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The perfect book for when you’re ready to move beyond 52-card pickup
Feeling rummy? Ready to bridge the gap? In the mood to go fish? Card Games For Dummies is your source for rules, strategy, and fun. You’ll learn everything you need to know to play and win at your family’s favorite games, plus a bunch of others that are probably new to you. If you’re the gambling kind, you can get started with poker, blackjack, and other casino favorites, right here. This handy guide takes card game enthusiasm to the next level and explains the tips and tricks that can turn game night into some serious competition.
Card Games For Dummies will whet your appetite for play. Start shuffling!
Barry Rigal is an internationally recognized Bridge player who has won countless competitions. They include the North American Bridge Championships as well as the Camrose Trophy Home International Series, which he has won five times. Barry is also the author of the previous editions of Card Games For Dummies.
Introduction 1
About This Book 1
Conventions Used in This Book 3
What You’re Not to Read 3
Foolish Assumptions 3
Icons Used in This Book 4
Beyond This Book 4
Where to Go from Here 5
Part 1: Discovering Card Games 7
Chapter 1: Card Game Basics 9
Talking the Talk 10
Getting all decked out 10
Ranking card order 11
Preparing to Play 11
Shuffling off 11
Getting a square deal 12
Exposing yourself (or someone else) 13
Bidding fair 13
Making a declaration 14
Playing the Game 14
Winning with high cards or trump 15
Failing to follow suit 16
Playing out of turn 16
Exposing yourself to public ridicule 17
Selecting the Best Card Game 18
Chapter 2: Solitaire 21
Acquainting Yourself with Solitaire Terms 22
Putting the Squeeze on Accordion 23
Looking at the layout 23
Choosing between moves 25
Piling It On in Calculation 26
Reserving Your Time for Canfield 28
Striking Gold with Klondike 30
Living La Belle Lucie 32
Getting started 32
Making your moves 32
Starting the next cycle and ending the game 35
Practicing Poker Patience 36
Befriending Spite and Malice 40
Getting started 41
Putting the moves on 41
Manipulating your stoppage time 43
Chapter 3: Children’s Games 45
Beggar My Neighbor 45
Snap, Animals, and Slapjack 48
Snap 48
Animals 50
Slapjack 50
War 51
Fish and Friends 53
Go Fish 53
Authors 54
Cheat 55
Old Maid 57
Spit (or Speed) 58
Part 2: Getting Rid of Cards 61
Chapter 4: Rummy 63
Rummy: Throw a Combo and Go 63
Setting up and laying out the objective 64
Dealing the cards and starting the Rummy 65
Putting down and adding to combinations 66
Rummying with wild cards 67
Going out and tallying your score 68
Simple Rummy strategy 69
Keeping your eye on the discard pile 70
Thinking about your opponents’ hands 71
Making a good discard 71
Picking up cards from the discard pile 71
Gin Rummy: Knocking Your Foe Down 72
Getting a fair deal 73
Going Gin and tallying your score 73
Knock, knock! Another way to go out 74
Boxing up the scoring system 76
500 Rummy: Moving the Pile 78
Winning at 500 Rummy 78
Making a square deal 79
Understanding the rules of combination combat 79
All joking apart 80
Mastering the game play 80
Announcing “Game over!” 81
Scoring the numbers game 81
Drawing from the discard pile 82
Calling “Rummy!” 82
Chapter 5: Canasta 85
Accepting Your Canasta Mission 86
Making melds 86
Getting wild and forsaking suits 86
Looking at some legal melds 87
Calculating the value of your cards and melds 87
Picking partners 88
Dealing and creating a discard pile 88
Laying down the red 3s 88
Moving around the table 89
Picking up the discard pile 89
Making the first meld for your partnership 90
Unfreezing the deck with the initial meld 92
Freezing the discard pile 92
Separating the black 3s 93
Building a Canasta 93
Going out 94
End-game strategy 95
Tallying Your Scores 95
Making Do with Two (or Three): Short-Handed Canasta 97
Hand and Foot 97
Getting started 98
Knowing your objective 98
Putting down melds 99
Laying your initial meld 99
Playing your hand (and foot) 100
Wild cards 100
Threes 100
Clearing your hand and starting the foot 101
