For Easter this year my mom scored on some AWESOME card games for my kids at the dollar store! I was looking through them and it got me to thinking about all the fun, and easy, card games I used to play when I was a kid.
Go Fish-
Go Fish is best for 2-5 players. A regular deck of card may be used, or you can purchase fun kid-friendly cards as well.. The dealer deals 5 cards to each player All of the remaining cards are placed face down to create a pond (or stock).
The player to dealer’s left starts. The first player may start by asking for a specific persons cards, for example- “Johnnie, may I please have your 5’s?” The player who asks must already hold at least one card of the requested. If the player who was asked has cards of the named (5’s in this case), he must give all her cards of this rank to the player who asked for them. That player then gets another turn and may again ask any player for any rank already held by the asker.
If the person asked does not have any cards of the named rank, they say ‘Go fish!’. The asker must then draw the top card of the un-dealt stock. If the drawn card is the rank asked for, the asker shows it and gets another turn. If the drawn card is not the rank asked for, the asker keeps it, but the turn now passes to the player who said ‘Go fish!’.
As soon as a player collects a book of 4 cards of the same rank, this must be shown and discarded face down. The game continues until either someone has no cards left in their hand or the stock runs out. The winner is the player who then has the most books.
Rummy-
Rummy is best for 2-4 players. The dealer shuffles the cards and deals 6 cards to each player. If there are only two players, each player is dealt 7 cards. Place the remaining cards between the 2 players, face down on the table. Turn only the top card over and place it next to the deck face up. This is the discard stack.
The player to the dealer’s left goes 1st. He draws a card from the stack and discards one from his hand. During a turn, if a player has 3 of a kind (same picture, same number) then he may lay them out on the table in from of them face up as a set. They may also lay down a card to add to a set that has already been played by themselves or another player.
1 card must be placed on the discard stack at the end of each turn. If there are no cards left to play from the stack, shuffle the discard pile and place it face down. If the game is played twice thru the deck with no winner, each player adds up their cards left in their hands, the player with the lowest value wins.
War-
Start by dealing out the deck one card at a time, face-down, so that each player gets 26 cards. Keep your cards in a pile and don’t look at them. Each player turns over one card simultaneously; whoever turns over the highest card picks up the two cards and puts them face-down at the bottom of his pile.
The cards have the normal rank from highest to lowest: ace, king, queen, jack, and then 10 through 2.
The game continues in this manner until both players turn over a card of the same rank, at which point you enter a war. A war can progress in one of three ways.
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Each player puts a card face-down on top of the tied card and then one face-up. Whoever has the higher face-up card takes all six cards.
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Each player puts three face-down cards on the table and one face-up card, so the competition is for ten cards. This option speeds up the game, which often drags a little — especially for children!
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Each player puts down cards depending on the rank of the tied cards. If the equal cards are 7s, you each count off seven face-down cards before turning a card over. If the equal cards are kings, queens, or jacks, you turn down 10 cards before flipping one up and squaring off. For an ace, count out 11 face-down cards.
Crazy 8s-
One player, chosen as the dealer, deals out five cards (seven cards if only two are playing) to each player. The rest of the cards get placed face down as the stock pile. The top card on that pile is turned over face up beside the pile to start the discard pile. The game goes clockwise from the dealer, and the first player must play a card on the discard pile or take one from the stock pile. The game keeps going until someone gets rid of all of his or her cards.
To be able to play a card on the discard pile, the card must match either the number or the suit of the card on top of the discard pile. For example, if the queen of diamonds is on top, the card to be played must be either any queen or any diamond. All eights are “crazy,” meaning you can play them anytime. However, you must say which suit will be played next when you play the eight card. Be the first player to get rid of all of your cards to be the winner.
Memory-
Memory is a card game designed for two people, although single player modes are available. Cards are laid out in a grid face down, and players take turns flipping pairs of cards over. On each turn, the playerwill first turn one card over, then a second. If the two cards match, theplayer scores one point, the two cards are removed from the game, and the player gets another turn. If they do not match, the cards are turned back over.
The object is to match more pairs of cards than the opposing player.(One point is scored for each matched pair, and the player with the highest score after all cards have been matched wins.) When cards are turned over, it is important to remember where they are for when the matching card is turned up later in the game.
In this online version of memory, there are twelve unique pairs of cards, making 24 cards total.
What was your favorite card game you played when you were younger?
