Ultimate Book of Card Games: The Comprehensive Guide to More Than 350 Games (36 page)

HOW TO WIN
Your main objective—besides winning tricks that contain points—is to force your opponent to throw point cards against her will. Inexperienced players tend to hold their point cards until later in a hand, so keep one high-ranking trump card for the later tricks.

If you have two cards in the same suit, don’t assume it’s always best to play them as a set. It’s OK to play them as a set if they are mid- or high-ranking non-trump cards—for example K of clubs and J of clubs. This lead forces your opponent to either beat both your cards (likely using trump), which depletes your opponent of trump; or it allows you to earn a few easy points. This strategy does not work well if your cards are of mixed ranks—for example K of clubs and 6 of clubs.

Similarly, it’s not always a good idea to play three aces. Separately these cards may earn you a few points, which may be more important than capturing the lead.

1. DIFFICULTY
   :
   high
   
2. TIME LENGTH
   :
   medium
   
3. DECKS
   : 1
   

Few two-player games are as interesting—or challenging—as Casino. The rules are simple enough. Yet Casino handsomely rewards long-term planning, strategic play, and careful observation. Luck plays little role in Casino.

Like Gin Rummy and other games that use a
board,
Casino players try to pair, combine, and build cards in their hands with communal cards on the table. Casino moves quickly, and gives players little room for error. That’s half the fun of it.

Many modern card games originated in France, Italy, and Spain in the sixteenth century. Casino is an exception to the rule; it is originally from China. It’s part of the Chinese family of “fishing” games, with a pool of cards that players attempt to capture by pairing them with cards from their own hand.

HOW TO DEAL
Casino uses a standard fifty-two-card deck. Cards are played according to their
index value;
face cards have no value, aces are worth 1.

On the first round, deal each player two cards, face down, and two cards to the table, face up. Repeat so that each player holds four cards and there are four face-up cards on the table.

Each time players empty their hands of cards, deal them four additional cards, two at a time. No additional cards are dealt to the table.

A single hand of Casino lasts six rounds (twelve cards in the first round, eight in each of the five subsequent rounds). Before the sixth and final round, the dealer must declare “last round,” as it affects how the final few cards are played.

SCORING
Casino is a trick-taking game. The primary objective is to earn points by winning the most cards, the most spades, and by capturing high-value point cards such as 10 of diamonds (the “Big Casino”) or 2 of spades (the “Little Casino”).

No points are scored until all cards are played after the sixth and final round. At this point, players review the cards they have captured during the rounds, and tally scores based on the following:

So there are always 11 points to be won in a hand of Casino. Games are typically played to 21 points.

There is one further way to earn points. It’s called a
sweep,
and it happens whenever a player captures all the cards on the table in a single round. This is worth 1 point each time it occurs.

HOW TO PLAY
The non-dealer always leads first. In each round, you must always play one card from your hand. What makes the game so interesting is that there are many ways to play a card. Here are your options:

TRAIL A CARD
This is Casino lingo for playing a single card to the table, face up. This is the most basic play, and it usually signals that you have no other options.

PAIR A CARD
The simplest way to capture cards is by pairing them. Use a card from your hand to take a card of matching rank from the table. For example, assume you’re holding 7 of diamonds, and 7 of clubs is face up on the table. Use your 7 of diamonds to capture 7 of clubs, then take both cards and place them face down in a pile in front of you. There’s no limit to the number of cards you may capture this way (your 7 of diamonds could capture both 7 of clubs and 7 of hearts on the table, for example). This holds true for aces (it’s possible to capture three aces with a single ace), but not for face cards.

PAIR A FACE CARD
Face cards may be paired, but only one card at a time. In other words, you may capture a jack with a jack, a queen with a queen, or a king with a king. You may not capture two kings, for example, with a single king.

