Omar Sharif

The variety of card games means that you can find one to suit most any situation. Most card players are familiar with some type of poker, though they may need to be reminded of how the hands are ranked. You can play some card games as long as all the players are happy to continue; others end at a particular score, and all are made more enjoyable when players adhere to card-game etiquette.

Cribbage is a game of numbers. You collect points by combining cards together to make runs, or scoring combinations. The mathematics is simple, but cribbage is a game of strategy and tactics. Sometimes you try to score points, sometimes you try to stop your opponent from scoring; every game is subtly different.

Scoring in a game of Spades follows a predictable path — but beware the sting in the tail that comes from going set, or from underbidding, and racking up the overtricks! Dealing with undertricks If you fall short in your bid, no matter by how many tricks, you lose ten times the value of your bid. For example, if you bid 10 and fail, you lose 100 points.

After the dealer reveals the starting card (and claims his 2 points, if possible), both players have their first serious chance to score points. During the play of the cards, you take turns playing one card from each of your hands. Your goal is to form certain combinations of cards that score you points. During gameplay, you must keep track of the cumulative value of the cards that have been played.

In a Cribbage game, after you finish playing out the cards, you pick up your hand (the cards you’ve been placing on the table in front of you) and move on to the main phase of scoring. For this scoring phase, both players treat the starter as a fifth card to supplement their hands for pairs, sequences, and combinations of 15, but during this phase, you can’t use your opponent’s cards as you can during the play of the cards.

Spades is traditionally a game for four players, played in partnership (with the partners sitting opposite each other). The players take turns playing out one card from their hands clockwise around the table. You must play a card in whichever suit is played first (or led) if you can, which is called following suit.

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.

Hearts is a game of skill — to a certain extent. You rely on luck to get good cards dealt to you, but strategic playing and a good memory make an enormous difference in this game. Keeping track of the cards played in each suit helps you to master this game, and practice and experience have no substitute. Hearts is a cutthroat game, meaning that you normally don’t play in partnerships, no matter the number of players involved.

When playing Spades, the play of the cards goes clockwise, starting with the player to the dealer’s left. He puts a card face-up in the middle of the table, and then all other players contribute a card in turn. If you have no cards in the suit led, you can play anything you like; if you play a spade on the lead of a heart, diamond, or club, you win the trick because spades trump the other suits.