Card Games — Rules & How to Play

Objective: make the best five-card hand — or convince everyone else to fold before it matters.

Hand rankings, highest to lowest: Royal Flush, Straight Flush, Four of a Kind, Full House, Flush, Straight, Three of a Kind, Two Pair, One Pair, High Card.

How a hand of Texas Hold'em works (the most common way to play today): every player is dealt two private "hole" cards. Five shared community cards are then revealed in three stages — three at once (the "flop"), then one more (the "turn"), then a final one (the "river") — with a round of betting after each stage. Every player builds the best possible five-card hand from any combination of their two hole cards and the five community cards. Whoever has the best hand at the end wins the pot — or, if everyone else folds along the way, the last player left simply takes the pot without needing to show their cards.

Objective: get your hand as close to 21 as possible without going over — and closer than the dealer.

Card values: number cards are worth their face value, Jack/Queen/King are each worth 10, and an Ace is worth 1 or 11 — whichever helps your hand more.

How to play: each player and the dealer are dealt two cards. On your turn, choose to hit (take another card) or stand (keep your total as-is). Go over 21 and you bust — you lose immediately, no matter what the dealer ends up with. Once every player has finished, the dealer reveals their hand and must keep hitting until they reach 17 or more.

Winning: whoever is closer to 21 without busting wins. A two-card total of 21 (an Ace plus any 10-value card) is a "blackjack," and traditionally beats any other 21.

Objective: collect the most four-of-a-kind sets, called "books."

Setup: deal 7 cards to each player if there are 2–3 players, or 5 cards each if there are 4 or more. The rest of the deck goes face-down in the middle as the "pond."

How to play: on your turn, ask one opponent for a specific rank you already hold at least one of — "Do you have any 7s?" If they have any, they must hand over all of them, and you get to go again. If they don't, they say "Go Fish," and you draw a card from the pond. Draw the exact rank you asked for, and you go again; otherwise, play passes to the next player. Whenever you collect all four of a rank, lay that book down in front of you.

Winning: once all 13 books have been collected, the player with the most books wins.

Objective: win every card in the deck.

Setup: split the deck evenly between the two players, dealt face-down as a personal draw pile each.

How to play: both players flip their top card face-up at the same time. Whoever's card ranks higher wins both cards, and adds them to the bottom of their own pile. If the two cards tie, it's War: each player deals three cards face-down, then one final card face-up — whoever's face-up card wins takes everything on the table, ties and all.

Winning: the player who ends up with the whole deck wins. For a quicker game, agree on a time limit and count cards to see who's ahead.

Objective: be the fastest to spot a match — great for kids, brutal for anyone with slow reflexes.

Setup: deal the whole deck evenly between all players, face-down and unseen.

How to play: going in turn, each player flips their own top card face-up onto one shared central pile. The moment the newly flipped card matches the rank of the card that was already on top, anyone can shout "Snap!" — whoever calls it first scoops up the entire central pile and adds it, still face-down, to the bottom of their own pile.

Winning: the last player still holding cards once everyone else has run out wins the game.

Objective: sort the entire deck into four piles by suit, Ace up to King.

Setup: deal seven tableau columns, with 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7 cards respectively — only the top card of each column face-up, the rest face-down beneath it. The remaining cards form your draw pile.

How to play: build the four "foundation" piles up by suit, starting with each Ace. On the tableau, stack cards in descending order, alternating colours — a red 8 can sit on a black 9, for example. Move a face-up card (or a whole valid sequence) onto a tableau card one rank higher and the opposite colour, and flip over any face-down card it exposes underneath. Stuck? Draw from the stock pile. Only a King can be placed on an empty tableau column.

Winning: you win the moment all four foundations are complete, Ace to King.