Over the last couple of days I’ve rediscovered my favourite card game; Shithead (also called palace). We used to play it for hours on end at work, with various forfeits being dished out to the losers! Fun times.

What’re your favourites?

Scabby Queen.

We used to play it for hours on end at work,

That’s why this country has gone down the shitter. 😐

I used to play a bit of Bridge in my 30’s but got a bit nobbed-off with there being no one else remotely in my age-group in the club

I’ll probly take it up again when I retire.

[Quote] That’s why this country has gone down the shitter. [/quote]

I should clarify; I am a professional playing card tester.

God, scabby queen, I’d forgotten about that. Every deck of cards in my school was bloodstained.

Bezique is good, but unfortunately there’s only about 7 people left alive who know how to play it, and 5 of them are in their 90s.

God, scabby queen, I’d forgotten about that. Every deck of cards in my school was bloodstained.

I still have scars on my knuckles from snipes.

I’d love to learn how to play Bridge, but I don’t know anyone else who plays regularly.

Must be something online, anyone recommend anything?

No. Next?

I’ve never played Next.

Is that the one where you stand in a line for four hours for the chance to win an ugly suit?
🙂

Poker is the best card game, as you’re not just playing the cards, you’re playing each other.

Great cheap night in, put a fiver or a tenner in each, order loads of pizza and crisps.

Cards against humanity, except when my 70 year old mum played. and won. 😯

The greatest card game ever, I don’t know the name of. This explanation is edited from a post I made elsewhere, so sorry if the formatting is off.

>
For each player, take four-of-a-kind cards out of the deck. These become your
game deck and the rest of the pack is placed in the middle of the table (so
with five players, you might have a game deck of 4 aces, 4 fours, 4 eights, 4
tens and 4 kings; the actual value matters not). The game deck is shuffled,
and four cards are dealt to each player.

The first object of the game is to get four of a kind in your hand. To do
this, players pass a single unwanted card to the player on their left
*simultaneously* with the other players; so, as you hand a card to your left,
one should appear to your right. Turns are therefor are self-controlled by players working together. At least in theory. (-:

Once a player gets four-of-a-kind, they place their hand on the central deck to
signify winning. Other players must then place their hands on top of the
first, with the last person to respond being the loser for that
round.

The loser is handed a penalty card from the centre deck as their “losings” which
they put aside (taking care not to get it mixed up with the game deck), the game
deck is shuffled and re-dealt, and play begins again.

Once the centre deck is exhausted, the game is over and the overall winner is
the player with the fewest “losing” cards to their name.

Of course, it’s possible for more than one person to get a winning hand at the
same time, so getting to the deck quickly is a good idea; this can lead to
frantic gameplay and twitchy players. Bluffing is therefore common, as
touching the centre deck during play without having four-of-a-kind in your
hand (whether as an incorrect claim or reacting to someone else bluffing) is
verboten; the transgressing player is handed a penalty card and then, when
practical, play continues as normal.

I learnt this at school. I’ve never come across it since and I’ve
no idea what, if anything, it’s called. We subsequently named it Spank The
Monkey, after the hand-slapping motion on the centre deck. I’ve introduced it
to loads of people, and everyone’s always loved it. It’s tremendous, and can be very silly.

I know that game as “spoons”, where once you get four of a kind you all have to grab a spoon (or some other counter) from the center – there’s one fewer spoon than player though….

Link

my favourite game is Euchre.

Mrs Stoner and I were taught it by a couple of Aussies who were on our boat on our honeymoon. I now play it on my phone all the time.
Unfortunately its a 3 or 4 player game so until the boys are a bit older it’s not one for us just yet as a family.

It’s a very subtle whist-like game but where the card ranks change in play so weak hands can strengthen or strong hands weaken at the bidding point.

The Basics of Playing Euchre

I know that game as “spoons”,

It’s similar, yeah – there’s one called Pig too I believe. But don’t they have ordered turns? The chaos is what makes STM great.

Everyone naturally speeds up as they get closer to a winning hand, so people get flustered and end up with no cards, or too many cards, then try and sort it out, then someone quietly claims.

The instinct is to smash your hand down on the deck, then everyone else piles in and it all gets very raucous. So then you can start very quietly placing your hand down when no-one’s looking. It can take a couple of turns for everyone to catch on if other players are similarly quiet.

Alternatively, if everyone’s wired, smacking the table next to the deck can be enough to make someone hit the deck incorrectly (which can backfire if they do in fact have 4; you’re sat there laughing and suddenly lose the round). Or, waving your hand over the deck but not touching it can cause people to dive in (but again this can backfire if someone pins your hand down onto the deck).

The absence of someone dictating the pace is the major difference though, I reckon. I can’t imagine playing it like that, the chaos is core to what makes it fun.

