How to: Card Games

Hot to: Card Games

This thread explains how to play a few different card games. Card games tend to be played differently based on country and location, so it's possible you play some of these differently. Feel free to PM me if the way you play any of these card games is different or if I forgot to mention some aspects or rules to the games.

Contents:
[2] War
[3] Idiot
[4] Go Fish
[5] Blackjack
[6] President
[7] Sevens
[8] Crazy Eights / Jack Switch it
[9] Black Peter
[10] Bullshit
[J] Slap Jack
[Q] Queen of Spades
[K] Solitaire
[A] American (bridge)

This list was created especially because of the QOTD sent on Discord. To answer that question use this link:
https://discordapp.com/channels/390307321403670532/732249263085453342/759203049699803201

 

War (battle)

• 2 players
• 52 cards
• Increasing value: 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 J Q K A

Both players are given 26 cards each to form a pile face down in front of them. Your pile will act as your "army" used to fight your opponent. To play, you both simultaneously draw the top card from your piles and place it face up in front of each other. The player whose card is of the highest value wins and takes both cards into their discard pile. When your army pile is empty you take your discard pile, shuffle it and use this to form a new army pile. If both cards turned face up are of the same value a war occurs. You will now both draw 3 cards from your army pile and place them side down next to or below your original card. These cards don't participate in the war itself, but act as a "reward" for whoever wins the war. After this, you both draw another card face up and whoever has the highest value now wins all the cards in the war. If it's another draw, yet another war starts. If you run out of cards while participating in a war, you lose. The person who ends up with the entire deck wins.

The image below shows how a war can be done. The player to the right won the war since 10 is greater than 9. All cards go to the right player's discard pile.

 

Idiot

• 2-5 players
• 52 cards (can play with jokers)
• Increasing value: 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 J Q K A
• Special cards: 2, 3 & 10

Put 3 cards face down in front of every player, then put 3 cards face up on top of those 3 face down cards. After this give everyone 3 last cards to form their hand. The remaining cards creates a drawing pile. Every player can now swap out the 3 cards face up in front of them with any of the cards on their hand. The cards on the table in front of you are after this locked and can't be altered. The image below shows the setup.

The player with the lowest sum on their cards starts. You can only place cards with the same or a higher value on the pile. You can either play one card, multiple cards of the same value or a sequence of cards greater than three (stairs). If the card on top of the discard pile is 8, you can for example play 9, two 8's or 8-9-J (10 is not included in sequences since it's a special card). If 4 of the same value are placed on top of each other, the pile is discarded and a new pile is created by said player.

Special cards can always be played, and have these abilities:
- 2 resets the value of the pile, but doesn't discard it. You also get an additional round after playing a 2.
- 10 discards the entire pile and let's you place a card to start a new pile.
- 3 is called 'a sneaky three'. It slides under the entire pile and doesn't affect the value on top of the pile.

If you're unable to play any of the cards you have on your hand, you have to pick up the entire pile. You're however allowed to do a gamble and draw a card from the drawing pile and put it directly on top of the stack. If it's higher or equal to the card on top you're safe, but if it's lower you have to pick up the entire stack. You may do this gamble at any time, even if you have cards on your hand you could play. This could be smart to do if you have good cards on your hand you don't want to play when the pile has a low value on top. After playing cards, you're required to draw cards so that you end up with minimum 3 cards on your hand. This continues until the drawing pile is gone. Once the drawing pile is gone and you have no more cards on your hand, the table cards are unlocked. You have to play the 3 side up cards before touching the 3 cards side down. The whole point behind the side down cards is to be in the dark about what you have. If the card you play isn't above the value in the pile, you get a new hand again. You can't touch the table cards before you've played all of the cards in your hand again. First one to have no cards left to play wins.

