Easy and fun card games

1. Slapjack

The gameplay is really straightforward:

• A 52-card deck is divided equally between the players. Then they start to take turns, and each one has to place the top card from their stack face-up in the middle of the table. The pile of cards has to be within reach of everyone.
• This will continue until Jack is played. Now players may try to slap the pile by placing their hand over it. In other words, the goal here is to slap the jack! Whoever will do it faster gets the pile, then shuffles the cards and adds them to the bottom of their own stack.
• The winner of the hand starts a new pile.
• If someone runs out of cards, they will have one more opportunity to slap a jack. If it is not successful, that player is eliminated.
• The player who collects all cards is the final winner.

Similar to Egyptian Rat Screw, this is a very fast-paced game. So you have to be always ready to slap the jack on the table!

2. My Ship Sails

The rules are pretty simple to learn:

• Each player receives 7 cards. Players take turns in a clockwise direction and discard one of their cards.
• Then everyone takes the discarded card to their right and removes another one from their hand.
• This will continue until someone collects seven cards of the same suit. That player should say “my ship sails” and put their hand face-up on the table.

This is one easy to understand and super engaging card game. You can spend hours playing it with your family and friends.

3. I Doubt It

The number of players is usually 4, and they use a 52-card deck. Rules of the game may vary but usually the play goes as follows:

• Everyone gets an equal number of cards. The game is played in a clockwise direction.
• Players start to take turns. They have to discard one or more cards face-down and announce their rank. Of course, this could be a lie. The first player should discard aces (or at least call aces), the second – twos, and so on. The rank of the cards increases with every turn.
• If you think someone is lying, you challenge them by shouting “I doubt it” (or “Cheat”). Then the cards from the pile are revealed. If the player was lying, they must take all of the discarded cards into their hand. But if you were wrong in your accusation, you must take the pile.
• The first player who is left without cards is the winner.

The game is suitable for both kids and adults. Challenge your inner detective and start identifying liars.

4. Spoons

The objective is to grab a spoon when the right time comes. The number of spoons is one less than the number of players.

Here is how it goes:

• Players receive 4 cards from the dealer. The rest of the cards are positioned as stock. Spoons are placed in the middle of the table with handles pointing to the players.
• The dealer gets the top card from the stock. They can either keep it or pass it face down to the left. If the dealer decides to keep the card, they must pass another card from their hand to the next player.
• Then the next player must also decide which card to keep and pass. This rotation continues until the last player. Finally, that player has to discard one card. A player can not have more than 4 cards.
• When someone has 4 of a kind, that player can grab a spoon. Then all players will attempt to take a spoon from the table. One of them will be left without a spoon and will lose the round. The loser is given the letter “S”.
• A player is eliminated once they get all of the letters from the word “spoon”. When this happens, one spoon is also removed. The game is played until there is only one player left.

Players can pass the cards as quickly as they wish. If someone grabs a spoon by mistake, that player loses the round and gets a letter. Isn’t that fun?

The spoons card game is definitely a kid’s favorite.

You can also check this comprehensive article for more in-depth spoons advises.

5. 500

500 is a variation of the famous game Euchre, and it is also known as Bid Euchre. Popular in Australia but invented in the USA, Five Hundred is more enjoyable in team play.

To play the game, you need a 43 card deck, including a Joker.

-Red suits consist of the cards:
A K Q J 10 9 8 7 6 5 4;
-Black suits including the following cards:
A K Q J 10 9 8 7 6 5;
-Cards ranking is the same as ordered above

What is the game objective?
-Attempt to score first 500 points. The player or team that reaches a score of 500 is the winner. (The name of the game comes from the scoring objective).

If you know how to play Euchre, you can learn a Five Hundred very fast. Check out the differences between both games here:

For detailed but also easy rules about Five hundred game, you can check the sites below. Probably you should do it if you are not familiar with the Euchre card game:

https://500rules.com/
https://gathertogethergames.com/500
https://www.pagat.com/euchre/500.html

6. President

The object is to get rid first of all your cards.

The highest card is Two. The ranking of the cards is shown below: 2 A K Q J 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3.

President card game is more suitable for adults. To simplify the game, we will separate it into 3 main parts.

1. The start of the game is much more interesting than the other games.
Each player randomly takes one card from the deck, which cards are faced down.

The player who picks the lowest card is the dealer. The player to the dealer’s left is playing first a card or a set of cards. Set is more than one card of the same rank).
Players can respond with the same set but always with higher cards. They also can pass. The suit of the cards is not important. When your turn comes, you pass, or you put a higher card. After the trick is taken, the cards are put face down and separated on the table. The trick winner starts the next play.

If all players pass, the game starts again from the one who played the last card. When some players don’t have any cards, they are skipped.

2. The initial part of the game stops when the players finish their cards, and the second part of the game starts. The sitting order of the players changes depending on when they get rid of the cards.
The first player who starts is the one who finishes their cards before the rest of the players. This player is called President. The second player sitting to the left of the president is the Vice President, and the third player is called Speaker of The House. Last in order is The Beggar (Scum).

