When a poker player cannot pair, combine, build or call, he must play one of his cards to the layout. It is known as trailing. It is advisable to play a low card, but not an Ace, little casino or a spade.

When the last eight cards have been played any left in the layout are the property of the winner of the final trick, but it does not count as a sweep.

This ends the game, except for the formality of the players examining their tricks and counting their scores.

There is no penalty for making a build incorrectly, or for capturing poker cards to which a player is not entitled, because his opponent has the opportunity to see the error and demand that it is corrected.

If, however, a player makes a build when he has no card in his hand to capture it or trails when he has a build in the layout, he automatically forfeits the game.

If a card is faced in the pack, or if the dealer when dealing exposes a card, other than when dealing cards to the layout, the exposed card is played to the layout and the dealer plays the hand with fewer than four cards.

Casino is sometimes considered a game for children. It is, however, very far from being so. Among card players it is widely spoken of as one of the best of all two-handed games and it is often played for high stakes.

To be successful a player needs an elephantine memory, and the capacity to deduce from the card played by an opponent what cards he is most likely to be holding in his hand.

ROYAL CASINO

This is an improvement on the parent poker game because the court cards play a more important part. The Aces count 1 or 14 (at the option of the player), the Kings 13, the Queens 12 and the Jacks 11, and they may be used for combining and building.

Thus an 8 and a 4 may be taken with a Queen , a 6 ,a 4 and a 3 with a King, and so on.
Twenty-one points constitute the game.

DRAW CASINO

In this version of the game, after the first round of a deal, the 40 undealt cards are placed face downwards on the table to form a stock.

Then each player, after playing, draws a card from the stock to bring the number of cards in his hand up to four. When the stock is exhausted the poker hands are played out and the count made as in the parent game.

SPADE CASINO

This version may be played either as royal casino or as the parent game, with the addition that the Ace, Jack and ♠ 2 count two points each, and all the other spades one point each.

Game is 61 points, and it is convenient and customary to keep the score on a cribbage board.