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Gin Rummy
Deal ten each. Draw, discard, and group runs in one suit or sets of equal ranks. The interesting decision comes when your unmatched cards are worth ten or fewer: knock now or keep drawing for a better hand? This is the first pick for a quiet duel with more skill than setup.
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Cribbage
Deal six each, then each player puts two cards in the dealer’s crib. Score fifteens and matching ranks during play, then score your hand separately. Pick it if you enjoy making small gains in more than one way. A board is traditional, but you can keep the race to 121 on paper.
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German Whist
Deal 13 each and turn up the stock’s top card to set trump. Winning an early trick gets you the visible card, which can make losing on purpose the better choice. Only the last 13 tricks count in the standard version. Try it when you want a game that changes gears halfway through.
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Casino (Card Game)
Deal four cards to each player and four face up in the middle. Capture a matching card or use one card to take numbers that add up to its value. The ten of diamonds and two of spades matter at scoring, so the biggest-looking capture isn’t always the best. A good choice for slower arithmetic and planning.
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Crazy Eights
Deal five cards each in the Bicycle version. Match rank or suit to get rid of cards. An eight lets you choose the next suit, so save one if it can help you play several cards of the same suit. Choose this when the other person wants to learn by playing a hand.
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Go Fish
Use seven cards each in the two-player version. Ask for a rank you already hold, and aim to make a book of four matching ranks like the example pictured here. Start with it if you want a child to practice remembering what the other person asked for.
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Old Maid
Pull one queen from the deck. Deal the rest, discard pairs, and draw from each other until someone is left with the unmatched queen. Pick it for a child’s first guessing game. You can both play one round before explaining how often the choice is all luck.
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War (Card Game)
Split the deck into two face-down piles and flip cards together. The higher card takes the pair, and equal cards trigger a face-down and face-up tiebreak in the Bicycle version. It’s easy enough for a beginner who is learning ranks, and a full game can take a while.
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Slapjack
Turn your cards onto a shared pile. A jack is the signal to slap, and the quickest hand takes the pile. This works if you want a reflex game with one target to remember. Use an old deck and leave clear space around the pile.
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Egyptian Ratscrew
Deal out the pack without looking at your cards. Face cards and aces give the other player a limited number of chances to answer with one, and a permitted slap can take the whole pile. Agree on the patterns before the first flip. Pick this for reflexes with more to watch than Slapjack.
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Speed (Card Game)
Use the version with a five-card hand and a face-down personal stock for each player. Both players play at the same time, building on two middle piles one rank higher or lower. Choose it for fast hands in a smaller space than Spit’s two rows of stock piles.
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Concentration
Lay cards face down in a grid and flip two at a time. Keep matching ranks and turn mismatches back over. Use the full deck for a longer memory test or choose fewer complete pairs for a child’s first game. The player who remembers the other person’s flips has an edge.
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Spit
Split the pack and lay out five rising stock piles each. Once the two middle cards turn up, both players shed cards on them in either direction by rank. The open stock piles reward scanning the table as much as moving quickly.
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California Speed
Each player flips four cards in a row. Cover cards that match another card’s rank as fast as you can, and keep doing it as new matches appear. Pick it for the most visual of the speed games. A first round can focus on spotting pairs before anybody worries about playing fast.
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James Bond (Card Game)
Make six piles of four cards for each player and turn the last four face up in the middle. Both players trade one card at a time until one has four matching ranks in every pile. Choose it when you like Speed but would rather build sets than count up and down.
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Trash (Card Game)
Deal ten cards face down to each player, set out as two rows of five. A drawn three belongs in the third position, and the card it replaces can keep your turn going. Kings are wild in Pagat’s version. Try it for an easy string of little surprises and shorter layouts after each win.
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Kings Corners
Deal seven each and start four piles around the stock. Build down a rank in alternating colors, and put kings in the four empty corners. It feels like two people sharing a solitaire table, with room to plan a move before someone else uses a helpful space.
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Four-Card Golf
Use the four-card version from one deck. Each player sets four cards facedown and starts by looking at just two of their own. Swap to lower your total or knock to end the round after your opponent’s final turn. Try this if you want memory and nerve without lots of arithmetic.
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Basic Rummy
Deal ten each as in the basic two-player game. Build equal ranks and suited runs, lay those combinations out, and add cards to melds already on the table. Choose it if you want the easy draw-and-discard rhythm of gin with visible combinations that both sides can build on.
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Rummy 500
Deal 13 each for two players. You can dig into the discard pile if you use the deepest card you take in a meld right away. Subtract cards left in your hand from the value of what you laid down. Pick this when an untidy discard pile looks like a puzzle worth solving.
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Conquian
Remove eights, nines, and tens, then deal ten each for the two-player American version. You can take a displayed card only by using it in a meld right away, and going out takes 11 melded cards. Try this if you like rummy but want every pickup to commit you to something.
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