 

Go Fish

• 3-5 players
• 52 cards

Each player is given 7 cards each and the rest are spread out in the middle of the table in chaos to form "the ocean". Look at the image below for a reference. The person to the left of the person handing out cards starts. When it's your turn you can ask any player for any card that you have in your hand. You could for example go "Janice, do you have a queen?" and if she has a queen she is obligated to give you all of her queens. If they don't have any cards of that value they shout "go fish", which implies you have to draw a card from "the ocean" of cards in the middle of the table. If you were given any cards it's your turn again and you can ask for any value you have on your hand to any player once again until you guess wrong. Keep in mind that every player now knows what cards you have, so they're very likely to ask you for your queens if they have that. Once you have 4 of a value, you put them face down in front of you as a deck. The game is over once all cards in the ocean are empty ("dry ocean") or someone has no cards left in their hand. The person with the most decks wins.

 

Blackjack (21)

• 1-8 players, plus a bankier
• 52 cards

In this game the goal is to have a sum as close to 21 as possible. Exceeding a sum of 21 means you immediately lose the game (busting). Having exactly 21 is called a blackjack. The cards 2-10 are worth the value you'd expect while all image cards (J, Q & K) are worth 10. A is special and can be worth 11 or 1 depending on what is beneficial (could avoid a bust).

First, every player (including the bankier) is given a face down card by the bankier. Every one looks at this card in secret and can make bids. After bids have been placed every one receives a second card face up that every one can see. If someone has an A and a 10-valued card right off the bat they've got a blackjack and won, unless the bankier also got a blackjack, in which case it's a tie and no money is exchanged between those two. Those who didn't get a blackjack when the bankier did, must give their bid to the bankier.

If the bankier didn't get a blackjack, the game continues for those who didn't get a blackjack. The bankier will go around the table several times asking for who wants to hit and get an additional card. If they get a value above 21, they've busted and give their bid to the bankier. After everyone is satisfied with their cards and don't want more cards, it's the bankier's turn to draw additional cards. The bankier can't pass before they have a value of at least 17. If the bankier busts, everyone who hasn't busted get paid their bids. If the bankier ends at a certain value, those with a higher value win their bid, those who tie get nothing and those with a lower value lose their bids.

 

President ()

• 3-5 players
• 52 cards
• Increasing value: 3 4 5 7 8 9 10 J Q K A 2 6
• Special card: 3 of clover

The deck is evenly handed out between all players. For the first round everyone is considered equal citizens, but this will not be the case after the first round. The winner will become the president and the loser becomes the asshole. Before the game, the asshole has to give the president their two best cards, and the president will choose freely two cards to give back in return. The 3 of clover (special card) can't be given away. If you're playing with 5 players, a vice-president and vice-asshole is introduced. The vice-president will then receive the best card (one card) from the vice-asshole. The asshole always starts the game (for the first round, the person to the left of the one handing out cards begins). Other names for the asshole are beggar, trash, bum, scum, etc.

The game goes as follows: The person who starts the turn can either put out 1, 2, 3 or 4 cards of the same value to start a pile. If the asshole starts by placing two 5's (a double), everyone is required to place a double too. The double also has to be of equal or greater value than those below it. A double 4 can not be placed on a double 5 for example. It goes clockwise around the table and if you either can't play or don't want to play, you skip. There is no penalty for skipping, but skipping means you can't join back in for that specific pile. Once the pile has been discarded, you can start playing again. If the 2nd player placed a double 7 for example, and then every player after that skips, they win the pile. The pile is then put in a discard pile and the winner can place out a new starting card or cards. If 4 cards of the same value are on top of each other, the pile is immediately discarded and a new pile is made by the player. The player with 3 of clover can at any time place this card (even if a double/tripple is played) to automatically discard the pile and win the pile. They're however not allowed to use this card as their very last play. This means you can't put down 3 of clover then a singular 5 as your last card, since you auto-won by placing the 3 of clover. Failing to follow that rule, makes you automatically lose and become the asshole. In addition to this it's important to note that 2 is the card with the highest value (above A) and 6 is not what you'd expect it to be. It's a special card and is considered "any card". You can for example place down an A and a 6 and consider that as a "double A" or a singular 6 and call that a "single 2". The first person to play all their cards becomes the president, but the game keeps on going until there is only one player with cards left, who becomes the asshole.

