5 Social Card Games to Play with Your Friends
Throughout my life I’ve always had a love for card games. In my childhood playing simple card games such as Snap, then playing Bridge with my brother and grandparents and burning the midnight oil playing Blackjack and Poker with my buddies.
As technology advances, perhaps the simple joys of the games devised on a 52 deck of cards are becoming somewhat antiquated and lost. Yet whether I’m at my family home on Christmas day, on a long haul flight for work or relaxing on holiday on a Caribbean beach the simple pleasure of playing cards always brightens my day.
The best thing about cards is that it brings people together. Too many people are isolated and don’t get together nearly enough. Whatever stage of life you at be it a student, parent or retiree, cards is a great way to relax, socialize and have fun!
Here are five social card games you can try out with your friends or family. The rules to all of these games can be found on Pagat Card Games!
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Bridge
Bridge is a game for 4 people on 2 competing teams and has been played all over the world for more than 100 years. As a social game it is simply unrivalled. Bridge is both a complicated game of skill and a partnership game involving trick taking. It has gained fans from all walks of life. This is what Warren Buffet had to say about it…
“Bridge is such a sensational game that I wouldn’t mind being in jail if I had three cellmates who were decent players and who were willing to keep the game going 24 hours a day.” Warren Buffet
If it’s good enough for Mr Buffet its good enough for me! If you want to know the rules or learn how to play visit the Great Bridge Links guide to learning bridge.
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Poker
Poker like Bridge is a game involving a high level of skill. Probably the most popular betting card game and with good reason.
This is a great game to play with your friends. It’s exploded online on places like Facebook, but I prefer sitting round a table with friends with a few beers and having a chat for a great evening’s entertainment. Remember to practise your poker face and not give the game away!
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Blackjack (21)
Not quite the same level of skill as poker and I find this is a game best played at the casino tables with friends as you’ll need a dealer.
The concept of blackjack is simple. You just need to get closer to 21 than the dealer without going bust (hitting 22 or over). This is a great game for casino beginners and it’s great to sit round the table with friends and compete to win. You can find the Rules of Blackjack here and you can enjoy a Blackjack Strategy Guide here.
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Slapjack
You don’t need to be a card shark to play this one. It’s great for families to play with the kids as it’s a basic game with simple rules and a lot of fun for youngsters.
Simply split a deck of cards among the players and start turning the top card over into a pile with competing players taking turns. When a Jack appears the first person to slap the jack wins the pile! Game ends when someone has all the cards.
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Rummy
Quite a few variations of this game exist and this game is best player with 2-4 players, but you could stretch to 6. This is probably my favourite holiday game to play lazily on a balcony whilst overlooking a beautiful beach.
The object of Rummy is to simply get rid of your cards. Each player is given an amount of cards and must form either a sequence in the same suit (e.g. Spades) or a set of the same rank (e.g. 7). Players take turns in choosing and discarding cards to form the correct sequences. The quickest one to do this wins!
So there you have it five social games to play. Who would have thought all that variation from one 52 deck of playing cards!
All you need to play all five are a deck of cards and some chips. Also if you are interest in either blackjack or poker online check out this Betfair No Deposit Bonus for a free play.