Cassino

Players and equipment

Two to four players — four can play as partnerships, sitting opposite each other — and a standard 52-card deck with no jokers. A numeral card is worth its number and an ace is worth one; the court cards — jack, queen and king — have no number at all.

The deal

Two at a time: two cards to each player and two face up to the table, then the same again, so that everybody holds four and four lie face up between you. The rest waits face down in a stock. When every hand is empty, the dealer gives four more to each player — none to the table this time — until the stock runs out: six hands of four with two players, three with four. The dealer says "last" when dealing the final four, because who plays the very last card of the deal matters. The deal passes to the left after every deal is scored.

Play

The player to the dealer's left goes first, and on your turn you play exactly one card. It can do one of three things.

It can capture. A card takes a table card of the same rank: a seven takes a seven, a queen takes a queen. A numeral card also takes any group of table cards whose values add up to it — a 9 takes a 5 and a 4, or an ace, a 3 and a 5 — and it takes every such group in one go if they all lie there, along with any 9 on the table. An ace counts as one pip when capturing or building. Court cards capture only by rank, one at a time. Captured cards go face down in a pile in front of you, with the card that took them.

It can build. Put your card onto a table card and announce the total — a 3 on a 5, saying "building eight" — provided you hold the card that will take it. A build may only be taken as a whole, by a card of its value, never one card at a time. Anybody else who holds an eight may take it before you do, or raise it: an ace laid on it makes a build of nine, so long as the player raising it holds a nine. Court cards cannot be built, and no build may be worth more than ten. While you have a build on the table you may not trail: your next card must capture, build again or add to a build.

Or it can simply trail: lay the card face up on the table, taking nothing, when you cannot or will not capture. You may trail even when a capture was open to you.

Capturing everything on the table at once is a sweep, marked by turning one captured card face up in your pile. The next player finds an empty table and can only trail.

Scoring

Counted from each player's capture pile at the end of the deal:

Most cards

3

27 or more of the 52

Most spades

1

Seven or more

Big Cassino

2

The ten of diamonds

Little Cassino

1

The two of spades

Each ace

1

Whichever suit

Each sweep

1

Marked as it happened

Eleven points are at stake in every deal, plus one for each sweep; partners keep one pile and it is counted as one.

The last player to capture takes whatever is left on the table — it counts toward cards and spades, but is not a sweep.

A worked deal

Alice and Ben are playing two-handed, Alice on 12 points and Ben on 15 before the deal. Halfway through, the table holds a 5 and a 4 and nothing else; Alice plays a 9, takes both and turns one face up to mark a sweep. Ben makes the last capture of the deal and takes the three cards left on the table with it. Then they count.

Alice

3 + 1 + 2 + 2 + 1 = 9

30 cards, 8 of them spades, the ten of diamonds, two aces, one sweep

Ben

1 + 2 = 3

22 cards, 5 of them spades, the two of spades, two aces

Alice has the most cards, so the three points are hers, and eight of the thirteen spades gives her the spade point too. Big Cassino is two, her aces are two, the sweep is one: nine. Ben has Little Cassino and two aces: three. The cards point is the biggest thing in the game, and whoever wins it usually wins the spades with it.

Alice is now on 21 and Ben on 18, so Alice wins.

Ending

Play to 21 points over as many deals as it takes, or score a fixed number of deals. On a tie for most cards or spades, that point is simply not awarded. If both players pass 21 in the same deal the higher total wins; some tables settle a dead heat by counting in a fixed order — cards, spades, Big Cassino, Little Cassino, aces, sweeps — and whoever reaches 21 first wins. Keeping score on SquareScores, set the target when you launch the game and the app ends the match at the line.

Building and calling a build

A build takes two or three cards with one card, but the moment you call it, everybody knows you hold that number. Build when a second card of the total is unlikely to be out against you, and take the build on your very next turn: a build left lying may be raised to a number you do not hold, and then your cards are gone. Raising an opponent's build is one of the strongest plays in the game for the same reason — it takes their cards and the card they added.

The last capture takes the table

Whoever makes the last capture of the deal takes everything still lying on the table, and in a two-player game the dealer plays the last card, so the dealer can trail anything on the final turn knowing the table is coming to them. When you are not the dealer, spend the last hand of four capturing what you can and trailing nothing worth having; when you are, keep a card that will take something on the last play and let the rest fall to you.

Counting spades and cards

There are thirteen spades and the point goes to whoever holds seven. Watch which spades go into each pile: once either of you has seven the point is settled and there is no reason to fight for another. The cards point works the same way at 27. Where two captures are worth the same, take the one that holds a spade, an ace or the ten of diamonds, and prefer three small cards to one big one. Hold a ten until the ten of diamonds appears, since only a ten or a build of ten can take it.

When to trail

Trail a card that matches nothing on the table and adds to nothing your opponent is likely to hold: a court card whose partners have all gone, or a low card that makes no useful total. Never trail an ace, the ten of diamonds or the two of spades unless you have no choice. When the table is empty and every card laid down risks a sweep, trail the card you would least mind seeing swept.

Royal Cassino

The court cards are given numbers: a jack is eleven, a queen twelve and a king thirteen, and an ace counts as one or fourteen. That lets the court cards be captured by combination and used in builds like any other card. Scoring is unchanged.

Spade Cassino

Every spade scores one point, except the jack of spades and the two of spades, which score two each, and the point for most spades is dropped. With the cards, Big Cassino and the aces that makes 24 points in a deal plus sweeps, and the game is usually played to 61.

Partnership Cassino

Four players in two pairs, partners sitting opposite. Captures go into one pile per pair and are counted together, and you may take or add to a build your partner made, since it belongs to the pair.

Draw Cassino

Instead of dealing fresh hands of four, each player draws one card from the stock after every play, so that everybody keeps four in hand until the stock is gone.

Scopa

The Italian cousin, played with a forty-card deck and no builds: a card takes a matching card or a group that adds to it, and clearing the table is a scopa worth a point. The scoring is its own, and it has its own page here.

Is it Casino or Cassino?

Both. The game was long spelled Casino, and later writers took to doubling the s to keep it apart from the gambling house. The rules are the same under either spelling, and SquareScores lists it under Cassino with Casino as an alias so a search for either finds it.

How many points do you need to win Cassino?

Twenty-one, over as many deals as it takes. Each deal carries eleven fixed points plus one for every sweep, so a game is usually three or four deals.

What is a sweep in Cassino?

Taking every card on the table with one play, leaving it empty. You turn one of the captured cards face up in your pile to remember it, and it scores a point at the end of the deal. Taking the cards left over after the final card of the deal is not a sweep.

Can you take more than one card at a time?

Yes. A numeral card takes any group of table cards that adds up to its value, and every such group lying there at once, along with any card of the same rank. Court cards are the exception: a king takes one king, never two.

What is a build, and can somebody else take it?

A build is a card laid on a table card to make a total you hold in your hand — a 3 on a 5 to build eight. It can only be taken whole, by a card worth the total, and yes: anybody who holds an eight may take it before you, or lay a card on it to raise it to a total they hold instead.

What happens to the cards left on the table at the end?

They go to whoever made the last capture of the deal. They count toward most cards and most spades, and any scoring card among them counts too, but they are not a sweep.

Can you build with face cards?

Not in the standard game. A jack, queen or king has no number, so it cannot be part of a build and is captured only by another card of its rank. Royal Cassino gives the court cards numbers precisely so that they can be.