Card Games

The wonderful thing about card games is that they're easy to carry around! In many cases, all you need is a deck of cards and a way to keep score. While many card games require specialized decks, in this hub we'll discuss only games using a standard deck of cards; for more specialized games, see my hub on the best card games not played with a standard deck. Following, you'll find a description of one representative game of each of several different types.

Hearts is a member of the Whist family of trick-taking games; related games include Bridge and Spades. While there are variations accepting from three to six players, Hearts is really a four-player game.

Hearts evolved from a game called Reversis, which was popular in Spain in the late 18th century. Unlike Bridge and Spades, hears is an evasion-type game; the goal is to avoid taking points. In each round, whoever holds the two of clubs uses it to lead the first trick, after which the winner of each trick begins the next trick.  Players must follow suit if possible; if they cannot, they are free to play any card, with one exception: no penalty card can be played on the first trick.

The penalty cards are all of the hearts, which are worth one point each, and the queen of spades, which is worth 13. A player may not lead hearts until they have been broken (meaning a heard has already been played); in some variations, the queen of spades is also considered to break hearts.

The game continues until the end of the round in which one or more players have at least 100 points, at which time the person with the lowest score wins the game.

Generally, the two following variations are used:

Passing: On the first hand, each player passes three cards to the player on his left; in the second hand, to the player on his right; in the third hand, to the player across from him. The fourth hand has no passing, and from the 5th hand on the cycle repeats.

Shooting the moon: A player who takes all 26 points scores no points; instead, either everyone else gets 26, or 26 points are subtracted from his own score.

In rummy games, players put down sets based on matching cards. All games of this type can be considered descendents of the Chinese tile game Mahjong.

 In basic rummy, each player gets a hand of cards to start, with the remaining deck placed face down between the players and one card drawn and placed face up next to the deck, forming the discard.

Each player in turn must draw a card from either the deck or the discard; if the deck is empty, he may optionally turn the discard pile over to form a new deck, turning over the top card of the deck to form a new discard pile. He may then lay down any number of melds, where a meld is three of a kind or three in a row of the same suit. He may also lay off cards, meaning to add to an existing meld. Playing cards is optional; players may opt not to play cards in order to play a better meld later on.

After playing any desired cards, the player must discard one card to the discard pile; this may not be a card he drew from the discard pile that turn (although it could be one he drew from the deck). 

When a player runs out of cards, he may declare rummy and go out. In some variations, a player must discard his final card to go out; if he plays his entire hand, he must wait until his next turn to draw a card and discard it.  Points are now totaled; any cards left in player's hands are either added to the winner's score or count against the person holding them, depending on the variant; cards in play count in favor of their owner. Aces are worth 15, faces and 10s are ten points each, and everything else is worth 5 points.In some variants, whoever goes out recieves as 25 point bonus.

Many of the most popular card games are comparing games; for example, poker, blackjack, and casino. As most readers probably know the rules for the first two games listed, here we'll describe the rules of casino.

The dealer gives each player four cards, two at a time; in the first hand, four face-up cards are also dealt to the table. In subsequent hands, cards are dealt only to the players.

Starting with the player to the left of the dealer, each person plays a card from hand to do one of the following:

• Capture: a card may capture any number of cards that either match it or add up to it. For example, a 9 may capture a 9, a 6 and a 3, etc. Face cards can only capture other face cards of the same rank and must capture exactly one (that is, a jack could only capture exactly one other jack).
•  Discarding: the card is simply added to the table and play passes to the next player.
• Building: the card from hand, along with one or more cards on the table, are combined to form a new card. For example, a player may combine an ace with a six to build a seven; he may only do this if he has a seven in his hand.  Alternatively, he can pair two cards; given the aforementioned built seven, he could place another seven next to it, "pairing" the seven; these two sevens now cannot be further built on, and he can take both of them next turn by playing the remaining seven in his hand. A player who builds must capture the built card, or pair it, on his next turn (unless an opponent takes or builds on it).

In the last deal, the dealer announces "cards" so that everyone is aware that this is the final deal of the round. If any cards are left on the table after the hand is completed, whoever last captured a card takes them. Points are then totaled: most cards scores 3 points, most spaces scores 1, the ten of diamonds (big casino) scores two, the two of spades (little casino) scores 1, and each ace scores 1 for a total of 11. (In some variations, the points for most cards and the big casino are switched). In case of a tie on most cards or most spades, nobody gets those points. After totaling points, the deal passes to the left.

The first person to 21 wins the game.