cards from the board are "swept" in one turn.

The object of the game is to be the first player to score 15 points through capturing cards.

It does not necessarily follow that the player with the most captured cards in any particular round will get the greatest score.

At the start of each round the dealer will deal three cards to each player, face down.

On rare occasions where the four initial cards dealt to the board add up to 15, they are taken by the dealer and added to his scoring pile.

When using a traditional deck, all cards are worth their face value except for the 10 sota (Jack or Page), 11 caballo (Horse) and the 12 rey (King), which are reduced in value to 8, 9 and 10, respectively.

After either scoring a hand or discarding, play then moves to the next player in anticlockwise order.

If a player can combine one hand card with all of the cards on the board to total 15, that player has scored an escoba, worth one additional point at the end of the round.

Each escoba scored is typically noted by the player turning one card of their pile face up.

Players should try to collect a majority of diamond cards, especially the 7♦, called sete belo and worth 1 point.