Players cut the deck for the first deal: the player who draws the lowest card becomes the first dealer. That dealer gives two cards to their opponent, two cards to themself, then places two cards face up on the table, then two more cards to the opponent, two more cards to themself, two more cards faceup on the table, and places the rest of the deck facedown in a pile on the table. Each player should have four cards in their hand and their should be four cards showing in a line in the middle of the table.
The non-dealer begins gameplay. On a turn, a player plays one card in one of three ways: capturing, building, or trailing.
A card from your hand can capture a card if it has the same value as a card on the table. These two cards are both added to a pile on your side of the table, which will be scored at the end of the round. A card from your hand can also capture a group of cards on the table whose values add up to the value of the card in your hand. For example, a nine can capture a three and a six. A single card can capture as many cards or groups of cards that share its value at once. For example, a ten can capture another ten, two fives, a six, and a four all in the same play. If, after capturing, there are no face-up cards remaining on the table, the player who captured gets a "sweep," or an extra point at the end of the round.
Building is a way of saving cards on the table to be captured in the future. A build can be made as long as you have the card in your hand that could capture the build in the future. For example, if a three is on the table, and you have a six and a nine in your hand, you can build the six onto the three to create a nine build, which can be capture on your next turn. Builds can also consist of multiple cards/groups of the same value, such as two sixes, which can be captured by a six. Note that aces have a value of one. If a build only has one group or card, you can add a card on top of the build to change its value, as long as you have the card which can capture it. For example, if there is a build on the table consisting of a two and a three, and you have a two and a seven in your hand, you can add the two on that build to make a build of seven. You can capture or add on to builds created by your opponent. Announce the value of a build as it is created to avoid ambiguity. Without this rule, for example, a build consisting of 5-5 could either be a group of fives to be captured by another five, or a ten to be captured by a ten.
If you have an active build on the table, you must capture it, add on to it, or build elsewhere. If you have no active builds on the table, you may "trail," which means discarding a card from your hand alone onto the table, into public gameplay. You must trail if you cannot capture or build.
The face cards (J,Q, and K), have not value and may not be built. The only way to capture a face card is to capture them one at a time with a face card of the same rank. For example, a jack from your hand can capture one jack from the table.
After each player has exhausted their hand, the same dealer deals each player another four card hand, and play continues, starting again with the non-dealer. This continues until the players have run through the deck. After the last hand of a round, the cards remaining in the table are given to the play who most recently captured. At this point, scoring can begin for the round. Players run through their piles, counting how many cards they took in total, as well as how many spades and aces. They also look for the Big Cassino (10 of diamonds) and the Little Cassino (2 of spades). They score their piles as follows:
| Condition | Value |
|---|---|
| Most cards | 3 points (0 if tied) |
| Most spades | 1 point |
| Ace | 1 point each |
| Big Cassino (10 of diamonds) | 2 points |
| Little Cassino (2 of spades) | 1 point |
| Sweep | 1 point each |
The next round begins, with the non-dealer becoming the dealer. Play continues until a player has at least 21 points. If both players have at least 21 after the same round, the player with the higher score wins. If both players are tied at or above 21, they play another round to determine the winner.
A three-player game functions in the same way, with each player receiving hands of four cards, and with four cards being placed in the table at the beginning of each round. Scoring is the same, which means games of three will likely take longer since they compete for the same amount of points as in a two-player game.
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