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Rules
Rules written to be read at the table: what you need, how a deal goes, how scoring works, and the three things people usually get wrong. Each page uses plain words, and explains a game's own special words the first time they appear. A round is one card from each player, with the best card winning all four; a deal is everything played with one dealing of the cards.
How to play Euchre
4 players in 2 teams · Playing with 24 cards from an ordinary deck, choosing the strongest suit (“trump”), the two jacks that become the highest cards (the “bowers”), and playing without your partner. · Has a quick practice drill
How to play Hearts
4 players · Passing three cards, starting with the two of clubs, when hearts can first be played, and what happens if you take every point on purpose (“shooting the moon”) in a game where points are bad. · Has a practice game
How to play Spades
4 players in 2 teams · Each player guessing how many rounds their own cards will win, guessing zero (“nil”), and why winning more rounds than you guessed (“bags”) eventually costs you points. · Has a quick practice drill
How to play Gin Rummy
2 players · Making groups of matching cards, ending the deal early (“knocking”), and the bonuses for “gin” (every card in a group) and an “undercut” (the other player has the same leftover points as you, or fewer, after you knock). · Has a practice game
How to play Rummy
2–6 players · The basic game, also called Straight Rummy: taking one card each turn, putting groups of matching cards on the table, adding cards to groups, and being the first to get rid of every card. Not the same game as Gin Rummy or Rummy 500. · Has a practice game
How to play Cribbage
2 players · The extra hand called the crib, playing cards up to a total of 31, and adding up the points in your hand at the end. · Has a quick practice drill
How to play Whist
4 players in 2 teams · The strongest suit, why the first six rounds your team wins score nothing, and playing to 7 points. · Has a practice game
How to play Pinochle
4 players in 2 teams · The auction where each team promises a number of points, swapping four cards with your partner, the combinations of cards that score points before play, and the strict rules about which card you must play. · Has a practice game
How to play Bridge
4 players in 2 partnerships · Counting card points, the auction that sets the contract, the declarer who plays both hands with the dummy face up, and how rubber and duplicate Bridge are scored. · Has a practice game (Minibridge)
How to play Old Maid
2 or more players · Putting down pairs of matching cards, taking cards from each other’s hands without looking, and why one queen is always left without a partner. · Has a practice game
How to play Rummy 500
2–8 players · Taking cards from the discard pile, and scoring the groups of matching cards you put down. · Has a practice game
How to play Hand and Foot
2–6 players · The hand and the foot, drawing two cards, wild cards, books of seven cards, and the points your first groups must be worth. · Has a practice game
How to play Go Fish
2–6 players · Asking other players for every card of a rank, hearing “Go fish”, making books of four, and what the questions you hear tell you about the other players’ cards. · Has a practice game
How to play Crazy Eights
2 or more players · Matching the top card by suit or rank, what an 8 does, drawing when you cannot play, and counting the points left in your hand when someone gets rid of every card. · Has a practice game
How to play Pyramid Solitaire
1 player · A pyramid of 28 cards taken away in pairs that add up to 13, which cards are free, kings on their own, and three trips through the draw pile. · Has a practice game
How to play Solitaire
1 player · Seven columns built downward in alternating colors, four home piles built up by suit from the ace, and turning over the draw pile one card or three at a time. · Has a practice game
How to play Clock Solitaire
1 player · Thirteen piles laid out like a clock, where each card goes, why the fourth king ends the deal, and why exactly 1 deal in 13 is won. · Has a practice game
How to play FreeCell
1 player · Every card face up in eight columns, four free cells that hold one card each, how many cards can move together, and why almost every deal can be won. · Has a practice game
How to play Golf Solitaire
1 player · Seven columns of face-up cards cleared onto one pile, a rank up or down, why nothing goes on a king, and scoring like golf, where lower is better. · Has a practice game
How to play Spider Solitaire
1 player, two decks · Ten columns, building runs of one suit from the king down to the ace, dealing new rows from the draw pile, and the one-suit, two-suit and four-suit versions. · Has a practice game
How to play Canasta
4 players in 2 teams · Wild cards, red threes, the “frozen” discard pile, the points your first groups must be worth, and the bonus for a canasta (a group of seven or more cards). · Has a practice game
Every game has free practice, with a written coach beside the cards: whole games of Whist, Pinochle, Gin Rummy, Rummy, Rummy 500, Hand and Foot and Crazy Eights against the computer, one deal at a time of Hearts, Go Fish and Solitaire, and quick drills for Spades, Euchre and counting Cribbage hands. Most games also have a narrated game you can watch before you play.
See the practice gamesNew to card games generally? The glossary explains the words you may hear at a real card table or read in an older rule book — tricks, trumps, following suit, melds and the rest. These pages use plainer words where they can.
All of these need only a deck and something to keep score on (paper is fine; Cribbage is nicer with a board) — see our deck picks (they lean towards poker) if yours is past its best.
Books that cover the games we have not written up
A few pages will never cover what a good reference does. These are the four worth owning, and between them they run to several hundred games.
According to Hoyle
Richard L. Frey
The standard reference, in print in one form or another since 1742. Rules for several hundred games with no attempt to teach strategy — the book you reach for to settle an argument.
Hoyle's Rules of Games
Philip D. Morehead
The modern paperback most households own. Compact, cheap, and covers the games people actually play rather than every game ever recorded.
The Penguin Book of Card Games
David Parlett
The best single volume if you want to know why a game works, not just how. Parlett is a game historian and it shows — five hundred games with their origins and variants.
Card Games For Dummies
Barry Rigal
The gentlest starting point. Assumes nothing, explains the vocabulary as it goes, and covers the common household games properly before moving on.
Keep going
- Buying guides
- The best card games for two people
- The best books for learning card games, including books on one game at a time and the history of the pack
- The best card games for families