Card Games The World's Best Card Games

Sara Harper is a writer and editor with extensive experience in book publishing. She is a keen card player, and enjoys pitching her wits against her two sons.

Introduction

Agram: simple trick taking game
Beggar my neighbor (aka Beat your neighbor out of doors/strip jack naked): win all the cards and learn that some cards have special functions
Blackjack (aka Pontoon, 21): have the highest hand with the fewest number of cards
California Jack: first to get 10 points through trumping tricks - unusual as the stock is face up
Casino: score by capturing certain cards
Catch the 10 (Scotch Whist): simple trick-taking game
Cheat (aka I doubt it/B.S.): bluff to get rid of all your cards
Clock: solitaire where you organize cards in a clock shape
Crazy Eights: matching, to get rid of all your cards
Cribbage: First player to get 121 points
Egyptian Rat Screw: use challenge cards to collect all the cards
Gaps: version of solitaire
German Whist: two-player version of whist
Gin Rummy: reduce the count of your unmatched cards
Go boom: trick-taking to get rid of all your cards
Go fish: make sets of four
Golf: score the fewest points with 4 cards
Hearts: tricks with trumps to get the lowest score
James Bond: get four of a kind in all your sets of piles
Kemps: card swapping in partnerships
Kings in the Corner: play onto foundation cards to score the fewest points
Klondike: version of solitaire
Knockout whist: aim to win all the tricks of a hand to avoid being eliminated. Simple form of whist to teach children about tricks and trumps
Memory (Concentration): make pairs
My ship sails: collect 7 cards from the same suit
Nerts (aka racing demon and pounce): get rid of the nerts pile and add to the building cards to score the most points
Nifty 50: addition/subtraction of 4 cards to get as close to 50 as possible
Nines: nine cards to score the fewest points Ninety-nine: play cards to totals of 99
Oh hell (Oh well, blackout): bid on number of tricks you expect to win
Old Maid: don’t get left with the old maid
Pig: be the last player left
Play or Pay (round the corner) 2pp: win counters by getting rid of your cards
Rolling stone: follow suit to get rid of all your cards
Rummy: runs and sets to score the most points from your opponents
Sequence: get rid of cards and collect counters by playing on sequences
Sevens (Dominoes, Parliament): first player to to get rid of hand
Slapjack (aka slaps): slap your hand on the jack to win all the cards
Snap: be the first to spot matches and collect all the cards
Snip snap snorem: Get rid of all your cards by completing sets
Solitaire: sort the cards into suits
Speed: Get rid of all your cards by building onto foundation cards
Spades: trick taking, spades = trumps
Spit (Aka speed or slam): play cards in sequence, up or down, to get rid of all your cards
Spoons: collect four of a kind and be the last player left in the game
Steal the pile (stealing bundles): capture more than half the cards to win (very easy version of Casino for younger children)
Switch: crazy cards make this similar to Uno
Thirty-one (aka Blitz): combination of blackjack and texas hold’em
Tonk (tunk/knock]: rummy-type card game
Trash: make a set of cards from ace to 10
War: collect all the cards
Whist: be the first team to win 7 tricks