Crazy Casino: a casino variant emphasizing arithmetic and creativity. Two players. The game is played with a deck of 52 cards, A-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10-J-Q-K in each of clubs, diamonds, hearts, and spades. First dealer is chosen by any method agreeable to the players. Dealer deals four cards to each player and four face-up on the table. The usual order is one to eldest hand, one to the table, one to dealer's hand, repeatedly until each of the three has four cards. The rest of the pack is set aside; it will be used gradually. Eldest hand plays first (what it means to "play" will be covered below). Dealer then plays, alternating until each player has played four times. Dealer then deals out four more cards to each player (none to the table), again alternating single cards, eldest hand first, and each player takes four more turns. This repeats until each player has made a total of 24 plays, at which point the dealer would normally deal four more cards to each player, but the pack is exhausted. At this point, whoever took the last capture collects any cards remaining on the table (but this does not count as as sweep, since it is not a capture - see below) and the hand is scored. Deal then switches to the other player. It is normally a good idea to play an even number of hands, to offset the bias of who gets first play for each deal. Scoring is much like Casino: each player's captured cards are examined. A majority of the cards is worth three points, a majority of the spades one point, each ace is one point, the ten of diamonds (big casino) two points, and the deuce of spades (little casino) one point. Each sweep (see below about capturing) is worth one additional point for the player who performed it. Each play requires one card from the player's hand. The player has the option of doing one of three things: - Trail. - Capture. - Build. To trail, the player simply plays the card from the hand face-up on the table and leaves it there. To capture, the player has the option of building (see below, about building) and then matches something on the table with the card from the hand. Matching, here, means that the ranks are equal and the capturing card and the card or build being captured are the same colour, both red or both black. The card(s) from the table and the card from the hand are then collected and piled with that player's captured cards. If a capture leaves no cards at all on the table, it is a `sweep' and counts one additional point for the player taking it; this is normally indicated by turning a face-down card face up under the captured-cards pile (it is usually best to choose a card not relevant to scoring - not an ace, not a spade, etc - but that is not a requirement). Most of the interest in the game lies in building. Building consists of merging two or more cards together to form a `build'. At its simplest, this is just addition and subtraction, with one colour treated as negative and the other as positive (it makes no difference whether red is thought of as positive and black negative or the other way around, as long as you're consistent). 2 through 10 count face value; jacks count 11, queens count 12, and kings count 13. Aces are either 1 or 14. For example, a red 9, a red 4, and a black 6 could be put together to build a red 7. There are some important notes. (1) When building, you must, on that turn, either (a) build all the cards involved (ie, all the cards you do anything with, including the one from your hand) into a single build, which matches a card remaining in your hand, or (b) build on the table until all the cards involved form a single build which you then capture with a card from your hand. You cannot build multiple builds in a single turn without merging them into a single build that turn, and you cannot capture unless the capturing card is the one coming from your hand that turn. When building, in theory you must always indicate what colour and rank you're building, though in practice this is often not explicitly stated (eg, red seven and black three can't make anything but red four). If one player builds something and it's ambiguous what it is, the other player is entirely justified in asking for clarification. (2) Once built, a build is entirely equivalent, for building and capturing purposes, to a single card of the same rank and colour. In particular, building either a 14 or a 1 results in an ace, which can then be treated as either a 14 or a 1. It is, thus, particularly dangerous to build an ace and leave it on the table, not only because of the risk that your opponent holds an ace and can capture with it and thus avoid risking losing the ace to you, but also because your opponent has the flexibility to consider it either 1 or 14, whichever is more convenient. Until it gets built into something else, or captured, it remains able to take on either rank, 1 or 14. One side effect of this is that an ace can absorb as many kings of either colour as is convenient; if the king is the same colour, the ace is one and becomes 14, still an ace; if the other colour, the ace is 14 and becomes a 1, also still an ace. This is not, of course, the only way to put an ace and a king together; for example, a black ace, a black king, a red jack, and a red nine can form "black ace and king is black ace, and red jack is black three, and red nine is red six", but they can also form "black ace and black king is black 27, and red jack is black 16, and red nine is black 7". As a third option, they also can form "black ace and king is black ace, and red jack is red ten, and red nine is red 19", though that would have to be built further, since, because no card matches it, it can't be captured or left. (3) Two cards of the same rank and colour (or built piles - a built pile functions just like a single card of the appropriate rank and colour) can be collapsed together, without changing rank. For example, if the table has a black ace, black king, and both red jacks, there are at least six ways to build them into a single pile: - Ace and king is ace, jack and jack is jack, black 14 and red 11 is black 3. - Ace and king is ace, jack and jack is jack, red 11 and black 1 is red 10. - Ace and king is 27, jack and jack is jack, black 27 and red 11 is black 16. - Ace and king is 27, jack and jack is 22, black 27 and red 22 is black 5. - Ace and king is ace, jack and jack is 22, red 22 and black 1 is red 21. - Ace and king is ace, jack and jack is 22, red 22 and black 14 is red 8. Like the red 19 from the previous note's example, the black 16 and red 21 would have to be built further, since they can't be captured or left. (4) When leaving a build on the table, you must be able to capture it at that point, as mentioned in note 1 above, but there is no requirement that you remain able to capture it. (You usually will want to capture it rather than playing its matching card some other way, but it is not required.) Thus, for example, trailing is *always* an option. (5) Once a build is built and left, it cannot be pulled apart; it is as indivisible as a single card of the same colour and rank. The only time the cards making it up matter is during scoring. We (my family, mostly meaning my father and I) have experimented with ways of extending this, including colourless 15s (a 15 can shift colour the way an ace can shift number), jokers with various properties, and the like, but none of them have caught on.