Popular Card Games

Popular Card Games is a microsite that provides descriptions of ten of the most famous and beloved card games you could choose to play. Its purpose is to generate ideas about which card games to play in various situations. We have hopes of expanding the site at some point with additional pages.

Nothing beats a good card game for low-cost fun. They're an excellent way to get people who may not know each other to mingle at a dinner party, or to make time fly at large family gatherings such as Thanksgiving or Christmas after the main festivities are over, or even just an excuse to get some buddies together over a case of beers on a Sunday night. 

If you've got yourself a deck of cards and a group of friends, but you're not sure what game to play, check out this list of ten popular card games for some ideas.

Bridge - A contract bidding, trick-based game for partners, Bridge is the Cadillac of the card world. Newspaper columns are devoted to it. Tournaments are played. Kids are sent to bed early so their parents can play. Or, at least this was true in the 70's, after the Tupperware party finished and the Avon lady left. It's still one of the most popular card games, supposedly.

Spades - Spades is similar to Bridge, but an easier game to learn. It's also a bidding, trick-based, game for partners. Spades are always trump. Spades is the game you play when you would play Bridge, but can't either because you don't know how, or none of your friends know how.

Hearts - Hearts is a trick-based game for 3-5 individual players. No bidding, but watch for that Queen of Spades. The goal is to finish with as few points as possible. This is an excellent game to play with an odd numbered group of friends, or when you're most interested in hanging out and don't have any extra equipment (chips, etc.), and don't feel like losing any money. Although, you could bet on Hearts.

Euchre - Euchre is designed to throw newbies off their game. You only use the nine, ten, Jack, Queen, King, and Ace from each suit. There are trumps, but the Jack is the highest card, and you call it the "right bower." The second highest card is the "left bower," otherwise known as the Jack of the other suit of the same color. Otherwise it's similar to any number of other trick-based games. Euchre can be played by partners, or two individual players.

Cribbage - When someone breaks out a Cribbage board, you know things are getting real. A Cribbage set has the same impressive, arcane quality that a Backgammon board has. The rules don't seem to make sense. But then you learn how to play and find out the board is just a cool looking scoreboard, and really if you can count to thirty-one, you can probably figure out how to play this popular card game.

Poker - Poker is the game played in a thousand kitchens where everyone somehow looses 10 bucks to the same guy every week. The varieties of this game border on the infinite, but one thing holds them all together: Straight Flush, Four of a Kind, Full House, Flush, Straight, Three of a Kind, Two Pair, One Pair, High Card. Learn this and you can play Poker anywhere. Here are a few common varieties.

• 5 Card Draw - Five cards are dealt, you can trade in up to three of them, four if you're holding an ace. Bidding in between the deal and the draw.
• 7 Card Stud - There are two cards dealt face down to all the players, and betting begins. Every round a card is dealt face up to each player and they bet again. This goes on until everyone has six cards. A final card is dealt facedown to everyone and the showdown ensues. Good fun.
• Texas Hold 'Em - Made popular by celebrities playing it badly on television. Everyone gets two cards face down and bets, three common cards called "the flop" are dealt and everyone bets again. Another common card, "the turn", is dealt and everyone bets again. One last common card, "the river", is dealt and everyone bets again. Bet heavily early to drive people out before the flop.

Crazy Eights - Oh, just go buy an Uno deck. No? Ok, deal five cards to each player and put the rest face down in the middle of the table. Turn over the top card. Each player must discard one card that matches either the suit or the card rank. Anyone unable to discard must draw from the center stock until they can. Of course, Eights can always be played, and following the eight-bomb, the person who dropped it gets to name the new suit that everyone has to play.

Gin - Bridge is the type of game you might find being taught in a continuing education class. No one can teach you how to play Gin. Gin must be learned the hard way: by losing hundreds of games to old Gin players. Similar to dominoes in this respect, once it is mastered you will become a true card player.

Go Fish - Do you have any 6's? No. Go Fish. Repeat. This is the popular card game of choice for first graders the world 'round. It's a game of matching pairs, and the goal is to be the first one to get rid of all your cards. Let's call it Gin for the juice box set.

War - Generally played between two players. Split the deck in half. Each player turns up one card and whoever's card is highest wins and gets to keep both. The idea is to collect the whole deck in this manner. If the cards have the same rank, you have to fight it out.  Deal three more cards face down and one more face up. Whoever's is highest takes all ten. If those two tie, repeat. Games of War are less likely to come to a natural end than games of Monopoly, making War the perfect game where companionship and conversation are more important than the game itself.

A working knowledge of these ten basic card games is enough to carry you through countless weekend nights with your friends or family. All you need for hours of fun and anecdote building is a deck of cards or two, a flat surface, and some willing participants. Good fun!