 

Sevens (seven of diamonds)

• 2-8 players
• 52 cards

The deck is evenly handed out between all players. The person with seven of diamonds starts and puts it on the table. The game then goes clockwise around the table where you can either build up from 7 or down from 7. You can't place 5 before 6 has been placed. To build in a suit, the 7 has to have been put out. A trick is to "lock" certain directions by not placing the card that opens up for the chain. You are not allowed to skip unless there is physically no card you can put on the table, in which case you get +1 point. Once the highest (K) or lowest (A) card is placed, you flip that specific stack faceside down and can choose whether you want to take an additional turn (no penalty for not taking another turn). When someone no longer has any cards the game ends and everyone gets +1 point for every card they have on their hand. After several rounds, the player with the least amount of points wins.

The picture below shows how the game is set up. If you have 8 and 5 of spades, you're essentially locking those paths from other players. This is beneficial if you don't have any other spades.

 

Crazy Eights / Jack Change It (UNO)

• 2-6 players
• 52 cards

These two games are very similar and heavily based on UNO, but have different special cards and will therefore be described seperately below.

Crazy Eights
This is a simplified version of UNO where the four 8's can be used to change the suit. Every player starts off with 6 cards each. If there is no pile, any card can be placed. If there's a card on the pile you must place a card that either matches the suit or the value. Some allow placing multiple cards if you have multiple of the same value. If you can't play any of your cards, you must pick up the entire discard pile. When you have one card left you have to state so before the next player places their card, otherwise you have to pick up the discard pile. The first person to get rid of all their cards wins.

Jack Change It
This game is in the Crazy Eights family, but is closer related to UNO because of the special cards listed below. The gameplay is the same as in Crazy Eights explained above, except you draw up to 3 cards from a drawing pile instead of picking up the entire discard pile when you're unable to play. You can't win by playing a special card as your last card.
- Jacks are used to change the suit

- Eights skip the next player
- Twos give 2 cards to the next player
- Ace of Hearts gives 5 cards to the next player
- Queens reverse the order

 

Black Peter

• 2-6 players
• 49 cards (3 jacks removed)

Start by removing all jacks but one from the deck of cards. Then hand out the deck to all players. The game is about creating pairs. If you have two cards of the same value, you've formed a pair and can put both cards face down in front of you on the table. The game starts by drawing a random card from the player to your right's hand and seeing if this card creates any pairs with your old cards. After this you hold up your hand in front of the player to your left and let them draw a card from your hand. They should not be able to see what cards you have. This continues around the table clockwise. Since there is only one jack in the deck, there is no way to get rid of this card other than someone drawing it from your hand. The game is about getting rid of all your cards by creating pairs and not ending up with the lonely jack. The person who ends up with the jack becomes black peter.

 

Bullshit (cheat/bluff)

• 2-10 players
• 52 cards

This game can be played in many different variants and some are explained below. The common thing is that some level of cheating is allowed and you want to get rid of all your cards.

All cards in the deck are handed out, so some players may end up with one card more than others. You go clockwise around the table to place cards face down in a discard pile. The first player starts by putting down A's, then the second 2's and so forth until kings. After kings have been placed by a player, the next player starts over by placing down A's. Whenever you place cards down, you must call out what you placed. "2 fourths" for example. If you don't believe the player you may shout whatever you call the game (bullshit/cheat/bluff). You pick up the cards the player placed down and check if they were telling the truth or not. If they were lying, they have to pick up the entire discard pile. If they were in fact telling the truth, you have to pick the discord pile up and add it to your hand. The first person to get rid of all their cards win

Variant 2:
A similar version is to place a value below OR above what the player before you placed. It's therefore exactly the same as in 1, but the order of what you're supposed to play isn't pre-chosen. If the person before you put two 3's, you can either place 2's or 4's.

Variant 3:
A completely different version is to play it as stacks. The first person places down any valued card and the next person must place something of the same or higher value. If you skip, you can't place more cards onto that stack until a new stack is created. The last person not passing discards the stack and creates a new one. Everyone plays one card at a time. You can of course lie about what value the card you place has and try and sneak multiple cards into the stack.