Going out 101
Assessing card values 101
Chapter 6: Eights 103
Eights: Simple Is as Simple Does 104
Dealing the cards 104
Playing 8s and suits 104
Paying the price when your opponent goes out 105
Mau Mau: Staking Out a Stock Pile 106
Neuner: Matching and Stacking 107
Switch: Avoiding the Double Agents 109
Preparing for a Switch 109
Identifying some key cards 110
Going out and scoring 111
Chapter 7: Fan Tan 113
Accepting Your Fan Tan Mission 114
Wheeling and dealing 114
Letting the cards hit the fan 114
Expanding your Fan Tan smarts 116
Double-Deck Fan Tan 118
Trump Fan Tan 118
Crazy Tan 119
Part 3: Taking Tricks 121
Chapter 8: Whist 123
What’s the Whist All About? 124
Winning tricks with the trump suit 124
Dealing and playing the cards 125
Tallying your score 126
Scoring the rubber 127
Incorporating Basic Whist Strategy 127
Remembering the cards 127
Landing the leading role 128
Showing some finesse 131
Making discards 132
Three-Handed Whist 132
Playing with a dummy (hand, that is) 132
Dealing an optional fourth hand 133
German (Two-Handed) Whist 134
Improving your holding cards 134
Playing the hand 134
Bid Whist 135
The bidding 135
The scoring 136
Dealing with jokers 136
Chapter 9: Oh Hell! and Other Exact Bidding Games 137
Oh Hell! 138
Dealing the cards 138
Taking tricks with the trump suit 139
Placing your bid 139
Playing for your bids 140
Romanian Whist 142
Dealing the cards 142
Choosing your trump suit, making your bids, and playing your tricks 142
Scoring the tricks 143
Ninety-Nine 144
Dealing the dozen and determining the trump suit 144
Discarding your bids 145
Selecting the proper discards 146
Making premium bids 147
Playing the hand 150
Tallying the scores 150
Chapter 10: Euchre 153
Acquainting Yourself with Euchre 154
Picking Partners 155
Striking a Fair Deal 155
Determining the Trump Suit 156
Jacking Up the Card Rankings 156
Bidding for Tricks 157
Starting the bidding 157
Knowing what to bid 158
Entering the second phase of bidding 159
Tallying Your Score 160
Playing for Bigger Stakes Alone 161
Tricking for Points, Not Treats 162
Chapter 11: Spades 165
Grasping the Basics of Spades 166
Choosing partners 166
Reviewing the card ranks 166
Making the deal 166
Bidding your hand accurately 168
Basking in the dealer’s choice 169
Figuring the value of your high cards 170
Bidding for nil 171
Playing to the score 173
Leading and play conventions 173
Going for your scores 175
Finishing the game 177
Digging Spades for Less Than Four 178
Spades for two 178
Spades for three 178
Chapter 12: Mini-Bridge and Contract Bridge 181
Mini-Bridge 182
Setting up 182
Understanding the tricky business 182
Dealing the cards 182
Counting the tricks 183
Picking the declarer 183
Blowing your own trump-it 184
Drawing trump 185
Playing the numbers game 186
Moving on to the scoring system 186
Keeping the dummy involved 187
The role of the defender 188
Crossing to Bridge 189
Part 4: Scoring or Avoiding Points 191
Chapter 13: Hearts 193
Getting to the Heart of the Matter 193
Dealing the cards 194
Passing your cards left, right, and center 195
Starting the trick play 197
Scoring: The time of reckoning 200
Hearts with Three or Five-Plus Players 202
Honeymoon Hearts 203
Black Maria 203
Cancellation Hearts 204
Chapter 14: Pinochle 205
Pinochle for Two 206
Dealing to begin 206
Ranking and valuing the cards 207
Adding up the possible points 207
Scoring the melds 208
Finishing the game 209
Playing your opponent 210
Pinochle for Three: Auction Pinochle 216
Dealing out the widow 216
Making a bid for glory 217
Melding and discarding as the declarer 219
Feeding the kitty 219
Winning — in spades 220
Battling the declarer 221
Bidding strategically 222
Giving up without a struggle 223
Partnership Auction Pinochle 224
Dealing and bidding 225
Melding 226
Playing out the hand 227
Picking up prizes and penalties 227
Chapter 15: Setback 229
Getting Setback Savvy 230
Divvying up the deck 230
Mastering the bidding 231
Dealer’s choice? 232
Playing your cards right 232
Knowing the score 233
Shooting the moon 234
Passing the winning post 235
Planning a strategy 235
