Deal out all cards (if there are only two people, deal for three leave the extra hand) - the object of the game is to get rid of all your cards.
The person with the 3 of hearts starts (in later games it is the julio).
A player starts a round by playing a one or more of the same card. The next player must play a higher card, and the same number of them (pairs on pairs, etc), or the player can choose not to play (though they can't play for the rest of that round).
Once no-one can/wants to play - the last player gets to start a new round.