Spice things up:
A variant to all of the 3 mentioned above is to allow hiding cards. If you sit or put cards in your pockets uncaught, you no longer own said cards.

 

Slap Jack / Snap

• 2-8 players
• 52 cards

The entire stack is handed out so every one has approximately the same amount of cards. Every player forms a pile face down in front of them. The person to the left of the dealer starts. Whenever it's your turn, you flip the top card from your pile away from you so that it's face up in the middle of the table. This is to prevent people from cheating and seeing what their own card is before everyone else. If the card being placed meets any of the mentioned criteria below, it's called a slap jack or snap. You slap the card with the hand you don't draw cards with and shout 'slap jack' or 'snap'. When placing down a card you're also required to say out loud what the value of the card is. The person who correctly slaps the pile first gets the entire pile. If you don't have any cards left, you just sit patiently and wait for a slap to happen. If you don't win that slap, you've lost all your cards and are out. The winner is the person who ends up with all the cards in the end.

Slap Jack:
- You slap when a jack appears

Snap:
- You slap when two cards of equal value are placed on top of each other
- You slap when a sandwitch is made (e.g. 3-5-3, 8-K-8 or 6-2-6)
- You slap when a run or sequence of 3 cards is made (e.g. 5-6-7, 10-J-Q or 5-4-3)

 

Queen of Spades

• 3-6 players
• 52 cards

With less or more than 4 players, the smallest clubs cards are removed to ensure an equal amount of cards to everyone. Before you start you will also choose 2 of your cards that you don't want (usually high values) and send them to the person to your left. You will receive 2 new ones from your other neighbour. Getting tricks works as usual by matching the suit of the first card, unless you have none of that suit left, in which case you can put anything on. Unlike most games though, you want to avoid gaining points here and therefore generally avoid winning tricks. The cards listed below are the only cards that affect your points. The only card you essentially want to win in a trick is the jack of diamonds. The person with the least amount of points in their tricks at the end is the winner.

Queen of spades +100 points
Ace of hearts +20 points
Any other hearts card +10 points
Jack of diamonds -50 points

 

Solitaire

• 1 player
• 52 cards

Solitaire is a single-player game where the purpose of the game is to sort the deck into four piles of the different suits, in ascending order with A as the base. The game is started by making 7 piles face down where the first pile only contains one card, the next two and so forth up to seven in the last pile. The top card for all of these piles are so flipped so they're face up. Cards can then be moved on top of another card if it's one value below and in a different colour. For example can red 9 be put on top of black 10. When you find A's you put them above the 7 piles and can start building up towards K. There is also a drawing pile for the left over cards. These are drawn and reshuffled as needed be. For example would a black 4 in the image below let us move red 3 away from that pile and let us discover the card below. When all cards in one of those 7 piles are gone, it can only be started again with a King as shown in pile 1 in the image below.

 

American (bridge)

• 3-5 players (required to be 4 for bridge and whist)
• 52 cards
• Increasing value: 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 J Q K A

All 52 cards are handed out evenly to all players (13 each). In games with 3 or 5 players, one or multiple twos are removed from the stack. After everyone has sorted their hand, a bidding round or auction begins with the player to the left of the dealer. The minimum bid is 7 tricks and once everyone except the highest bidder has said pass, the team-making begins. Unlike whist and bridge where there are 2 teams of 2 players fighting against each other, american is a team of 2 players against 1-3 singular individuals.

The game starts by the bid-winner playing a card in the suit they want to become trump. They then ask for the highest card in that suit that they themselves don't posess. The player providing said card is now on your team, and you form tricks together. The winner of a trick starts a new one by placing a new card on the table. You must always play cards in the same suit as what's on the table, unless you don't have any. The card with the highest value in that suit wins the trick (assuming there is no trump cards played). If you're out of diamonds and spades is trump, you can play spades (trump) to win the trick - in which case the highest value of trump wins the trick in stead. You however dont have to play trump when you're out of a suit.

The team gets the negative or positive amount of points they bid depending on whether they managed to get the amount of tricks they bid or not. Getting more tricks than you bid has no penalty. Every other player gets points equal to the amount of tricks they got.