Card Games

You will need two decks of cards for this game. One person is assigned to be the “caller”. The caller may also play the game if they are able to do both roles.

One deck is dealt out evenly among the players. Their cards are displayed face up in front of them. The second deck is used to “call” the cards to be eliminated.

Play begins by having the caller flip up the first card from the second deck of “calling” cards. The card is announced and shown to all players. The player who has the matching card in their grid turns that card over so it is face down.

The caller then flips and announces the next card to be eliminated. Play continues this way until one player has flipped all their cards over and is declared the winner.

Modifications:

To decrease challenge, use only half the number of cards (just ensure both half-decks contain the same cards).

Play with only the number cards.

Instead of flipping the cards face down, remove them from the players’ grids completely.

In Spades, the spade suit is always trump.

The entire deck is dealt one at a time, face down, beginning on the dealer's left. The players then pick up their cards and arrange them by suits.

Each player decides how many tricks they will be able to take. The player to the dealer's left starts the bidding and, in turn, each player states how many tricks they expect to win. There is only one round of bidding, and the minimum bid is One. Every player must make a bid; no player may pass.

The player on the dealer's left makes the opening lead, and players must follow suit, if possible. If a player cannot follow suit, they may play a trump or discard. The trick is won by the player who plays the highest trump or if no trump was played, the player who played the highest card in the suit led. The player who wins the trick leads next. Play continues until none of the players have any cards left. Each hand is worth 13 tricks. Spades cannot be led unless played previously or player to lead has nothing but Spades in his hand.

Scoring: For making the contract (the number of tricks bid), the player scores 10 points for each trick bid, plus 1 point for each extra trick won.

If the player "breaks contract," that is, if they take fewer than the number of tricks bid, the score is 0. For example, if a player bids Four and wins only three tricks, no points are awarded.

The winner is the first to get to a set number of points. 200 points is suitable for a short game.

Modifications:

Allow a spade to be played at any time.

Omit the bid process and simplify scoring to 10 points for each trick taken.

Place a token in the middle of the table as a reminder of which suit was led.

The deck is divided evenly. Each player places their stack of cards face down in front of them.

Each player turns up a card at the same time and the player with the higher card takes both cards and puts them, face down, on the bottom of his stack.

If the cards are the same rank, this means war! Each player turns up one card face down and one card face up. The player with the higher cards takes both piles (six cards). If the turned-up cards are again the same rank, each player places another card face down and turns another card face up. The player with the higher card takes all 10 cards, and so on.

The game ends when one player has won all the cards.

Each player gets dealt 8 cards and the rest of the deck is set face down on the table.

The first card on the deck is turned onto the table, and players discard their cards by matching theirs with the suit or number and place it on top of that card. If you can’t match the card, you draw from the deck until you can.

You can also play an 8 card at any time (hence the name) and declare what suit you’d like the next player to match.

The object of the game is to be the first player to get rid of all your cards.

Modification:

To simplify the game to ability level, match just the number, colour, or suit of the cards.

Remove one of the cards from the deck so that its pair is “unmatchable.” The point of the game is to get as many pairs of cards in your hand as possible, and not be stuck with the unmatched “old maid” card at the end. Due to the name, the most common card to discard is a queen.

The way it works is you deal out all the cards starting with the player to the left of the dealer. Players then go through their cards and place any pairs they have (by rank) face up.

Then, starting with the dealer, each player offers the player to the left of them their hand face down, and that player draws a card of their choice and adds it to their deck.

If it makes a pair in their hand, they place it face down with their others. The process continues until one person is stuck with the unmatchable card.

The goal of this card game is to pair up cards in your hand and be the first person to use all your cards.

If you don’t have any matches in the remaining cards in your hand, you can ask another player for it. If they don’t have it, you draw another card from the deck adding the number of cards in your hand.

This great game is also a memory exercise of sorts because remembering what cards other players have asked for is part of the strategy. Matching skills are also exercised when playing Go Fish.

Create a set of 5 matched pairs of cards from the deck (10 cards total). Shuffle the cards and lay each card face down in a grid pattern.

Each player takes turns flipping over 2 cards to reveal the values and tries to make a pair.

If a match is made, the player keeps the paired cards and takes another turn. If not, the player flips the cards back over and the next player’s turn begins.

The game ends when all the cards have been matched. The player with the most pairs is the winner.

Modifications:

Increase or decrease the number of pairs in the grid according to the level of challenge desired.

Allow the cards to be left face-up for a longer period of time, and announce the cards verbally to help with memorization.