CHAPTER ONE
Let the Games Begin

A VERY BRIEF HISTORY OF CARDS

The earliest “cards”—actually domino tiles, played like cards—came from China around ad 960. Playing cards made their first appearance in Europe in the 1370s. Remarkably, these ancient European cards would be instantly recognizable today. They contained four suits, each headed by a king and two “marshals,” plus ten other cards, for a total of fifty-two cards. By 1480, the French had introduced the modern system of suits based on hearts, spades, clubs, and diamonds.

From the earliest times, cards have been associated with European aristocracy— they could afford hand-painted decks of cards and had leisure time to spare—as well as gamblers and lowlifes. Neither association is quite fair, because cards permeated all levels of society, with equal numbers of gambling and non-gambling games. The world of cards has always been diverse, from trick taking to melding, from Solitaire to multiplayer games, from massively complex games like Contract Bridge to absurdly simply ones like Indian Poker.

Poker and Panguingue were the first games to make serious inroads in the United States, along with Solitaire and its many variants. Poker and Panguingue were popular gambling games in the California goldfields from 1850 onward; Solitaire was an import from Victorian Britain.

By the early 1900s, in both the United States and Britain, the previously popular game of Whist was supplanted by various forms of Bridge. Bridge remained the most popular game in America well into the 1960s, followed by Rummy, Canasta, Solitaire, and Poker.

Poker has always been popular in the United States, but it wasn’t until the 1990s that the game truly took off. That’s largely due to Texas Hold’em and the invention of the in-table television camera. The camera (which lets a home audience see all the players’ cards in real time) transformed a slow and—let’s be honest—dull game for observers into an adrenaline-filled battle with millions of dollars at stake.

The Internet has breathed fresh life into many card games, with online forums dedicated to Hearts, Spades, Bridge, Solitaire, Poker—you name it. In a strange way, given the social nature of most games, cards are well suited to the Web 2.0’s social networks, and to dispersed groups of friends who crave an interpersonal activity to bring them together. If nothing else, cards have proven to be highly adaptable over the past eight hundred years. There’s no reason to believe the end of the card-playing era is anywhere in sight.

HOW TO USE THIS BOOK

The Ultimate Book of Card Games is a great resource. It contains hundreds of fascinating games to keep you entertained for months on end, and it makes a handsome addition to your gaming library.

What this book is not is a definitive guide to the games it covers. Do not follow this book zealously or take it too seriously. To do so would mean swimming upstream against the entire history of card games.

Card games are not pieces of legislation passed by a congress. They are not messages from on high. Card games are more like Darwin’s finches. They evolve. They mutate. Take your eye off a card game and—presto!—new rules are added and old ones discarded.

If you’ve heard of edmond hoyle, you might think he literally “wrote the book” on card games and their rules. nothing of the sort. hoyle did publish a book called A Short Treatise on the Game of Whist in 1742. however, his focus was on how to play—that is, how to win—not on documenting the rules, which he assumed readers already knew. more than 250 years after his death, hoyle would be surprised—unpleasantly so—by the dozens of books bearing his name and pretending to be a definitive guide to cards.

The reality is that ninety-nine percent of the world’s card games have no definitive rules. Bridge is the one exception: formal committees approve its rules. Every other game is in a continual state of flux and is played with variations from region to region, state to state, and country to country. And there’s absolutely nothing wrong with this.

Disputes, when they arise, are the result of players relying on unspoken assumptions or following contradictory sets of rules. So use this book to discover new games and learn how to play them, but don’t panic if you, your parents, grandparents, or friends use different rules or favor variations not covered in this book. That’s OK. It’s in the very nature of cards to be variable.

All we really ask is that you follow one basic piece of advice: Always review the rules of play before you deal a single card. Everybody at a table must follow the same set of rules, and everybody should know in advance what those rules are.

A note on terminology, too. We’ve included the most common gaming and card-playing terms in this book’s glossary. So when you see a word or phrase in bold italics—blind bet, for example—flip to the glossary for a definition.

CARD BASICS FOR FIRST-TIME PLAYERS

Here are the most important things you need to know if you’re new to card games. You can safely skip this section if you’ve played cards before.

SUITS & RANKS A standard deck has fifty-two cards, divided equally into four suits called hearts (of hearts), spades (of spades), diamonds (of diamonds), and clubs (of clubs). The two jokers are not typically used. In each suit there are thirteen card rankings or ranks, from 2 to 10, plus a jack, queen, king, and ace. In most games, 2 is the lowest in rank, ace the highest (although in many games the ace also can be played as the lowest card, as in 5-4-3-2-A). Some games have their own peculiar ranking systems—for example, when 2s through 6s are removed from the deck, or when jacks rank higher than kings. Those ranking variances are outlined in the rules of play that are given for each game.

DEALING Cards are usually dealt clockwise, starting with the person to the left of the dealer. Cards are always dealt face down, one at a time, unless otherwise stated in the rules.

GAMES, HANDS, ROUNDS & TURNS Games are often made up of hands (sometimes called deals), in which all players compete. Points or scores earned in a hand typically count toward an overall game score. Hands are often broken into rounds, in which each active player is usually required to perform some action (play a card, discard, make a bet, etc.). Within each round, each player has his own specific turn, and it is considered rude for one player to perform an action (e.g., make a bet, fold, etc.) when it is not his turn.

TRICKS Some games—such as Hearts, Spades, Bridge, etc.—are played in tricks. A trick comprises all the cards played in a single round (one card from each player). So in a Hearts game with five players, a single trick contains five cards. In Bridge, a trick typically contains four cards.

TRUMP & NO TRUMP Many trick-taking games also rely on trump. A trump is a suit (e.g., hearts, spades, diamonds, clubs) that outranks all the other suits for the duration of that hand. For example, if spades are trump, it means that a spade will beat any other card, even if that other card is of a higher rank—a lowly 2 of spades will beat A of hearts or any other high card that isn’t a spade. If two trumps are played in the same trick, the higher-ranking trump wins. No trump means that for the duration of the hand, no suit is trump.

BIDDING In games that include bidding, players must estimate how many total tricks they think they can win. Whoever bids the highest amount typically wins the bid and therefore earns the right to score points, determine the trump, play the first card, etc. Keep in mind that table talk (communicating with your partner about strategy, about your cards, or about anything remotely related to the current hand) is universally outlawed in games that feature bidding.

TIPS FOR HOSTING YOUR OWN POKER NIGHT OR CARD NIGHT

Here are five of the most important things to consider when hosting a home poker or card game. Ignore them at your peril!

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.
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.
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.
“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).
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.

THE MIND GAME: HOW TO THINK LIKE A WINNER IN CARDS

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.