Nomination whist is our go to

But don’t they have ordered turns?

I suppose you could play it with ordered turns, but I never have. Normally have someone “3,2,1”-ing so that everyone passes/picks up simultaneously.

It is all about the dummy grab though, I agree

I enjoy a variation of whist in which you predict how many hands you are going to win. 10 points are scored for a correct prediction plus 1 point for each hand won. Left of the dealer (who changes each hand) predicts first, then each player followed by the dealer, but the number of predicted wins can’t be the same as possible wins. You use a full deck and start with seven cards each reducing by one each round. The winner is the one with the most points at the end. Sometimes players can be eliminated if they fail to win a hand, but the game works either way. Just get someone who is good at note taking and adding up to score.

We were too poor for cards.

Cheesy biscuit ftw…..

Cribbage is the one I play the most.

Bridge I’ve not played for ages. Learned to play that in A-Level Applied Maths.

Tai Tee – or Big Two. Chinese/Asian game that’s a bit like a cross between cheat and Poker. Takes a while to learn, but once you have it’s bloody addictive!
Tai Tee

Tai Tee – or Big Two.

That’s another which gets played at home quite often.

Solitaire since Windows 3.1 days. That’s about my card playing limit.

I don’t care for poker because it’s all about bollocks and money and not calculating strategy.

The only game where the cards have nothing to do with how well you do is Bridge.

A favourite when I was in school was Black Bitch aka Hearts. Made harder by having hearts as trumps.

Playing cards takes me back to rainy holidays & schooldays – Canasta, Whist, Bridge, Gin Rummy, Black Maria (a.k.a. scabby queen or hearts), and Pikey (Sh1thead). My parents played bridge endlessly, and had new packs every time, so there was never a shortage of cards.

Go Johnny Go Go Go Go.

Spoons and hunt the c*** but overshadowed by bridge which is a truly awesome game

Rusty and Rob, I would recommend bridge baron as an app. I play many hands a day after reading papers and catching up on there while commuting. I’m addicted to it.

About the play some more as stuck in hotel in Frankfurt on my own

Bridge is by far the best card game, though proper competition style is very strange first time (you don’t get to collect your tricks as someone else will be playing the same hand next).

We play spoons or whatever you call it by placing a finger on the nose when you’ve got four of a kind.

Regular games here are rummy, shithead, trumps and cribbage, sometimes crazy eights. Played a lot of bridge at school, great game. Will try that app thm.

Find the lady was a cleaned up name for it i’m sure it was the queen of spades you daren’t be left with
Black 5
8 miss a turn
Jack change direction
Pick up 2 or 4 or 6 even
Ace change suit
Etc etc

Cheat is great fun with the kids

I love a game of crib. Used to work in a bar where the bar manager was a crib obsessive. As one of the few staff who knew how to play and/or could beat him (sometimes), I spent many an evening getting payed to play cards. There is something nostalgic about it, the way it’s so full of language, turns, and ceremonies.

^ oh yes; “one for his nob”!

I play bridge quite a bit – face to face in a league team, online mainly with robots for practice. Great game for being extremely deep, but also quite accessible and social to play.

The main bridge site on the net is bridgebaseonline (BBO). It’s free to join so in principle you could just wade in there and play with people, but bridge being a partnership game this could cause issues if you don’t know what you’re doing. If you learnt the rudiments, though, and labelled your profile as novice you could get going.
Also v easy to play robot games which is another way to learn – generally a small charge for this like 25 cents a game.

Black 5
8 miss a turn
Jack change direction
Pick up 2 or 4 or 6 even
Ace change suit
Etc etc

We called that Switch. Best played with a penalty for hesitation or mistakes so you can’t think about your move!

I love card games and reckon a pack of cards is one of the five greatest inventions ever.
For the past dozen years or so we’ve played alternating nomination whist and hearts every morning break and lunchtime, at work. A record of every game won is then recorded on a bar graph and these are put up on the wall at the end of the year. : )
Bridge is my favourite game, but I’ve not played for a long time.

We called that Switch.

Poor man’s iteration of Mao, which is the second greatest card game ever.

3 card Bragg was an utterly proficient way to lose my wages when I was a squaddie. But reverse heart’s amongst 4 good players can be absolutely class. But I have to be honest and admit I haven’t managed to get any of my kids remotely interested.

I don’t care for poker because it’s all about bollocks and money and not calculating strategy.

Poker is all about strategy.

The only game where the cards have nothing to do with how well you do is Bridge

And poker a lot of the time. Very often you can win with the worst hand.
If you get the strategy right.

nealglover – Member

Poker is all about strategy. True, and it’s obv a deep game, but it isn’t really a card game. It’s about the players and the money and the cards are just a nice way of exchanging information. The intrinsic card game of most poker variants is worthless, no one wold ever want to play them without money.