Card Games

[Ash]

Last night I sat down and read through the rules for Pinochle.
It seems fairly easy...quite a bit like Spades, but when I tried to play it on Yahoo! I didn't understand the scoring, bidding and the whole "meld" thing.

I'm pretty good at Spades.  It's definitely my favorite card game of all time.  Yahoo! runs tournaments for it and I thought I might try my luck in one next weekend.

I've also tried Canasta which I mostly understood.

Contract Bridge looks interesting but it can be very hard for the newbie to learn.  I tried reading the rules and it seems insanely difficult.
One of these days I'll sit down and figure it out.  After all, if all those old ladies can learn it, so can I. 

Another one is Hearts which is pretty much the opposite of Spades.  I'm not very good at it though.
I also play the occasional game of Blackjack and Hold "em Poker, which I'm pretty good at.
And I'm pretty darn good at Gin and regular Rummy

I usually play on Yahoo! so if any of you ever want to get down on a game or two, send me a PM here on this board.

Do any of you play card games?
If so, which ones?


(Can any of you give me tips and advice on Pinochle, Hearts and/or Bridge?)

[Menard]

I am an inveterate gamer. I love card games as well, and they have the advantage of being quite portable and easy to play.

Although I like Rummy, with more of an edge toward Canasta, I like the simplicity and flexibility of Hearts and Crazy Eights.

My tips for Pinochle and Bridge is to avoid them at all costs.


Any trick taking game along the lines of Hearts and Spades is going to require organization of the cards in your hand; don't just hold them the way they were dealt, but group them by suit.

The playing of trumps is going to be more difficult by how many high cards you have. Ideally you want to try to get rid of your high cards first.

Try to deplete a complete suit if you can; this will give you the ability to play your trumps out instead of being stuck with them till the last few rounds, which will almost guarantee you will take several pointed tricks.

If you have low trumps, you can lead with them, but don't make a habit of it. It is primarily to put points in someone else's hands.

As tempting as it is to lead with small cards, what that will end up doing is giving your opponents the opportunity to unload their high cards and you will end up with higher cards and take more tricks. Lead with middle or high cards; especially with high cards if it is early and doesn't appear as though anybody has a monopoly on any one suit.


A really good book on games in general and card games is The Way to Play by The Diagram Group.

Two really fun published card games, but out of print, are Trumpet and Black Spy. Black Spy unfortunately can bring quite a bid on eBay (nobody gets my copy). Trumpet is a standard trump game with a board game added.

Other card games you might try to find include: Chameleon; Sting; 5 Alive; and Flux.


Getting kind of way off topic, Illuminati is a hell of a card game.


Sorry if I went in different directions.


If I can get someone to do the artwork for it, maybe I'll make my grave robbers card game available for download.

[RCMerchant]

If I can get someone to do the artwork for it, maybe I'll make my grave robbers card game available for download.

Hello.....! 

[AndyC]

Euchre is pretty big in Canada, especially with my parents' generation. Any time neighbours came over for cards, that's what they played. We played quite a bit of it on camping trips. It's also fairly common to have euchre tournaments at legion halls, churches, etc. The term 'euchre' (if you fail to take enough tricks to score on a hand, you're euchred) has even entered common parlance. If a person or thing is euchred, basically it's f**ked.

Of course, now poker has overshadowed most other games for younger generations, and Texas hold 'em has overshadowed the many other flavours of poker. I learned to play poker when it was old-fashioned, and had sort of an Oscar Madison nostalgia appeal, then it went and got trendy. Noooooo!

[Patient7]

My grandparents on my mother's side love eucher and nerts (I'm not sure if that's right)  I do like to play Freecell on my computer a lot though.

[Dr_Malavaqua]

Menard: Do you know of this one? http://www.amazon.com/Grave-Robbers-Outer-Space-Card/dp/B000JERJI8
I own another one in the series which is called "Kung-Fu Samurai on Giant Robot Island". They are part of a series of card games that can be combined with eachother because they are all based on the same basic rules.

The object of the one I got(and the rest of them?) is to make your own b-flick...and with the help of various creatures destroy the movies of the other players!
Basically in the end you get more points the more(and the better) stuff you got in your movie, like location, characters and props. On top of that you got special effects to alter the outcomes of the fights and mix it up from game to game. Its quite fun(the one I got), especially if you like bad movies and asian cinema!  And don't we all...? 

I know this has little or nothing to do with the original topic, but since you even got the exact name of an already existing game I thought I should mention this to you.     

[Menard]

Menard: Do you know of this one? http://www.amazon.com/Grave-Robbers-Outer-Space-Card/dp/B000JERJI8
I own another one in the series which is called "Kung-Fu Samurai on Giant Robot Island". They are part of a series of card games that can be combined with eachother because they are all based on the same basic rules.

The object of the one I got(and the rest of them?) is to make your own b-flick...and with the help of various creatures destroy the movies of the other players!
Basically in the end you get more points the more(and the better) stuff you got in your movie, like location, characters and props. On top of that you got special effects to alter the outcomes of the fights and mix it up from game to game. Its quite fun(the one I got), especially if you like bad movies and asian cinema!  And don't we all...? 

I know this has little or nothing to do with the original topic, but since you even got the exact name of an already existing game I thought I should mention this to you.     

Actually my card game is about grave robbers and not named grave robbers.

The title of the card game, Grave Robbers from Outer Space, is actually the original title of Plan 9 from Outer Space; they changed it due to the funding for the movie (funds?) coming from a religious group who did not like Grave Robbers in the title, though it is mentioned in the opening intro.

Of the card game series, I have all four.

[Dr_Malavaqua]

Actually my card game is about grave robbers and not named grave robbers.

The title of the card game, Grave Robbers from Outer Space, is actually the original title of Plan 9 from Outer Space; they changed it due to the funding for the movie (funds?) coming from a religious group who did not like Grave Robbers in the title, though it is mentioned in the opening intro.

Of the card game series, I have all four.

"Hello, my name is Dr_Malavaqua, and I just got Punk'd!"  ...he he no but seriously, in regard to the title, I stand corrected. 

Out of the four is there any one that you consider "better"?

In regard to the thread topic: Only Hold'em, regular poker and an occasional game of Chicago!

[Sister Grace]

When I was real little I loved to play Rook. Its been so long, i doubt if i could even play a decent hand now...