Let's talk about: Card Games

[MoneyGuy]

Gin Rummy...the authentic version, not those with random house rules.

[DoubleF]

If poker or big two is too complicated for kids, another game I played as a kid was 31. It's almost like a cross between Texas Hold'em and black jack.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thirty-one_(card_game)

3 card hand, closest to 31 of the same suit wins. Many people aim for 30.5 points (triple number).

[Flash Walken]

31 is a great game

[troutman]

2 player

Jaipur
Sushi Go
Lost Cities
Magic - pre-made decks so you don’t have to collect

[Regulator75]

Dai di (Big 2)
Rummy
Crazy 8's

Are my go to.

[Jiri Hrdina]

Originally Posted by You Need a Thneed

Our house rule is that you can do the phases in any order, but as soon as you lay one out, you can’t change it to a different (harder) one as you continue that round.

This leads to people taking risks to be able to wait to play a harder phase, and sometimes being screwed by someone going all the way out immediately.

There are some fun alternatives

https://www.pagat.com/invented/phase10_vars.html

[Cheese]

31
99
Hearts
Spades
Cribbage
Canasta

And many more

[afc wimbledon]

Originally Posted by tvp2003

Skinpooch? Who’s a skinpooch? What’s a skinpooch?!?

its worse than a goof, lets just leave it at that

[CorsiHockeyLeague]

Man, I played so much big 2 in university... such a good game with a bunch of strategic elements and a need to adapt to others' strategies. I have to assume there are like 50 variations of that game, as well.

[MoneyGuy]

Hearts is my all-time favourite.

[Vansmack]

We are struggling already in day 2 of 14. Pulling out a puzzle now, Netflix mostly at night and way too much sesame street already.

I will probably play a fair amount of online bridge on BBO

[GirlySports]

Big 2!

And Sap Sam.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_poker

Or not cards but you can play Mahjong for days.

[Buff]

Sticks
https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/441202/rules

The Mind
Bohnanza
Struggle For Catan
Uno
SkipBo
31

[sec304]

Five Crowns is all we play now. Used to be crib

[sparky69]

Originally Posted by sec304

Five Crowns is all we play now. Used to be crib

Five Crows is fun. My current game is Catan now

[DoubleF]

Dutch Blitz is a great game, especially with kids. A similar game to this is speed. These and slap jack though are recipes for injured fingers if everyone gets too competitive.

13 which was suggested by Minnie is OK, but I find it's a game I only generally play if it's not practical to have a discard pile like for big 2. It feels more like a game to learn hands vs something like big 2. We often also prefer to play Chinese cheat.

Big 2 is awesome. I generally play the Hong Kong variant which uses hands similar to the ones described in the game 13 (sap sam). Most people play where the person with 3 of diamonds always goes first.

My uncles and I play with a variant where winner goes first and there can be more than 4 players or 3 players in a game. The +/- 1 card differential plus winner plays first hand means the winner often changes. This is partially due to the fact that the first person to play a hand of their choice is at an advantage/disadvantage. Others will be able to read their hand and can develop strategies against that person and knock them out within a few hands (kind of a skill that many who play mahjong are strong at).

The last playing card game I play is essentially Chinese Cheat ("Cheh dai pao" Car bigger than tank). In a nutshell, you can play as many cards as you want on your turn and state what you put down. You don't have to follow the numerical sequence like that other crappy version which just locks down the game. Those caught cheating/someone incorrectly declare someone cheating on someone picks up the discard pile. This generally means it's a game that ends in around 5 minutes or so vs the regular game of cheat which often lasts way too long. Another great facet to this game is that sometimes your goal is to trick people in calling you out incorrectly on purpose. This is a fun thing to do if your goal is merely not to be the last player. This means that once everyone gets the idea, you can easily have rounds where certain cards are stated to be played more than 4 times.

[ripTDR]

A bit hard to learn, but once you do, euchre is super fun

[PaperBagger'14]

Cheat (or Bull****) is another good one, lots of laughs and some skill is definitely required

[transplant99]

Lots of the mentioned games available at this site....good if there is no one around to play with.

https://cardgames.io/

[Nage Waza]

Originally Posted by troutman

2 player
Magic - pre-made decks so you don’t have to collect

Easily the best but can be way too complex for non gamers. There are online options for this as well, a CP tournament would be cool.