COMBINING CARDS
One of Casino’s best features is the ability to capture cards in combinations. For example, 3 of diamonds and 4 of clubs on the table may be captured by your 7 of clubs, as 3 + 4 = 7; 9 of hearts and A of spades on the table may be captured by your 10 of diamonds; or 3 of clubs, 5 of hearts, A of diamonds, A of spades on the table may be captured by your 10 of spades, etc. You may even combine multiple sets of cards on the table: For example, your 9 of hearts may capture 5 of hearts and 4 of diamonds as well as 6 of clubs and 3 of spades on the same turn.

PAIRING & COMBINING CARDS
Yes friends, it is also possible to capture a pair and a combination (or multiple combinations) in a single turn. Your 8 of hearts, for example, may capture 8 of spades and 5 of diamonds-3 of clubs in the same turn.

BUILDING COMBINATIONS
Another brilliant feature of Casino is the ability to build combinations over multiple turns. For example, assume 3 of clubs is on the table and you hold 5 of hearts, 8 of spades in your hand. You play 5 of hearts on top of 3 of clubs and announce that you are “building eights.” On the next turn, you may capture
the 5 of hearts-3 of clubs build with your 8 of spades. Keep in mind that when building combinations, you may not trail a card on the subsequent turn; instead, you must capture the build, increase the build, or capture a different card. In other words, in the previous example, you may not leave the 5 of hearts-3 of clubs build on the table on your following turn and then simply trail another card. However, you may leave the 5 of hearts-3 of clubs on the table if you instead pair a different card (say, 10 of diamonds from your hand with 10 of hearts from the table) or increase the existing 5 of hearts-3 of clubs build.

INCREASING BUILDS
You are allowed to increase an existing build (or an opponent’s build) by adding a card from your hand. You may not use a card from the table. So in the previous example, you may add A of hearts to the existing build of 5 of hearts-3 of clubs on the table, announce you’re “building nines,” and then capture the build on the following turn with any 9 from your hand. The risk, of course, is that your opponent may swoop in and change the value of your build and capture it for herself on the following turn.

CAPTURING BUILDS
There’s nothing worse than watching your opponent capture one of your builds. Yet it’s all part of the game—there’s nothing to stop either player from doing so.

BUILDING & PAIRING COMBINATIONS
Perhaps the ultimate play in Casino is building
and
pairing a combination. Assume you’re holding 9 of hearts, 5 of clubs, 2 of diamonds, while 9 of spades, 4 of diamonds are on the table. You could simply pair the 9s, or you might try this: play your 5 of hearts on the 4 of diamonds (announce “building nines”), and add the 9 of spades from the table onto the build, thereby “pairing” both builds. On your next turn, you could capture the 5 of hearts, 4 of diamonds, 9 of spades from the table with your 9 of hearts. Or even better, if your opponent trails 7 of diamonds, play your 2 of diamonds on 7 of diamonds, move these cards onto the build of nines, and on the following turn capture the 5 of hearts, 4 of diamonds, 9 of spades, 2 of diamonds, 7 of diamonds all with your 9 of hearts. Note that neither player may increase the build of nines once that build is paired. In other words, you may not add A of hearts to the 5 of hearts-4 of diamonds-9 of spades build and announce “building to tens.” Once a build has been paired, its value is fixed and cannot be altered. Similarly, you may not unbundle or divide an existing build (for example, you may not split the 5 of hearts-4 of diamonds-9 of spades build into its components).

Remember that any player who captures all the table cards in a single turn earns 1 point for the sweep.

If any cards are left on the table after the final card in the last round is played, the remaining table cards are awarded to the player who most recently captured a card. And no, very sorry, this does not count as a sweep.

Once the hand is complete, each player counts the cards he has won and tallies his score based on the scoring table. In close games you are allowed to
count out
early if you think your score is greater, or equal to 21 points (or to whatever point total you’re playing). When a player announces “count out,” the game ends immediately and all cards taken to that point are tallied. If the player correctly claimed victory, well done; congratulations are in order. Otherwise the player scores -11 points and forfeits his next deal.

HOW TO WIN
Casino is considered a top-tier strategy game by professional card players. The challenge for newbies is to plan two or three moves ahead, because often the obvious play is not the most rewarding. Good Casino players know all about the “mind game” and are usually skilled bluffers.