Card Games

Group your cards into sets and sequences to win

Draw and discard to build sets (same rank) and sequences (same suit in order). You need at least one pure sequence to declare. Play with or without a wild Joker.

Empty your hand before everyone else

Also known as Bhabhi. Winning a trick costs you here: you collect all the cards played. Follow the lead suit, or gift a card face-down when you cannot. Empty your hand first to escape.

Empty your hand first. The last one out pays tax.

Japan's climbing game for three to six players, and a small satire of class mobility. Beat the last play with the same shape of cards or pass. The 3 is the worst card in the pack and the 2 is the best — until somebody plays four of a kind and turns the whole ranking upside down. First one out is the millionaire, last one out is the pauper, and the pauper hands over their best cards before the next hand starts.

A team game with a hidden trump suit

A team trick-taking game from South Asia. One player secretly picks the trump suit. Win two tricks in a row to collect the table, and work with your partner to reach 104 points first.

Match a card on the table and sweep the run above it

Morocco's most played card game, on a 40-card Spanish pack. Four cards lie face up: play a card of the same number as one of them and you take it, along with every card that runs upward in sequence from it. There are no 8s or 9s, so the 10 sits next to the 7 and a run can be longer than it looks.

Beat every trick you can, then sing for 40

Spain's national card game, on a 40-card Spanish pack. Unlike any other trick game here, you may not duck: if you can beat the trick you must. Aces and Threes carry most of the points, and holding a Rey and Caballo of one suit lets you sing for 20, or 40 if that suit is trump.

Signal your partner, raise the stakes, bluff to 30

Argentina's national card game, and barely a card game at all — three cards each, three quick tricks, and two separate bets laid over the top of them. The envido bets on your cards before they matter; the truco multiplies what the hand itself is worth. Partners signal each other across the table, and the server only lets you signal what you really hold.

Reach 66 and say so out loud — or lose it

Austria's two-player classic, and the smallest game here: twenty cards, five in hand, and a target of 66. Reaching 66 does not win the deal — saying so does, and how long you wait changes what you score. At any point you may close the talon and bet that you can get there from the cards already in your hand.

Name the trump suit, then take seven of thirteen tricks

Iran's most played card game. The hakem sees just five cards and names the trump suit for everyone to hear, then the rest of the deal completes. Take seven of the thirteen tricks with your partner and the hand is yours.

Order up the trump, then take three of five tricks

A fast partnership game on a short 24-card pack — nine and up, nothing below. One card is turned face up and somebody orders it up as trump, which promotes two Jacks above the Ace. Take three of the five tricks with your partner, or send your partner out and play the hand alone for four points.

Get your hand low and call before you're Caught

A fast Israeli card game. Hold five cards and race to get your hand down to 7 or less, then call Yaniv. If an opponent is lower, you are Caught and take a 30-point penalty.

Dodge the hearts — and the Queen of Spades

A trick-taking game you are trying to lose. Every heart costs a point and the Queen of Spades costs 13. Pass three cards before each hand, then steer all 26 points onto everybody else. Lowest score wins.

Bet, bluff, and build the best five-card hand

The world's most popular poker variant, played with free chips that cannot be bought, traded, or cashed out. Everyone gets two hole cards and shares five community cards. Bet, check, call, raise, or fold across four rounds, and make the best five-card hand.

Bet blind at half price, or look and pay double

The three-card game of the Indian subcontinent, also called 3 Patti or Flash, played with free chips that cannot be bought, traded, or cashed out. Three cards each and one round of betting. Bet blind and you pay half of what a player who has looked at their cards pays — that trade is the whole game.

The classic solo game. Clear the board.

Klondike Solitaire. Draw from the stock, build the four foundations up from Ace to King by suit, and stack the tableau down in alternating colours. Clear all 52 cards to win.