Definition

Bastoni (batons or clubs) is one of the four suits in the Neapolitan deck. The suit symbol is a wooden baton or cudgel, depicted as a thick knotted stick. In Briscola, bastoni is one of the four possible trump suits — if the briscola card drawn at the start is a baton, then all baton cards outrank every other card during that hand regardless of number value. In Scopa, bastoni cards carry no special suit-based scoring (unlike denari), but capturing the 7 of bastoni is essential for a strong primiera score. The number of bastoni cards captured does not count toward any standard Scopa scoring category.