Card Games Rules

Rules of card games in a nutshell

Are you enthusiastic about learning some of the basic instructions of all your favorite card games? Do you want to know how to play favorite games like Crazy Eights, Gin Rummy, President, and much more? If so, then you have just landed on the right website. Here, you are going to find all the rules as well as some basic tutorials of the world’s greatest card games. However, before that, it is incredibly impressive to have some information about the genre so that as you cruise through the website, you will have some clues of what we will be talking about or terms we shall be using.

What is a card game?

A card game is typically any game played using a set of cards as the primary equipment. It is important to note that card games are one of the oldest genres in the world of gaming. It has been played during the medieval times, and some game types are still played up to date. Nowadays, there are an endless number of card games, each having its set of rules and variations.

Many games that are typically not in the genre of card games do indeed use cards at some in its gameplay. Besides that, some games in the card game world involve more about boards, and so on. The punch line here is that the gameplay of a card game primarily relies on the use of playing cards by players irrespective of the presence of a board or any other playing equipment.


Playing cards
Playing cards 2

Card game playing equipment

One of the standard rules of card games is that it is played using a pack or deck of playing cards. As the name suggest, a playing card is a unique playing equipment of identical shape and size. Typically, each card has two sides; that is the back and the face. In most cases, the back of the cards appears similar while the faces are all unique (but there can be duplicates). A standard playing card deck has about 52 cards with different ranks starting from 2, 3,4,5,7, 8, 9, 10, A, J, K, and A.

Besides the playing cards, some card games can be played with tiles made of bone, plastic, wood, or similar materials. The most profound example of such tiles sets is mahjong tiles, dominoes tiles, and Rummikub tiles. Other equipment that may be played with playing cards in a card game includes, but not limited to boards, tables, and makers

Rules of card games

A new card game begins in a small way, perhaps as someone’s invention or as a modification of a game that previously existed. Those playing the said game may unanimously agree to change some of the rules, as they may want so long as the rules they have agreed upon is deemed the ‘house rules’ under which they play it.

When a new card game becomes incredibly popular to the extent that people play it with strangers, it is inevitable that the game has some accepted set of rules. However, it should be understood that there is nothing official or static about setting rules of card games. Actually, for many of popular games, there are no specific or universal rules under which the game is played. This explains why there is what we call game variations.


How cards games are classified

As earlier mentioned, there are tens of hundreds of cards games in the gaming world. It is not an easy assignment to make a clear distinguish from one game to another, perhaps because their gameplay appears to be similar. Nonetheless, card games can easily be classified based on certain factors, which include the following:

  • Number of players

Any particular card game imposes rules on the number of players. There are games for one player, often referred to as patience or solitaire, and two-player or multi-player games. Typically, the two-player card has been immensely popular across the world, and it is worth to mention that many multi-player card games originated from a two-player game and later adapted to a higher number of players.

  • Age of players

Card games are classified based on the age of the participants. There are those games for kids aged five or below, ten and above, and so on. There are games for adults, especially those played at adult parties, and so on.

  • Classified game index

Cards can be categorized based on gameplay mechanism, equipment used, and the objective of the game.

  • Other factors

Many other factors come into play during classification of card games, which include the regional index, most popular games, average playing time, and so on.

Types of card games


Based on the above classification, different types of cards exist. In passing, we are going to state just but a few, often prevalent in the gaming world. It includes the following:

  • Solitaire/Patience games
  • Gambling or casino card games: are games that revolve around money or bets, and it include Blackjack, Poker, and so on
  • Dedicated deck card games, which include Uno, Cash Trader, 1000 Black White Cards, Set, and so on
  • Trick-taking game that includes traditional card games like the Spades, Bridge, Euchre, and so on
  • Shedding games, which include popular games such as Crazy Eights, I Doubt IT, Old Maid, and so on
  • Matching games, which include Rummy, Go Fish, Blue Canary, and much more
  • Accumulating games, which include Egyptian War and Slapjack War)
  • Comparing games, which include the Blackjack, Baccarat, and Poker
  • Fishing games, which include Scopa and Cassino
  • Drinking card games, which include President, Poker, Toepen, and much more


As you go through this website, you will find section(s) that typically explain rules and how to play a specific popular card game Besides that, we have a comprehensive card game rule tutorial on various common types of cards, which include the Blackjack (comparing games), Crazy Eights (shedding games), Ginny Rummy, 500 Rummy (matching games), Mexican Train (dedicated deck card games), Mendikot (trick-taking game), and Speed/Spit (shedding game). So, to continue reading, roll down to the subsequent pages. Happy reading and have fun!