Grab a Friend: Partnership Setback 238
Setback for Three or Six 239
Part 5: Adding and Climbing 241
Chapter 16: Cribbage 243
Starting Off on the Right Foot 244
Dealing the cards and getting started 244
Cutting the deck 245
Phase 1: Playing the cards 245
Phase 2: Scoring the hand 248
Determining a strategy to score points 249
Recording the score 252
Reaching the finishing post 253
Playing Cribbage for Stakes: Lurches and Skunks 254
Five-Card Cribbage 255
Laying the cards 256
Scoring the hand 256
Reaching the finishing post 256
Cribbage for Three Players 256
Chapter 17: President 259
Lobbying for the Basics of President 260
Dealing and playing the cards 260
Ending a hand 262
Starting over: Go fetch, scumbag! 262
Running wild with jokers and 2s 265
Palace 265
Dealing and setting up 266
Reaching the Palace through card play 267
Unleashing the special cards 268
Tabbing a winner — and a loser 269
Chapter 18: Blackjack 271
Social Blackjack 272
Setting the game parameters 272
Burning and turning 272
Placing your bets 273
Splitting pairs to double your winnings 275
Dealing the second round 275
Should you stay or should you go? 275
Breaking (or depositing into) the bank 276
Starting over 278
Planning Your Basic Blackjack Strategy 278
When two is better than one 278
Doubling down, to up the stakes 279
Casino Blackjack 279
Casino betting: Playing against the bank 280
Casino formalities: Dealing up and getting started 281
Playing the cards 281
Deciding on a drawing strategy 282
Part 6: Playing Poker 287
Chapter 19: Shuffling Through Poker Basics 289
Covering the Poker Bases 290
Ranking the Poker hands 290
Spicing up the game with wild cards 292
Getting Started: Basic Play 293
Ante up! 293
The mechanics of betting 294
Making the minimum and maximum bets 296
Winning ways 297
Bluffing Dos and Don’ts 298
Reading Your Opponents 299
Facial clues 299
Body language 300
Chapter 20: Draw Poker 303
Five-Card Draw 304
Dealing and putting in an ante 304
Determining a strategy for the first bet 305
Surviving the luck of the draw 306
Continuing after the draw 310
Chapter 21: Stud Poker 311
Seven-Card Stud: Betting Down the River 312
Starting with the ante and the limits 312
Betting in the early stages 313
Passing the first pivotal moment: Third street 314
Staying in on fifth street 316
Surveying the Stud Landscape: Table Strategy 317
Reading the table 317
Bluffing 317
Winning (or not losing) at Seven-Card Stud 318
Staying in and dropping out 319
Five-Card Stud 319
Chapter 22: Texas Hold ’Em 321
Holding ’Em Up — Texas Style 322
Making blind bets 323
Starting hands 324
Paying attention to location 327
Strategically Speaking: Calling, Folding, and Raising 328
Betting before the flop: Call, fold, or raise? 328
Staying in or dropping out after the flop 331
Bluffing 335
Stealing blinds 337
Seizing Opportunities to Play Hold ’Em 338
Chapter 23: Omaha 339
Getting to Know Omaha High/Low 340
Paying attention to the high hands and low hands 340
Betting 341
Playing out a typical Omaha High/Low hand 342
Winning High/Low Strategy 344
Forming good starting hands 344
Winning hands at Omaha High/Low 346
Winning at Omaha High/Low 346
Surviving the waiting game 347
Playing for position 347
Planning a strategy after the flop 348
Flopping and dropping 349
Playing on the turn 350
Playing on the river 351
Omaha High 351
Part 7: The Part of Tens 353
Chapter 24: Ten Ways to Improve Your Game and Have More Fun 355
Treat Your Partner with Respect 355
Give Yourself a Reality Check 356
Keep Your Celebrations to Yourself 356
Know When the Time Is Ripe 357
Cut Yourself Off 357
Paint a Picture of Your Opponents’ Cards 358
March to the Beat of Your Own Drum 358
Talk Through the Cards 359
Count Down to Victory 359
Have Fun! 360
Chapter 25: Ten Places to Find More Information on Your Game 361
The Internet 361
Software and Live Sites on Computers 362
Discussion Groups 362
Gaming Bodies 363
Books 363
Newspapers and Magazines 363
Playing with the Big Dogs 364
Tournaments 364
Going Straight to a Gaming Source 364
Clubs 365
Index 367
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