Card Games For Dummies
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Beginning a card game is generally pretty straightforward — you deal the proscribed number of cards to the players. However, ending a card game can be a little different. Some games continue until a player reaches a certain score, others require a specific number of deals. The following list of popular card games tells you that you keep playing until . . .

  • Blackjack: The players run out of money (don’t worry about the casino) or decide they’ve had enough.

  • Bridge: One side wins a rubber of two games, then the side with the higher score wins. If playing Chicago Bridge, you change partners after four deals. If playing Duplicate Bridge, you play a session of between 20 and 26 deals — whatever the Tournament Director decrees.

  • Canasta: A player or team scores 1,500 points.

  • Cribbage: A player scores 121 points.

  • Eights: A player scores 250 points (or whatever number is agreed on by the players).

  • Euchre: One side scores 10 points.

  • Fan Tan: One player cleans out all the rest, or when everybody has had enough.

  • Gin Rummy: A player scores 250 points in one game or a series of games.

  • Hand and Foot: You finish four deals. Whoever has the most points wins.

  • Hearts: A player amasses 100 penalty points, at which point the player with the fewest penalty points wins.

  • Oh Hell!: You complete cycle of hands (starting with 7 cards to each player, and then reducing to 1, and going up again to 7 cards). The player with the highest score wins.

  • Pinochle: A player or partnership scores 1,000 points.

  • Poker: The players lose their money or lose interest.

  • President: Everybody gets bored of humiliating one another.

  • Rummy: A player scores 100 points – or whatever total is agreed by the contestants.

  • Setback: A player scores 11 (or 21) points.

  • Spades: One side scores 500 points.

  • Whist: One side wins a rubber of two games by getting to 7 points first on two occasions. At a Whist drive, a session typically ends after 24 deals.

About This Article

This article is from the book:

About the book author:

Barry Rigal is an internationally recognized Bridge player who has won countless competitions. They include the North American Bridge Championships as well as the Camrose Trophy Home International Series, which he has won five times. Barry is also the author of the previous editions of Card Games For Dummies.

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