Casino - The Game

It can also be spelled Cassino, it is a card game for two to four players, but is best played with only two. A full (52-card) deck is used.

Generally there are two variants for cassino:

a. Two handed and b. Three handed games

In the two-handed game variant, the dealer starts off by giving his opponent a pair of cards, then also deals a pair face up on the gaming table, and lastly, gives a pair to play with to himself. He repeats this process, giving his opponent, the table, and then to himself until each player has a total of four cards. No cards are will be further dealt to the table.

The main goal of the game is to take in cards from the table. Here are some strategies to attain the goal.

a. pairing - A card from the hand may take all other cards from the table which is of the same rank, it is the only way face (court) cards can be taken.

b. combining - A card, in which the numerical value of which equals that of two cards on the table (a 10, and 6 and 4) can take in those cards

c. building - a card is played to the table to form an announced combination that can be captured by another hand card on the next turn. The opponent may choose take the build if he has the necessary card on his turn.

d. trailing - Whenever a player is unwilling or unable to take any cards in, he places a card directly from his hand on the table, in a face up: this is called trailing. After the first four cards have been played, the dealer then deals four more to his opponent and himself, successively, until all the deck is exhausted.

After all the cards have been dealt, each player will total the card points in his hand. The suits of the cards have no significant points, except to capture spades and two special cards which is: big casino - the 10 of diamonds - and little casino - the 2 of spades; only the number of cards held at the exhaustion of the deck will count towards the points. Points are scored as follows: the hand that has the most cards, 3 points; the most spades, 1 point ; big casino, 2 points; little casino, 1 point; and each ace, 1 point. Games usually result to 11 or 21 points.

The other variation is the Three-handed Casino, it follows the same rules as two-handed variant. Another variant is partnership Casino, in which four players play in partners.