You could make the argument that “playing cards” sounds mighty old fashioned— not unlike bingo, croquet, or sword fighting. In the age of the Internet, can any game played with mere cards be anything but outdated?
Find out for yourself by hosting a poker or card night and watch what happens. No phones, no television, no computers—just everybody having a good time together. And that’s the key word: together.
Playing cards is a massively social activity, whether you’re bluffing your way out of a bad Texas Hold’em hand or going toe-to-toe with friends in a heated game of Hearts. Cards are a catalyst, and their real power is their ability to draw friends, families, and even strangers together.
It’s a safe bet you’ve never heard of half the games covered in this book, and that’s half the joy of perusing the Ultimate Book of Card Games. Certainly cards can be a dull diversion used to pass the time when there’s nothing much better to do. But this is the rare exception to an otherwise inspired pantheon of such card games as Poker, Euchre, Bridge, Spades, Pinochle, Rummy, Blackjack, Spite & Malice, Brag, Klaberjass, Hearts, Canasta—the list of great games goes on and on.
While there is no single definition for what makes a game “great,” I’ve used two simple guidelines to select what games to include in the Ultimate Book of Card Games. The games in this book have withstood the test of time and are guaranteed to satisfy the card player’s most basic desire: to have a bit of fun.
—Scott McNeely