Think back to your teen and college years to the games you learned from friends and out-of-town relatives and that you played enough to get good at (or at least feel comfortable with) but that somehow have dropped off your list of games to play for fun. For various reasons I’d like to exclude the ones that are so popular and ever-present that almost everybody has played them or are still playing them.
So, don’t include:
Bridge
Poker (all variations)
Blackjack or 21
Canasta
Gin Rummy
Casino
War
Go Fish
Crazy Eights
Spades
Hearts
Old Maid
Uno
Rook
That ought to leave room for the truly unusual games, even though I would bet a payday that I’ve overlooked an even more common and popular game. So if you’re posting after at least five others have mentioned one you were planning to, just don’t bother listing it. It’s just too common for this thread’s intent.
Some I have played and liked but that rarely come up these days are:
Fan Tan (build out from the 7’s)
Tonk (can’t even remember the rules now!)
Bourret (sp?) – pronounced Boo Ray
Michigan or Boodle
500 (three-hand game with tricks)
Pinochle (several verrsions)
Skat
Klabberjass
Seven-up or Pitch
Let’s see how many decent card games (not the commercialized ones like Flinch and Rook and Uno) we can come up with.
My dad was a big fan of obscure card games from old british books. Some of the favorites from family game nights, and also from sessions with my brother and mutual friends when we were in our teens:
Bismarck
500
Ninety-nine
Oh hell
Euchre (surprised this didn’t make your list of ‘common’ games - it’s been fairly popular around here for a while, and I’ve seen a lot of versions of it on the net.)
We tried ones like Ombre and Skat too, but they never really caught on. The most favorite of all, though, is Tyzicha, which the books said is an old Russian game. Three players, bidding, trick taking, and and unusual sytem whereby declaring a marriage when leading the first of a king-queen pair in suit to a trick, scores you points, AND makes that suit trumps.
Cribbage would be one of the most popular ones not mentioned in the OP.
Is cheat an unusual card game? Very funny game involving getting rid of your cards by laying them face down and lying about their value.
In the same vein of drunken card games, I’ve played one with American students called ‘president’ or something similar, there’s a hierarchy round the table where you have to do what you’re told by the guy above you. I think the actual game was really simplistic, is was more about drinking.
Nerts! I can never remember the rules, but it’s fairly fast paced card game played with teams of two. Spit and Spoons are two other good, fast games.
Cocky Watchman, I’ve played both Cheat and President under the names BS and Asshole. I agree, both are fun. Other good drinking games with cards are Kings and Fuck You Pyramid. FYP will get you fucked up though.
Rummoli. Played with a deck of cards, a table layout, and a pile of poker chips that were placed in various places on the layout and won according to the hands you made with the cards. It’s difficult to describe, but kept us occupied for hours.
Also, double solitaire (solitaire for two). Each player plays regular Solitaire, but either player can move cards out–even onto the other player’s stacks. It can be played with two or more players; the largest we ever got going was a game of six people.
There was also a way to play two-player bridge that I would sometimes play with my mother, but that was so long ago that I cannot remember how we did it.
While in college I played a game of my friend’s devising, was very, very fun but unfortunately I don’t remember either the game or its rules. That’s not very useful, so I’ll toss out Egyptian Ratscrew which was another favorite.
I was unhappy with my memory of Bourre’ so I Googled it up. Fun game. We played it and Tonk a lot at “work” when I was working nights in a computer room.
Since we’re talking card games, is anyone familiar with a card game that was making the rounds of colleges in the early 90’s? All I can remember is my brother was the dealer, and you weren’t told the rules beforehand. You learned them as you were playing. For instance you would get a card/s for “talking out of turn,” and there was a special word or phrase to call a time-out so you could speak freely.
The problem was, after five or so times, everyone would know every obscure rule and where was the fun in that?
A friend from grad school taught me a game called Legs that was so addictive we would spend entire days playing it. Couldn’t remember the rules now if my life depended on it.
I saw that in my high school about five years ago. I think the problem is most people don’t want to play that badly. I know I never did.
I like to play hanafuda, mostly koi-koi. I even have a nice set of Nintendo-made cards. Yes, they still make hanafuda cards, like they did 118 years ago when they started.
Did anyone ever play Spoons or Murder?
Are these too common? Whenever I ask people about them, they never seem to know them.
Both had very simple rules but were fun.
Spoons was just one of those fast-paced get-four-of-a-kind games.
Murder was a bit more subtle, if you got the card, you had to discreetly wink at other players, thereby “killing” them. People could either figure out the murderer, or actually watch a murder take place. (Yikes, this sounds awful–but it was fun.)
I’ve played Spoons – tried it with forks, when drunk.
99 has already been mentioned. Great little counting game, probably educational even.
I’ve been wanting to mention Farkle (a dice game) in a thread, to ask if anyone else is playing, but there aren’t enough dice games to warrant a thread. After Yahtzee and Ships Captain Crew, what else is there?
