Ultimate Book of Card Games: The Comprehensive Guide to More Than 350 Games (2 page)

1. YOU NEED A TABLE.
   At the risk of stating the obvious, you need a flat, uncluttered, reasonably large table in order to play the games described in this book.
   
2. YOU NEED PLAYERS.
   Seven or eight players are ideal for Poker, Blackjack, Texas Hold’em, and most of the betting games covered in this book. For Bridge, you need four players. For other games, you need from two to ten players—unless you’re playing Solitaire, in which case one is the perfect number.
   
3. YOU NEED A BANKER.
   Many of the betting games in this book require somebody to play the role of banker/dealer. In Blackjack, players typically take turns serving as banker/dealer for a predetermined period (usually five to ten deals). If you’re playing Bridge or another game where points are worth money, you don’t need a banker so much as you need one person who can review the scores and verify everybody’s math.
   
4. “BUT OFFICER, WE WEREN’T PLAYING WITH
   REAL
   MONEY…”
   Gambling is generally not endorsed by law enforcement agencies. Rest easy, though, because “social gaming” is legal in many U.S. states, as long as the event is held in a private home, is not advertised, has no minors present, and does not take a
   rake
   (it makes no money by hosting the game).
   
5. STOCK UP ON CHIPS & CHANGE.
   Chip values vary from game to game, depending on the
   table stakes
   . In “friendly” games, chips might be worth something like $5 (black), $1 (blue), 50 cents (red), 25 cents (white). At the end of the night, you’ll also want plenty of $1 and $5 bills to make change.
   

Whether you’ve been playing cards for five minutes or fifty years, the following commonsense rules will help you get the most from any card game.

THINK BEFORE YOU DRINK.
Excessive drinking—getting loaded, liquored, trollied, mashed, or hammered—is one of the main culprits contributing to a card player’s bad decisions. Remember that casino drinks are free for a reason, so steer clear of alcohol, especially when you’re playing Poker.

YOU NEED AN OBJECTIVE.
We’re not talking about a war game or a performance review. We’re talking about having a reason to play each time you sit at a table. Whatever your reason to play, stick with it. If you start playing to have fun, but then get agitated and start playing simply to win (or even worse, to win money), you’re unlikely to do either very well.

DON’T BE IN A HURRY.
Each game has its own rhythm and subtleties, so take time to learn the basics from other players (or from experienced players at a casino). Even thirty minutes spent observing a table of skilled players is sure to be fruitful.

TRUST YOUR INSTINCTS.
Don’t be afraid to bid or bet aggressively when you’re on a hot streak, and conversely, if you think you’ve been beaten, you’re probably right.

STAY IN CONTROL.
Don’t play new games for high stakes; don’t stay in games played for money with opponents who are clearly better than you; don’t be afraid to ask about rules; don’t be afraid to fold in gambling games; and don’t play cards with money you can’t afford to lose.

SOLITAIRE IS NOT A SINGLE GAME.
. The name refers to a family of games that use a
tableau
of cards laid out on a playing surface, plus a
stock pile
of cards from which to draw, in order to build piles of cards that are matched in some way (typically by suit and rank). There are hundreds of Solitaire variations, often known by different names, depending on where or how you first learned the game.

Is Solitaire a game or a puzzle? The answer is—it’s a game! Puzzles have just one solution. And once you discover the solution, the puzzle is solved. Solitaire, on the other hand, is almost infinitely variable. There is no single solution to any hand. And it often requires a strong dollop of skill to win.

In England this family of games is known as
Patience
, and in many respects the name Patience is better suited, since many of the games below can be played by two or more players and are not strictly solitary pursuits. Universally, the games also require plenty of patience to play.

Modern Solitaire was probably invented in Scandinavia or Germany in the 1700s. The first reference—a one-player game played head to head by two people, for a wager—dates from 1783. From the beginning, it seems, Solitaire was both a solo pursuit and a competitive game.

The British did not embrace Solitaire until the 1850s, but once they did, it was a huge hit. Charles Dickens’s
Great Expectations
mentions the game (Magwitch was a Patience player!). In the United States, the game was never aggressively commercialized, and there is no single “official” compendium of rules or regulations. Hence the profusion of games, often played with major rule differences from region to region.

At its most fundamental, Solitaire is a game in which players attempt to organize a deck of cards into a specific order, depending on the rules of the game being played. Most Solitaire games feature
foundations
(typically, but not always, the four aces), on top of which cards of matching suit are piled. You typically end a successful game of Solitaire with four piles, each containing thirteen cards organized by suit and rank.

Most games also feature a
tableau
, which is a layout or workspace for cards organized into specific shapes, sequences, or even fanciful arrangements. Skip below to Archway or Clock for examples of tableaus gone wild.

Lastly, Solitaire games generally come in two varieties:
play out
(building up four foundation piles from ace to king, by suit) and
elimination
(removing cards from the game in pairs or in some specific pattern).