6. Casino

Games of the Casino family have been children's favorites for hundreds of years. They are especially recommended by many educators, for they teach painlessly the first lessons in arithmetic.

CASINO

NUMBER OF PLAYERS: 2 to 4. Best for 2.

CARDS: The deck of 52 is used up in 6 deals. In the first deal, non-dealer receives 2 cards face down, then 2 are put face up on the table, then dealer gives himself 2 face down. This whole process is repeated, giving each player and the table 4 cards each. For the remaining 5 deals, each receives 4 cards, 2 at a time, but no additional cards are given to the table.

THE PLAY: Beginning with non-dealer, each in turn must play one card from his hand, until all 4 of his cards are gone. If he can find no better use for it, the player simply lays his card face up on the table. This is called trailing. Whenever he can, though, he uses his card to capture cards from the table.

OBJECTS OF PLAY: TO capture the most cards, to capture the most spades, to win Aces, the 10 of diamonds (Big Casino ) and the 2 of spades (Little Casino).

PAIRING: YOU may win cards in various ways. The simplest is by pairing. You may capture a card on the table by another of the same rank from your hand—a 5 with a 5, a Jack with a Jack, and so on.With a face card—Jack, Queen, or King—you may capture only one card, but with a card of lower rank you may take two or three of the same kind. If there are two 7's on the table and you have a 7 in your hand, take in all three 7's.

Each player keeps the cards he has captured in a single pile, face down.

BUILDING: All the lower cards, Ace to 10, may be captured by building. Ace counts 1, each other card its pip value. Cards on the table may be taken in by higher cards equal to their sum. For example, you may take a 5 and a 2 with a 7, an Ace and a 9 with a 10. You may at the same time take additional cards by pairing. Suppose that the cards on the table are 9, 8, 5, 4, Ace. You could take them all with a single 9—since the 9 pairs, 8 and 1 make 9, and 5 and 4 make 9.

LEAVING A BUILD: Suppose that you have 8 and 3 in hand and there is a 5 on the table. You may put the 3 on the 5 and say "Building 8." Your intention is to capture the build with your 8 next turn. You cannot build and take in the same turn, because you are allowed to play only one card from your hand at a time.

If your opponent has an 8, he can capture your build himself. That is the risk of leaving a build. Yet the risk is usually worth taking, because in building you make it harder for him to capture the cards. He cannot take the 5 or 3 by pairing or by making a build of his own.

Of course, you must not leave a build unless you have in your hand a card that can take it. You are allowed to duplicate your build before taking it in. Suppose you have two 8's in hand. After building the 5 and 3, you could on your next turn simply put one 8 on the build, then take it with the other 8 on your third turn.Or suppose after you build the 5 and 3, your opponent trails a 6, and you have a 2 in hand (besides the 8). You may put your 2 with the 6 on the 5-3, and wait till next turn to take in the duplicated build.

An important rule is that when you have left a build on the table, you must attend to it at your next turn—take it in, or increase or duplicate it. You are not allowed to trail or to take in other cards instead.

INCREASING A BUILD: Suppose that your opponent has laid a 4 from his hand on a 5 on the table and called "Building 9." You have an Ace and a 10. You may add the Ace to his build and say "Building 10." You are allowed to increase a build of your own, in the same way. But there are two restrictions on increasing a build. First, you may increase only a single build, such as the 5-4, not one that has been duplicated in any way, such as 5-4-9. Second, the card you use to increase it must come from your hand—you are not allowed to use a card from the table.

SCORING: After the last card of the 6th deal is played, any cards remaining on the table go to the player who was last to take in anything. Then each player looks through his captured cards and counts his score, as follows:
Cards, for winning 27 or more cards 3
Spades, for winning 7 or more Spades 1
Big Casino, the 10 of Diamonds 2
Little Casino, the 2 of Spades 1
Aces, each counting 1, total 4
11
The one who reaches a total of 21 or more points first wins a game.

SPADE CASINO

This is Casino with a different count for Spades. Instead of 1 for majority, the Spades count: 2 for the Jack, 2 for Little Casino, 1 for each other Spade. There are 24 points to be won, and the game is usually set at 61 and scored on a Cribbage board.

SWEEP CASINO

This is Casino with the additional rule that a player scores 1 point for each sweep. He earns this by capturing all the cards that are on the table at that time. To keep track of sweeps, turn the top card of your captured pile face up, for each sweep.

Winning the cards left on the table after the last deal, by being the last to make a capture, does not count as a sweep. But of course you could score a sweep by capturing all these cards in the regular way.

DRAW CASINO

Either Royal or the basic game can be played in draw style. To begin with, deal 12 cards as usual (4 to each player and 4 on the table). Then place the rest of the deck face down in the middle of the table, forming the stock. After you play a card, draw the top card of the stock, thus keeping 4 cards in hand throughout the game. After the stock is exhausted, the hands are played out as usual.

PIRATE CASINO

The "pirate" feature is that you are allowed to make any play you please at a time when you have left a build on the table. You may take in other cards—even a build left by your opponent. You may even trail—and you do so automatically in the last deal, trying to make the last capture.

PARTNERSHIP CASINO

Four play, the two opposite being partners. The deck is used up in three deals. In the first, each player receives 4 cards and 4 are dealt face up on the table. For the other two deals, each receives 4 more cards, but no more are dealt to the table.

A player may duplicate a build left by his partner, without himself having a card that can take it. For example, if Tom builds 10, Nellie, his partner, may in turn put a 6 from the table and a 4 from her hand on the build, without having a 10 in hand. In all other respects the rules of Casino (basic or Royal) apply. Cards won by a partnership are pooled at the end of a play and counted in a common score.

STEALING BUNDLES

This is Casino much simplified for the very young. Deal as in Casino. Cards may be captured only by pairing, but any number of the same kind may be taken at a time. Captured cards must be kept in a pile face up, and you can capture your opponent's entire pile by matching its top card with a card from your hand. The object of play is simply to win and hold the majority of cards.

ROYAL CASINO

Children much prefer this colorful elaboration to the basic game. Since it is more complicated, young children should learn the basic game first, before attempting Royal Casino.

Face cards as well as lower cards may be captured two, three, or four at a turn. Furthermore, they can be used to capture builds; Jack counts 11, Queen 12, King 13. An Ace may be counted 1 or 14, as you please. Likewise, Big Casino in building may be used as 10 or 16, and Little Casino as 2 or 15. Sweeps are scored, as in Sweep Casino.

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