My eight year old daughter and I play "Crazy 8’s, “Go Fish” and “War” (High Card).
Are there any other card games that we could play together that are fun and aren’t too hard for an eight year old to learn?
You really don’t have to tell us how to play. We can just look it up somewhere. The name would be enough.
Thanks!
Rubicon Bezique.
Uh, or maybe Egyptian War would be slightly easier. It has another name, but tell her it’s called Egyptian War.
There are lots of solitaire games you could play together. And I think she’s old enough to learn Uno (but you’ll have to have or make the cards).
When I was a kid, the most worn book in the house was Hoyle’s Rules of Games. (At eight, you’ll have to read the rules and explain, but half the fun is adapting the rules to suit the player.)
Skip-Bo would fit the bill. You could try Phase 10, too.
One of my favorites as a child was Coot. It’s like two-person competitive solitaire.
Use two decks with contrasting backs, each player with his own deck. Each deals out a pile of 13 with the top card face up, then four more cards face up next to the pile. Build down from the four cards like in solitaire, alternating colors (red nine on black ten). Any aces go above the build cards as foundation cards. Either player can play onto any foundation card (I can play my diamond 2 on your diamond ace, for example). If a spot opens in the foundation row, move the top card from the pile of 13 into it and turn up the next card. The rest of the cards, turn them in groups of three and the exposed cards may be played on the foundations or on any of the build cards. When both players have exhausted all possible moves going through the pack forward, you go through them reversed (reverse the order of three cards at a time). When one player clears all the cards off their pile of 13, the round ends. Gather up the foundation piles and separate the cards out by deck. Whichever player has more of their cards played on the foundation piles is the winner.
Hope that’s not too confusing. I couldn’t find the rules online; for all I know my mother made them up.
I taught my 9 year old grand daughters to play cribbage. Samantha wants to play every chance she gets, Alicia gets frustrated because finishes last all the time. Both are improving, I expect to lose to them at least once in the near future.
I had played a lot of Blackjack (21) and a game called “31” by the time I turned 8,
early mornings, with grandfather before everyone else awoke.
Gin Rummy, Casino and Poker were games I learned very early in my life and was playing before school age.
King’s Corners! I used to play this with my mother all the time. Also Gin Rummy and 31 for skittles or pennies…yeah, okay, my family turned me into a gamer (and a gambler) at an early age. 
But I think once a kid starts learning card games, and gets the basic concepts down, it’s easy to acquire more. King’s Corners was one of my first and I still like it.
Ah, a truly great game. It’s more commonly called Pounce, Nertz, or Peanuts. You can play it with two, but it’s really fun with four or five. It gets frantic and crazy as everyone is trying to get to new foundation piles that open up.
We play that you can go through your deck one at a time, without the reverse order you mentioned, but there are lots of variants. We also use a scoring system; after someone finishes you get one point for every card you got into the middle and lose two points for every card left in your Pounce/Nertz/Peanuts/Coot pile. The first player to reach 100 point wins.
There was just a bit of this played at St. Louis Chatdope.
Spite & Malice is a good one. This is what inspired the commercial game Skip-Bo.
If you use one of the less offensive names when explaining to your daugher…er…Shithead is a brilliant card game.
It’s a brilliant student game, you can go anywhere and find people playing on it, but it’s hard to get the rules agreed beforehand. The definitive rules (or my rules) are 2=wildcard, play continues on the two; 7=not a wildcard, but next card must be lower than 7; 8=wildcard, see-through; 10= wildcard and burns the discard pile; four-in-a-row=burns the discard pile. But that wont much much sense until you read how to play!
It’s easy to play and very addictive (once you get really into it, you start getting tactical and scheming). My brother in law used to play it all the time in Uni (hence why he earned a Desmond), and reported having ‘Shithead nightmares’ where all he could see where bad card hands. That might have been somewhat more to do with other Uni activities, though.
Best of luck though, it’s good to hear you’re not just sitting her infront of the gamecube!
My five year old got a couple of decks of cards at Christmas.
He already knew how to play crazy eights. I have since taught him War, blackjack, rummy and solitaire. He likes all of them and plays very competitively.
My sister taught me a game recently that she calls “The other spade game”; I’d love to learn the more common name for it.
The goal is to earn the bulk of the 11 possible points in a game. You earn points at the end of the game by comparing the cards you’ve taken to the cards your opponent has taken, as follows:
-3 points for having the most cards.
-1 point for having the most spades.
-1 point for each ace.
-1 point for the 2 of spades.
-2 points for the 10 of diamonds.
To play:
It’s actually pretty simple in play to do these three moves.
When both players have played all four of their cards, then the deal passes to the left, and you repeat the process: four cards to each player (instead of dealing four face-up, you just leave the ones currently face-up in the middle). This will mean that whoever plays last in a round will play first in the next round.
BONUS POINT: If you ever pick up the last card on the table, you gain a bonus point at the end of the game. This is called a Sweep. It happens somewhat rarely.
END OF GAME: WHen the last cards have been dealt, you play one final round, with a twist. Take note of who picks up the last card from the board. Once all cards have been played in this round, whoever played that last card takes all the remaining cards on the board.
And that’s it! It’s really fun and addictive; I just wish I knew the name.
Daniel
I know that game as Casino, although some minor rules are different.
[QUOTE=Left Hand of Dorkness]
My sister taught me a game recently that she calls “The other spade game”; I’d love to learn the more common name for it.
This sounds a lot like a card game my grandfather taught me when I was little. He called it Casino. The two of spades was called “little buck” and the ten of diamonds was called “big buck”. Its been a long time since I played it, but I think it is the same game you are describing.
Whats wrong with calling it Egiptian Ratscre… oh ok… :smack:
Its also known as Beggar your Neighbor.
www.Pagat.com
more Card Game Rulesets that you could ever need.
– Wait… teaching a 9 year old how to play Cribbage?! Was this punishment or something? I mean… I learned the game in 12th grade, and I still think the person who invented it was on something.
The only difference is I prefer to have the hand you slap with kept on your forehead.
Try not to hurt each other.
Mille Bornes is a great game that’s fun for adults and easy enough to grasp for kids. I learned it on a Macintosh version when I was 10 or so.
You’re never to young for 5 card draw poker.