Games to Play with a Deck of Cards

I have very fond memories of playing cards when I was a kid. Someone always had a deck of cards up at the pool, so that we could play Hearts while it was adult swim for 15 minutes at the top of the hour. Someone always had a deck of cards at the Community House, so that we could play Poker during boring parts of the play rehearsals (in fact, I remember when Frankie missed his cue during a production of Tom Sawyer because he was backstage deep in a hand of Poker). My parents and grandparents played Bridge every night when we were there for Christmas, and it was a big deal when the children were considered old enough to be initiated into the club and taught to play Bridge. I remember sitting on a trunk in the Amtrak station in Chicago playing Bridge while we waited for our train. My brother and I played War for hours. I played a million games of Solitaire by myself.

I still have my favorite most-played deck from childhood (bear in mind that I was at a very "I heart butterflies" age!)

I also have the double deck that I begged my mom to get me from the Metropolitan Museum of Art catalogue. At that point I had moved on to the "I heart Tiffany stained glass age"!

And I don't remember where this deck came from but I've had it since I was a little girl. It is soooo cool that I protected it fiercely and hardly ever played a game with it. It comes in a cool storage case, and the letters for the face cards are different because it's French! It also has "1" cards instead of Aces!

Fast-forward to a few weeks ago when I taught my after school Magic Class the Kid's Spelling Trick. Then I told Zac that he could keep the deck for his very own. It's an adorable set of Dog playing cards, with a different puppy on each card. (The Saluki is on the queen of hearts.) I thought he'd be thrilled! Instead he was baffled. He asked me why some of the cards had letters on them. What is A, K, Q, J?

It was then that I realized that my son is almost 10 and he had NEVER SEEN a deck of playing cards.

He explained to me later that he thought every card game had a specific deck of cards that went with it. Think Clumsy Thief, Check the Oven, Blink, Plop Trumps, Find My Behind, Rack-O, Rhyme Out, Ravine, None of a Kind, etc.

He never knew that there could be one deck of cards that you could play many games with!!!

So I promised Zac that I would spend some time over Spring Break teaching him card games, and now I'm looking up and making sure I know the rules for a few that are rusty. Since it has been many many years since I played with a deck of cards! If anyone has suggestions, I'd love to add to this list!!

search for more game rules at bicyclecards.com

Games for One Player

Solitaire

Games for Two Players

Cribbage *

Spit

Trash

War

Games for Four Players

Bridge

Group Games

Crazy Eights (2 or more)

Egyptian Rat Screw (2 or more)

Go Fish (2 or more)

Slapjack (2 or more)

Hearts (3 or more)

Old Maid (3 or more)

Spoons * (3 or more)

Pig (5 or more)

* requires additional equipment

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