Easy Card Games

Well we are snowed in again. Time to get the deck of cards out. My son loves playing card games and I love how quick and easy they can be. No setting up a board game and all of the pieces. One deck of cards and your instantly playing and entertained. So make sure you own a deck of cards.

I’m going to explain a few quick easy card games that you can play with your kids. You can get started right away and they will love that you slowed down to play a game with them. Have fun!

Crazy Eights:

• Deal five cards to each player.
• The remainder of cards go facedown in the middle. Flip one card over from deck.
• Person going first will need to lay a card of either same suit or number as that card, or an 8 if they have nothing else to play.
• If an 8 is played then the person who played it can decide which suit now has to be played. (So if they call hearts the next player will have to play a heart.)
• If they do not have a card to play then they have to draw from the pile until they get one that they can play.
• Play continues with the next person.
• First person with no cards left wins.

Go Fish:

(Our quick simple version. This is not how most people play.) (Original rules) I was taught wrong when I was a kid, haha, so we just go with it.

• Deal 5 cards to each player.
• The rest of cards go facedown in middle.
• First player asks another player if they have a “5” for example. (They have to have at least one card in their hand of that number if they ask for it.)
• If that person has that card they have to give it to them. (If they have two of them then they give both)
• If that player did not have a card to give the person then they tell them to “go fish” and the person that is fishing draws a card from the pile.
• When you get 3 that match you lay those cards down. If anyone else has or gets a card that matches someone elses that are lying down they can set that card on that pile to get it out of their hand. (So if someone laid down a set with three 5’s and you have a 5 in your hand lay it on their pile)
• Play continues until someone runs out of cards.

War:

• Deal cards until deck is completely dealt.
• Everyone puts their cards face down in a pile in front of them.
• Everyone flips a card from their pile over at the same time so everyone can see it.
• The person with the highest card gets the cards that were turned over.
• If it is a tie, then each person lays 3 cards from their pile face down and everyone then flips their 4th card over for everyone to see.
• Whoever has the highest gets all of those cards.
• Play continues until all cards have been used. Player with the most cards at the end wins.

21 (Blackjack):

• Cards all equal face value, king, queen, jack are worth 10 and aces can be used as 1 or 11.
• Pick a dealer. Dealer will deal one card face down to each player and then one card face up to each player.
• The object is to get as close to 21 without going over.
• Each player can either “stay” or ask dealer to “hit me”, meaning give me another card.
• The dealer would deal that player another card face up.
• Players can also choose to stay. (If they feel like they are close enough to 21 and don’t want to take a chance of going over)
• When everyone has stayed and wants no more cards then everyone will flip all cards over so visible to everyone.
• Person closest to 21 without going over wins that round.

Card Houses:

• If you don’t want to play an actual game then you can always resort to building a house of cards.
• Build your base with 2 cards in shape of tent, one one each side, and one across the top.
• Build on from there. Good luck, get creative, have fun.