Great Card Games
A sip of coffee, yummy snacks and playing cards with friends, wow! What an evening. Isn't it? Card games are the best time pass and the most interesting game for all age group. It involves lots of skill and chance, and also allows you to either develop strategy or just play along and still have a great time. You can play with one deck and two people, or with multiple decks with multiple people. Let's discuss some of the great card games.
War: This is the most simple and interesting one, even kids can play and enjoy. Three or more players can play this.
- A whole pack of cards is dealt out to the players face down, and stacked in front them.
- Everyone then flips the top card of his or her stack.
- The player with the highest card (two is lowest, ace highest) takes all the other flipped cards.
- War breaks out when two or more players flip over the same card.
- Each of these must then place three cards face down and one face up.
- The player with the highest face-up card wins all the cards in the field, including the face down ones.
- If there is a tie, war is repeated until a winner emerges.
Gin Rummy: This is the most popular forms of Rummy. Two players can play this game. One standard deck of 52 cards is used.
Cards in each suit rank, from low to high:
Ace 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Jack Queen King
The cards have values as follows: Face cards (K, Q, J) 10 points
Ace 1 point, Number cards are worth their spot (index) value.
Rules:
- The first dealer is chosen randomly, and the turn to deal alternates between the players.
- Each player is dealt ten cards, one at a time.
- The twenty-first card is turned face up to start the discard pile and the remainder of the deck is placed face down beside it to form the stock.
- The players look at and sort their cards.
- A card can belong to only one combination at a time - you cannot use the same card as part of both a set of equal cards and a sequence of consecutive cards.
The main object of the game is to collect a hand where most or all of the cards can be combined into sets and runs and the point value of the remaining unmatched cards is low.
Playing Method:
- The Draw. You must begin by taking one card from either the top of the stock pile or the top card on the discard pile, and adding it to your hand. The discard pile is face up, so you can see in advance what you are getting. The stock is face down, so if you choose to draw from the stock you do not see the card until after you have committed yourself to take it. If you draw from the stock, you add the card to your hand without showing it to the other players.
- The Discard: To complete your turn, one card must be discarded from your hand and placed on top of the discard pile face up. If you took the top card from the discard pile, you must discard a different card, taking the top discard and putting the same card back is not permitted.
How to End:
- You can end the play at your turn if, after drawing a card, you can form sufficient of your cards into valid combinations: sets and runs. You can discard one card face down on the discard pile and exposing your whole hand. Any remaining cards from your hand which are not part of a valid combination are called unmatched cards or deadwood and the total value of your deadwood must be 10 points or less. This process of ending the game is known as knocking.
- The opponent of the player who knocked must spread their cards face-up, arranging them into sets and runs where possible. Provided that the knocker did not go gin, the opponent is also allowed to lay off any unmatched cards by using them to extend the sets and runs laid down by the knocker - by adding a fourth card of the same rank to a group of three, or further consecutive cards of the same suit to either end of a sequence. If a player goes gin, the opponent is not allowed to lay off any cards.
Note that the knocker is never allowed to lay off cards on the opponent's sets or runs.
Scoring:
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Each player counts the total value of their unmatched cards. If the knocker's count is lower, the knocker scores the difference between the two counts.
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If the knocker did not go gin, and the counts are equal, or the knocker's count is greater than that of the opponent, the knocker has been undercut. In this case the knocker's opponent scores the difference between the counts plus a 10 point bonus.
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A player who goes gin scores a bonus 20 points, plus the opponent's count in unmatched cards, if any. A player who goes gin can never be undercut. Even if the other player has no unmatched cards at all, the knocker gets the 20 point bonus the other player scores nothing.
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The game continues with further deals until one player's cumulative score reaches 100 points or more. This player then receives an additional bonus of 100 points. If the loser failed to score anything at all during the game, then the winner's bonus is 200 points rather than 100.
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Each player adds a further 20 points for each hand they won. This is called the line bonus or box bonus. These additional points cannot be counted as part of the 100 needed to win the game.
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After the bonuses have been added, the player with the lower score pays the player with the higher score an amount proportional to the difference between their scores.
Slap: silly name but interesting deal. Two or more players can play.
- A deck of cards is dealt between the players, and placed face down in front of them.
- The dealer places the first card upwards in the middle of the table, calling "Ace!"
- The next player does the same but calls "Two!" and so on through three, four, five, etc., and if necessary falling back down to two. But if the card upturned matches the card called, players have to slap their hand on it.
- The last player with his hand on the pile has to pick up all.
- If you slap the wrong card, you also have to pick up the pile.
- The person who goes out first wins the game.
So play these games and enjoy, we will come up with more such interesting games in the weeks to come so stay tuned..
Sources: pagat.com, self-catering-breaks.com/blog/six-great-card-games/, associatedcontent.com/article/411795/how_to_play_palace_a_great_card_game.html?cat=11)
