Casino

Goal

Be the first player to score 21 points. Points are scored at the end of each round.

Cards

Use a standard 52-card deck without Jokers. A 2 to 10 is worth its number, a Jack 11, a Queen 12, and a King 13. An Ace you play is worth 14. As part of a group of cards that add up, or of a build, an Ace counts 1.

Starting hand

Deal 4 cards to each player and 4 cards face up to the table. When both players have played all 4 cards, deal 4 more to each player and none to the table. The deck lasts 6 deals, which make a round. The deal passes to the other player every round.

Play

The non-dealer plays first, and then the players take turns. On your turn, play exactly 1 card from your hand in one of these ways:

1. Capture. Take table cards with the card you play: any table card of the same value, and any groups of table cards that add up to its value, all at once. A 10 can take a 10, a 6 and 4, and a 7 and 3 together. A played Ace takes a table Ace, or a group adding up to 14 such as an Ace and a King. You can also take any builds of the same value. You don’t have to take everything you could. Put the captured cards and your card face down in your pile.
2. Build. Put your card on 1 or more table cards to make a build of a value you announce, such as “building 8” with a 5 on a 3. You must still hold a card of that value to capture it later. A build can be captured only as a whole, by a card of its value. A single build is one group that adds up to its value. A multiple build is 2 or more groups of that value, such as an 8 played on a table 8 as “building 8”.
3. Add to a build. Either player can add to any build, as long as they then hold a card of its new value. Add your card, with any table cards, as another group of the same value, and the build becomes multiple. Or raise a single build by the value of your card (an Ace adds 1), to at most 14. Table cards can join a raise only as whole groups of the new value, which makes the build multiple. A multiple build can’t be raised.
4. Trail. Put your card face up on the table without capturing or building.

Owning a build. Whoever made or last added to a build owns it. While you own a build you can’t trail, and you can’t play in a way that leaves you without a card of its value while it stands.

Sweeps. A capture that leaves no cards and no builds on the table is a sweep, worth 1 point.

The end of a round. After the last deal is played, any cards left on the table go to the player who made the last capture. This isn’t a sweep.

Scoring

At the end of each round, score these points, in this order:

1. Most cards: 3 points. If both players have 26, nobody scores them.
2. Most spades: 1 point. A tie scores nothing.
3. Big Casino, the 10♦: 2 points.
4. Little Casino, the 2♠: 1 point.
5. Each Ace: 1 point, in the order ♠, ♣, ♥, ♦.
6. Each sweep: 1 point, in the order the sweeps were made.

If both players reach 21 in the same round, the first to reach 21 in this order wins, even if the other player ends the round with more points.

Examples

Each strip shows the card you play, then the cards on the table. The faded cards stay on the table.

• A card of the same value Your 7♠ takes the 7♥.
• Groups that add up Your 9♦ takes the 9♣, and the 4♣ and the 5♥ because 4 + 5 = 9, all at once.
• A played Ace is 14 Your A♥ takes the A♠ alone, and the K♦ and the A♣ because 13 + 1 = 14.
• Building 8 You hold the 8♣, so you can play the 5♦ on the 3♠ and announce 8. On your next turn the 8♣ takes the build. Without the 8♣ you couldn’t build 8.
• A sweep, 1 point Your J♣ is 11, so it takes the 6♥ and the 5♠ because 6 + 5 = 11. Nothing is left on the table, so the capture is a sweep.

Variants

Krypkasino is Casino reversed. Points are penalties, and the player with the lower total after 2 games wins. If the totals are equal, play 2 more games.

• Deck and deal. Shuffle 2 decks together, 104 cards. Deal 6 cards to each player and 4 to the table, then 4 to each player at each deal after that. A game is 12 deals.
• No builds. Every turn is a capture or a trail, which is called creeping.
• Aces. An Ace you play is worth 14, but an Ace on the table counts only 1. A table Ace can be taken only as part of a group that adds up, so an Ace you play can’t take a lone table Ace.
• Captures are compulsory. If the card you play can capture, it must, and it must take so much that nothing it could capture is left on the table. Only a card that can capture nothing creeps.
• Forced sweep. If any card in your hand can take every card on the table, you must play one of those cards and take the whole table.
• Picture cards. After the first deal, and before each deal after it, set aside any Jack, Queen, or King on the table. At the end of the game they go, with the cards left on the table, to the player who made the last capture.
• Penalty points: the 10♦ 3, the 2♠ 2, the A♠ 2, each other Ace 1, and each other spade 1. That’s 42 points between the 2 players, before sweeps.
• Sweeps. A sweep scores 5 penalty points to the player who made it and takes 5 off the other player. Taking a lone table card with its identical card from the other deck is a double sweep, which scores 10 and takes off 10 instead.

Playing with your own deck

You need paper and a pencil to keep score. At the end of each round, write down each player’s points and new total.

How this version differs

• A Jack, Queen, and King have values. They’re worth 11, 12, and 13, so they capture groups that add up and can be built, and a played Ace is worth 14. This is Royal Casino. The published rules let a Jack, Queen, or King capture only one table card of its own rank, and count an Ace as 1.
• Two players reaching 21 in one round are separated by the counting order. The published rules give the game to the higher score, and play another round on a tie.

Open the rules page