Card Games: Expert Guides and Resources

Texas hold’em poker is everywhere these days — on TV, online, and in clubs and casinos. Before you sit down to a game of Texas hold 'em, make sure you’re in good shape to be successful — take care of non-poker issues and check your physical, mental, and financial status.During the game, you need to understand basic odds and playable hands, as well as how to bluff successfully and follow proper poker etiquette.

Rummy is a card game in which you try to improve the hand that you’re originally dealt. You can do this whenever it’s your turn to play, either by drawing cards from a pile (or stock) or by picking up the card thrown away by your opponent and then discarding a card from your hand.You can play rummy with two or more players (for six or more players, you need a second deck of cards).

Euchre is an excellent social card game, simple in concept but with a high degree of subtlety in the play. To play Euchre, you need the following:Four players: Two teams, two players to a team.A standard deck of 52 cards: Take out the ace through the 9 in each suit, making a deck of 24 cards for the game.Each player receives five cards, and you play one card at a time; the player who lays the highest card in the suit of the first card played — unless someone contributes a trump, in which case it is whoever lays the highest trump card — collects all four cards together and stacks the cards in front of them, thus taking the trick.

In bridge, bidding is considered the most important aspect of the game. It's a given that a good bidder equals a winning bridge player. Here are a few bidding tips to start you off: Before opening, add your high card points (HCP): Ace = 4, King = 3, Queen = 2, Jack = 1. With 12 or more HCP, open the bidding. To open 1♥ or 1♠, you need at least five cards in the suit.

Each hand of bridge is divided into four phases, which always occur in the same order: dealing, bidding for tricks, playing the hand, and scoring. Dealing Someone (anyone) shuffles the deck, and then each player takes one card and places it face-up on the table. The player with the highest card is the dealer.

In bridge, bidding is an exchange of information. During bidding, you're trying to telegraph details about your cards to your partner. Your first impulse may be to develop some special bidding conventions that only you and your partner know.According to the rules of the game, however, you can't have any bidding secrets with your partner; the same goes for your opponents.

This handy table for bridge players shows how many points you score if you make your contract. Your bridge score depends upon which suit you end up in (including notrump) and how many tricks you take.For example, if spades are trumps and you bid for eight tricks and you take exactly eight tricks, read across the spade line to see that you scored 60 points.

In the following example, you can see the bids each bridge player makes during a sample bidding sequence. You don’t see the cards on which each player bases his or her bid — they aren’t important for now. Just follow the bidding around the table, noting how each bid is higher than the one before it. Assume that you’re in the South position.

Sorry to break the news to you, but as yet no one has come up with software that can play bridge at an expert level. However, the quality of the software continues to improve. The beginner bridge programs give you a chance to practice your bidding, card play, and defense without risking the embarrassment of an angry partner.