Plain Ol' Card Games

Euchre was the game of choice throughout high school (in central Indiana). College in Wisconsin meant playing lots of pinochle, hearts, spades, and cribbage. Wisconsin also has this bizarre game called sheepshead which uses chips for some reason, and I avoided it like the plague. My first job in Florida was five years of cutthroat double-deck pinochle. Now back in Indiana it's back to euchre.

The funny thing is, I only play card games with people who won't play any other kind of game (board, RPG, or otherwise). My gaming friends don't play card games at all.

Euchre is fun but there isn't a whole lot of game there. Which is good if you are drinking a lot when playing.

Pinochle, Hearts, Spades, Cribbage, any one of a number of Rummy games, and draw Poker would be my preferred choices.

Spades, Hearts, Oh Hell, Bridge.

And 99.

www.davidparlett.co.uk/oricards/ninety9.html

99 was created by David Parlett. He's most famous for Hare and Tortoise, but he's also written a few books. His Dictionary of Card Games is terrifying. It lists several hundred card games. With rules.

The thing this has over Hoyle's is that it was designed for experienced card players. Thus, he can fit the rules for Bid-Whist (A variant of Casino) into a couple of paragraphs.

Euchre
Spades
Oh Hell (nice to see Frank give this some love -- my great grandmother taught me)
Gin Rummy (or any rummy variant)

I have always wanted to get into competition Bridge, but I don't know anyone outside of a retirement home that knows how to play.

Space Ghost wrote:

I have always wanted to get into competition Bridge, but I don't know anyone outside of a retirement home that knows how to play.

The first summer that I lived in the Twin Cities, I did some online searching to find something approximating a laid-back bridge club. The only thing I found at all was a bridge club in south Minneapolis where they only play duplicate (in short, duplicate is where multiple tables are all playing the exact same cards dealt to the same table positions, so you succeed by doing better relative to all other partnerships that have the same hands you do--i.e., if you make a 4 hearts contract when no one else does better than make 3 hearts).

I showed up and was randomly paired with some cranky old granny. I was the youngest person in the entire room by easily 35 years. Never went back, obviously.

I've played a fair bit of Hearts with my family, although we tend to play Mah Jong instead of cards nowadays.

The best card game is Shithead though. Fast-paced, fairly tactical and with a lot of opportunities to screw people. I played a ton of it at uni and sixth form - it was a good way to decide whose round it was if we couldn't agree! The only problem is arguing about which cards are 'special' if you play with new people: everyone seems to have their own sets.

Poker's my favourite (no-limit Texas Hold'em, specifically). But if I'm not playing for money, it's Cribbage all the way.

BTW, if anyone knows of a Cribbage PC game with strong AI, I'd love to hear about it.

13 or Spades bitch. And while you're up get me a Pabst Blue Ribbon.

Euchre and all it's variants (like Pepper)

500

Pitch and it's variants (10 point, shmear, etc.)

Sheepshead. This one goes by a different name in the BGG database and I don't know of anyone outside the state of Wisconsin that has even heard of it, let alone played. But it's frick'n awesome people!

I played lots of "Shithead" through highschool and still play a hand now and then. I also used to like traditional Spanish games (40 cards in suits: coins, cups, swords and clubs) like Mus, Tute, Brisca, etc... but it's been so long since I played any of those...

I also enjoyed 500 and other Rummy games. One I recently tried and enjoyed is Haggis, a climbing game specifically designed for two players, but my gf didn't like it so...

BTW, I do enjoy other game-systems and I wish they would become more succesful because playing many games with the same components is really cool: Icehouse, Piecepack and most recently the Decktet are my favorites. If you like card games in general, be sure to check the Decktet. It's pretty interesting, free (p'n'p), and the art is really nice.

Poker (No Limit Holdem, or Omaha Hi/Lo 8 or better)
Spades
Rummy

Maka, next time you trade internationally, get someone to toss you a RAGE deck or two. They can be had Target stores for less than $4 and provide a deck of 6 suits of 16 with some extras.

Poker... I like Texas Hold em but also play a lot of dealer's choice, which means learning new games all the time. Greek hold em is probably my single favorite game but you can't play it as long as you can play good ol texas hold em.

Greek hold em is omaha hi-low (declare) with a progressive pot. Different from what a lot of poker sites on the net call greek hold em... but that is how I learned greek hold em.

sanildefanso wrote:

I'm curious to see what the consensus is here. What are people's favorite games played with a regular deck of cards?

My personal favorite is Euchre, which is played almost entirely in Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, and a little in Pennsylvania. I live in Kansas now, so no one ever wants to play it or even knows what it is. I need to get my fix when I visit family in Ohio and Michigan. When I do, we string together about 3 or 4 games.

How's 'bout you?

Euchre and its cousin "Sheepshead" are also Wisconsin favorites. I played a hell of a lot of both throughout college in Milwaukee, as well as Rummy (which was my "beer fund" game--I had a few dorm-mates who never seemed to learn that my sole goal was to fleece them for my weekend beer money at $.01-.10/point); the wife was a Hearts and Spades player (and is now picking up Rummy) and almost my entire family (save me unfortunately as my parents moved us from NJ to WI (I was 11 at the time) before I could be indoctrinated in the ways of Pinochle by my clan) plays Pinochle like it's a bloodsport.


EDIT: I just saw Partizan's post--good to see another Wisconsinite 'round here...

By the way, a particularly evil form of "Oh Hell" involves using a Scan deck.

Scan is an old Sid Sackson trick taking game. It is a traditional card deck. Except that the suit of each card is labeled on the back. Just the suit. We tried playing a few traditional games this way, and it makes things, really, really complex. Oh Hell was my favorite---especially those low 1-4 card hands.