Кассино: Тарихы мен ережелері

Fishing card game

Cassino, sometimes spelt Casino, is an English card game for two to four players using a standard, 52 card, French suited pack. It is the only fishing game to have penetrated the English speaking world.

Although Cassino is often claimed to be of Italian origin, detailed research by Franco Pratesi has shown that there is no evidence of it ever being played in Italy and the earliest references to its Italian cousins, Scopa and Scopone, post date those of Cassino. The spelling "Cassino" is used in the earliest rules of 1792 and is the most persistent spelling since,

In fact, as "Cassino", the game is first recorded in 1792 in England where it appears to have become something of a fashionable craze, At that stage, the court cards had no numerical value and could only be paired, and there was no building; that did not appear in English rules until the second half of the century. The counting cards were the Aces and two special cards known as the 'Great Cassino' (10) and 'Little Cassino' (2). Initially the rules followed those in English sources, but as early as 1810, a markedly different variant appeared in which the court cards, Aces and Cassinos became far more potent. The courts were given values of 11, 12 and 13 respectively, the Aces could be valued at 14 as well as 1, the Great Cassino at 10 or 16 and the Little Cassino at 2 or 15. This elaboration of the Cassino went unnoticed in its country of origin and across the Atlantic, apart from a fleeting observation in 1846 by Lady Sarah Nicolas in 1846 who recounts that "the game of Cassino is thus played in some parts of Germany: Great Cassino takes sixteen. Little Cassino – fifteen. Every Ace – fourteen. King – thirteen. Queen – twelve. Knave – eleven." Rules continued to be published in German until at least 1975, but the game seems to have waned in Germany and Austria towards the end of the 19th century. However, while the game began to fade away in England, it was in America that Cassino gained its second wind in the second half of the 19th century, initially due to new moves such as building and calling and, later, through several interesting new variants that emerged, including what became Royal Cassino, in which court cards were given a numerical value as in German Cassino such that they could capture two or more cards, and Spade Cassino, in which players scored for the most Spades, and Diamond Cassino, in which three cards are dealt instead of four. Royal Cassino is mentioned as early as 1894 when we learn that a passenger on a line from New York to London played the game with a doctor and his wife but its rules first appear in English Foster's Complete Hoyle of 1897. Cassino was eventually eclipsed by Gin Rummy. and later featured in one of Hubert Phillips' games compendia in 1939. It does not seem to have caught on, although it may have gained more traction in its various eastern European forms.

Only the scoring differs. After totalling their points the two lower scores are combined and deducted from the highest score e. g. if A score 8, B 2 and C 1, A scores 8 (2 + 1) = 5 game points; but if A has 5, B 4 and C 2, A scores nothing.

There are two teams of two and they follow Whist rules for cutting for places, dealing and scoring the games singly or double. They play a rubber i. e. the best of 3 games.

In 1864, William Brisbane Dick, alias "Trumps", published the first rules that included the feature of "building up", whereby players were allowed to place a card on an existing table card and, by announcing their combined value, fix the build at that value. In 1867, however, Dick published an even more elaborate set of rules that included "calling" for the first time. The rules were based on research that included testing and approval by "the best players in this city". The following is a summary of those rules:

The game is played by two, three, four or six players with a 52 card pack. Four play as two pairs.

Players cut for deal and the player with the lowest card deals first. Ties 'cut over' and Aces are low. Dealer gives each player four cards, singly, eldest hand first. Four cards are dealt to the table either regularly as he deals or in packets of two, three or all four. After the first four hand cards are played, the dealer deals another four each, singly, but none to the table, and this continues until all cards have been played out.

Points are scored at the end of each hand as in classic English Cassino, but instead of game being 11 points, each deal is a complete game and the player or team with the most points wins.

Twenty one Point Cassino appears for the first time in print in Dick's 1880 Modern Pocket Hoyle where he says that "Cassino is now very generally played for a fixed number of points (usually twenty one)". The first player to the target score wins and the points are scored as soon as made. Sweeps are not turned down "as in the single deal game" but scored as they are taken. A player who erroneously claims to have won loses the game.

Royal Cassino appears for the first time in Foster's Complete Hoyle (1897), however the concept of giving values to the court cards was a Austro German invention of the early 19th century. The only difference from standard American Cassino is that Jacks are now worth 11, Queens 12 and Kings 13, so that, for example, a Queen can capture and Ace and a Jack or a 7 and a 5. In a variation recorded by David Parlett, the Ace is worth 1 or 14 as desired.

Also making its first appearance in 1897 was the "interesting variation" of Spade Cassino in which every spade scored a point except for the J which scored 2. This replaced the usual score for "most spades" and gave 24 points per hand, excluding sweeps. Game is 61 and hence it is scored on a cribbage board, all points being pegged as they are made apart from "most cards" which is pegged at the end.

In Draw Cassino, first called Royal Draw Cassino, players draw a replacement card each time they make a play, so that they always have four cards in hand (until the end), rather than being dealt cards in discrete rounds of four. It is a two player game.

Tablanette is said to be of Russian provenance. In this game, each player has six cards, and a player with a jack may use it to clear the whole table. At the end of a round, players score points for holding the most cards, and extra points if they are holding picture
cards.