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Here’s an exciting card game called Scandinavian Casino, also known as Nordic Kasino. It’s a spin-off of the classic Casino game. Imagine that the table is an ocean and the cards are fish – your objective is to catch those fish by matching cards!
How to Play
Scandinavian Casino is designed for 2 to 4 players and uses a standard 52-card deck. Each card holds a specific numerical value, which determines its capture worth.
Here’s the breakdown:
- 2 to 10: Each card is assigned its face value (2 is worth 2 points, 3 is worth 3 points, and so on).
- Jack: Worth 11 points.
- Queen: Worth 12 points.
Keep in mind that there is no card building in this game, unlike Royal Casino. Instead, focus on collecting cards that match the captures you want to make.
With Scandinavian Casino, you’ll dive into an exciting game of strategy and luck. Get ready to fish for those matching cards and reel in the big points!
King: 13
Ace: 1 or 14
Let’s Get Dealing!
To decide who gets to be the dealer, you and your friends can use any method you like. You could try cutting the deck and drawing cards from the middle. The person who draws the card with the highest rank gets to be the dealer.
The dealer will give each player two pairs of cards. First, you’ll get two cards face-down, then two cards face-up, followed by two more cards face-down, and finally two more cards face-up. That’s a total of four face-up cards and four face-down cards for each player. The rest of the deck will be set aside.
Once everybody has played their first four cards, the dealer will give each player four more cards in pairs. This will continue until all the cards in the deck have been used up. After the last card has been played, it’s time to score the hands and pass the dealing duties to the player on the left.
The Game Is On!
When we start playing, it’s my turn first. Then it goes to the person sitting on my left, and we keep going around the circle. Every turn, you can do one thing with your card.
Here’s what you can do:
- Capture cards from the table by playing a matching card. Put your card and the captured cards in front of you – this is called your “capture pile”. The captured cards are kept face down, except for the special card called “tabbe”.
- If you can’t capture any cards, just place your card on the table. It becomes a “single card” that can be captured by you or someone else later in the game.
How to Capture Cards
You can capture cards in three ways:
- Take a single card that matches the value of your card.
- Collect a group of cards that add up to the value of your card.
- Or do a combination of the two.
You don’t have to capture every card you can – it’s up to you to decide which cards to capture.
TABBE
If I can get all the cards on the table, it’s called a tabbe (which is Sweeps in other variations). It’s worth an extra point.
I need to keep track of how many tabbes I can make. If I can tabbe, I have to keep the capture card face-up in the capture pile, angled so you can see it, with the captured cards on top. We don’t deal any new cards to the table.
END OF THE GAME
The game continues until we’ve dealt and played all the cards. When I deal out the last cards, I have to warn you by saying “sistan” (last) or “båt” (boat). After we finish playing the last cards, any remaining cards on the table go to the capture pile of the last player to make a capture. That player gets 1 point for sistan.
If the dealer manages to grab all the cards on the table with their last card, they get two additional points. One for “sistan” and another for “tabbe.”
Let’s Calculate the Points
Once the game is over, everyone adds up their scores based on the cards they captured:
Most Spades: 2 points
Most Cards: 1 point
Ace: 1 point each
10 of Diamonds (also known as the “storan” or the big one): 2 points
2 of Spades (also known as the “lillan” or the small one): 1 point
Last Capture (sistan): 1 point
Tabbe: 1 point each
Usually, the winner is the first player to reach 16 points, but the target score can be set differently.
Usually, the first player to reach 16 points (or the set target score) is declared the winner.