Card Games for the Family

As the holiday season nears, most of us will be spending more time than usual around large groups of family and friends. Rather than melting into the blue light of our phones and ignoring those we see only once a year, here are a couple of card games that you can try out with others using only a standard 52-card deck. Additional rules and videos can be found on the Bicycle Cards website at bicyclecards.com.

First, “Euchre” (pronounced YOU-ker) is a competitive trick-taker. Euchre must be played with four people, two people on each teams. This game isn’t great as a social game because table talk is discouraged, but it is a great way to spend 15 minutes or an hour with a group that you’re comfortable with. It only uses half of the deck, 9 through Ace of each suit, plus two 6s and two 4s for scorekeeping. The complete rules are far too long for a high school newspaper article (see the aforementioned Bicycle website), but the premise is relatively short. Euchre is the definitive trick-taking game, with each round within a hand called a trick and the winner of each trick taking all of the played cards. Whichever team takes more tricks in a round earns one point, or two points for winning all five tricks or beating the other team when they call the trump suit. Whichever team gets to ten points first wins, and that’s that.

The second and most generally applicable game is “Rummy.” This game can be played with two to six players, with different variations allowing for more or fewer people. Rummy is different from Euchre in that it is more continuous rather than trick-based. Each round consists of each player with a hand of ten cards, making sets (same number) and runs (consecutive numbers) of three with these cards. Placing the cards in front of themselves, each player lays out their runs and sets for other players to build on. The round ends when someone runs out of cards to play, and everyone counts up their points. Cards 2-9 count for five points, 10-King are ten points, and Aces are fifteen. Then, anyone with cards left subtracts the point value of their hand from their points earned, and all of the numbers are tallied up. This continues until someone reaches any number of points, with some variations limiting the number of rounds. The traditional Rummy is played to 500, which can take anywhere from thirty minutes to three hours, depending on the cards.

Should you need clarification on any of the rules or strategies of these games, explanations and quick tutorials can be found online. There are many more card games than this, and many more variations than can be found on the internet. These are both what some might call “folk games,” so house rules will vary heavily depending on the family. Ask your elders about these card games to learn and pass down their traditional ruleset, and maybe even get a game going to break any ice and get the family talking. And just remember to have fun and never take quality time for granted.