3. If keeping score, the President and The Vice President get additional points in this hand. The Beggar is responsible for dealing and ordering the cards. When the dealing of the next round is complete, The Beggar gives their highest card to The President. The president is choosing and returning to The Beggar any of their cards.

The President Leads the next play and the procedure repeats until one player reaches the target, which usually is 11 points.

7. G O P S

The game is played with a standard 52 card deck, but the heart suit is removed. All the suits are separated. One of the players takes clubs and the other spades. The diamonds are shuffled and faced down in a pile.

The card ranking is in the following order from low to high:
Ace, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, J, Q, K.

The game starts by turning on the first diamond card from the pile. The players start bidding for it with one of their cards. They put their bids face down. Finally, the one with the higher bid obtains the diamond card. When there is a draw the players bid again for a new diamond card (similar to the war card game). The winner of the last bid takes both cards.

When all bid cards finish, the game ends. Players count the value of the diamonds won. The player with the highest score wins the game.

More details about the history, the rules, and variations of GOPS.

8. Mao

The rank of cards: A (high), K, Q, J, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2.

The main objective is to discard all your cards.

Interesting for this card game is that you have to be careful not to break the “unspoken rules”, and it’s forbidden to teach the rules to new players. They have to figure them out during the game.

The gameplay and rules go as follows:

1. A dealer is chosen at random. They deal each player 3 or 7 cards if they want to make the game easier. The rest of the remaining cards form the stockpile. The top card is flipped over to create the discard pile.
2. Players must not touch the distributed cards until the dealer says: “The name of the game is Mao”. Then the player to the left can start the game.
3. Each player has to play a card that matches the suit or rank of the center card on the discard pile.
4. If you’re not able to place a card according to the above rule, draw a new card. Again, if you don’t have any playable cards, pick an additional card from the pile, which will count as you have played for your turn.
5. The game is played in a clockwise direction until the gameplay is changed. Some rules can cause a player to miss a turn or reverse the order of play.

The “Unspoken Rules”:

If both experienced and inexperienced players are playing, then these rules have to be set before the game starts.

1. If someone put down an ace, the next player has to skip their turn. If the next person doesn’t abide by the rule a penalty is charged.
2. If a player discards a 2, he/she has to place down a second card. The second card has to match the suit or numerical/face value of the previous card. (If there are no playable cards, the turn ends.)
3. Pick a card from the pile, if the previous player puts down a 7 and says: “Have a nice day”. Other players can penalize you if you fail to do so.
4. Play in the opposite direction if someone puts down an 8. You can be penalized if you don’t reverse the gameplay.
5. The Jack card is the wild card. Declare a new suit if you put down a Jack.
6. Declare the exact card you’re putting down if your card is a spade. If you forget, you can be penalised.
7. Say: “One card” when you’re about to discard the last card. A penalty is applied if the player forgets to do so.
8. You can discard an identical card at any point in the game. Use the “two-it” rule that allows you to put an identical card down on the pile.

Learn the complete rules of the MAO card game and become a pro!

9. Speed

Speed is a fun game alternative to Uno. So in order to win, you should be the first player to get rid of your cards.

The card order is similar to other matching-type card games and depends on whether the Ace is low or high.

When Ace is low:
A, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, J, Q, K

When Ace is High:
2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, J, Q, K, A

Game start
The player who has the smallest card after the drawing is chosen for a dealer.

After shuffling, the dealer gives each player 2 piles of cards facing down. The first pile contains 5 cards, the second one-15 cards.
Next, the dealer makes 4 more piles and leaves them in the middle. The second and third piles contain only one card each. The first and the fourth have 5 cards each.

Gameplay
The middle two card piles are flipped and players start to get rid of their cards.
The players can meld throwing a card below or card above to the flipped cards. The card suits don’t matter.

After each playing card within the pile, the player takes the top card in their 15 card pile.
It is forbidden to take a card from the 1st and 4th piles if the player has an option to play in the middle piles using their prime cards.

When it is not possible to play with the middle piles, the players replace them with the upper side pile card. To create new middle piles the remaining cards in the table are shuffled and divided into 2 piles. The next step is to take the first card from each pile and create two middle piles which contain one card each.

The winner is the first player without cards.

For a more in-depth look check our other post about how to play Speed.

10. Oh Hell

This is a trick-taking type game, and you always have to follow suit if possible. The objective is to have the most points at the end of the game. Each player has to bid the number of tricks they think they could win for the respective hand. Players are allowed to bid zero if they believe they won’t take any tricks. Cards are ranked from 2 (lowest) to Ace (highest).

How to play
Each player receives 10 cards for the first hand. The top card from the remaining deck is flipped with the face up to determine the trump. Then players bid how many tricks they intend to take. The player left of the dealer goes first. Then the play proceeds clockwise, and the highest-ranked card wins. The winner of each trick leads the next.

Each hand is played with one card fewer than the previous one. Therefore for the next, players get 9 cards each. This will continue until a hand consists of only one card. After that it’s the opposite: the number of cards dealt will increase with each hand until it reaches 10. (10,9,8…1,2,3…10)

Scoring
You get 10 points if you make your bid and 1 additional point for every trick you take. If you take more or fewer tricks than your bid, you won’t score any points for this hand.

In the end, the player with the most points is the winner.