Card Games You Should Know

Long ago, way before Yu-Gi-Oh, Pokémon, and Magic the Gathering were the forces to be reckoned with in the world of card games, forcing you to learn on the fly, and constantly updating and nerfing the game with new cards and regulations, there was just a simple deck of 52 cards, with the number of games limited only by our own imagination.

Your parents taught you some of them. Others, you have learned online, or at a casino table (a costly lesson, to be sure). If, by any chance, you were not in a position to learn about awesome card games you could play with a standard deck, fear not.

Blackjack

In a game of blackjack, there is just one goal – getting as close as you can to the score of 21, without going over it or letting the dealer beat you to it. Face cards are worth ten points, while aces are worth either 1 or 11, whatever is more favorable at the time.

Blackjack is not often played at home. It is more of a pleasant, simple, and fast card game, which is why it’s one of the favorites at casinos. You are dealt two cards. By tapping the card, or saying “Hit me”, you inform the dealer that you would like one more card.

Baccarat

Baccarat is very close to blackjack, in the sense that there is a number that should be reached by you and the dealer. This number is 9. However, you don’t win money if you win the game. To win the money, you must first bet on yourself, the dealer, or a tie.

Rummy

This is a game that you can play with your friends and family, and the winner gets nothing but the opportunity to gloat. The object of the game is to match the cards in your hands until you have none left. You take the top card of the deck, and you try to match the cards in your hands in a sequence, or by numbers.

Go Fish!

A favorite among kids, this is one of the simplest card games you can come across. The point of the game is to make small books of cards and the one who has the most in the end wins. To build a book, you need to ask your opponent for a certain card. If your opponent has that card, he has to give you all of the cards of that value. For example, you can ask for their threes, and they will give you all the threes they have.

You then continue to ask for cards until you come across a card they don’t have. You are then told to “Go Fish!”, and your opponent starts asking you for cards.

War

All of the cards in the deck are divided into two piles. You take one pile and your opponent takes the other one. You both keep choosing a card and matching them against one another, with the winner taking the cards. The winner of the game is the person with more cards in the end.