3 Card Games for Your Next Reunion

What is a get-together with your cousins or friends without a good game of UNO or Go Fish? However, playing the same two games repeatedly can be like watching paint dry.

Here are three easy-to-learn games that you can play anytime with a standard deck of cards.

War

War is a two to four-player game for people of all ages. The aim is to bag all 52 cards of the deck to be the winner.

The game starts by dealing the shuffled cards into two to four equal stacks, depending on the number of players. All the players flip the top card of their pile and compare. The one with the highest-ranking card takes all the cards on the table and adds them to the bottom of their pile.

The fun comes when two players flip the same card. If this happens, the players must yell "I declare war!" and put forth three cards from their decks facing down and flip over a fourth card. If the fourth card is also the same, then a "Double War" is declared, or else the person with the highest-powered card takes the cake.

Spoons

If you loved playing musical chairs as a kid, you'll definitely enjoy playing spoons.

It's a 3 to 13-player game. More people, more fun. The dealer starts by dealing each player with four cards and keeping the rest on their right-hand side. A set of spoons (n-1) is arranged in the middle of the playing area. Soon after the dealer picks a card from the deck on his right and discards one from his hand to the left, the others follow. This goes on until someone matches a suit and grabs a spoon. All must grab a spoon when he does. The player without the spoon is eliminated.

The game starts again with the number of players and spoons decreasing until there is only one winner.

Egyptian Ratscrew

This is one of the most animated card games out there. Watch out because it gets physical.

The deck is divided equally, and a player starts the game by flipping a card face down in the middle so that everyone can see. Clockwise, the other players do the same until a face card or an ace appears. Things get heated up as the next player gets a certain number of chances based on the last card that was placed. Jack, King, Queen and Ace equal one, two, three and four chances respectively.

If the player cannot flip a power card within their allowed chances, the one who played the previous power card slaps the deck and takes everything in the pile. Anyone in the game can win by grabbing the pile when some special rules like a sandwich, double, top-bottom, tens, marriage, etc. appear. The one who gets to snatch all the cards in the deck, wins.

From magic to madness, the possibilities with playing cards are endless.

Farnaz Fawad Hasan is a disintegrating pool noodle wanting to stay afloat. Reach her at farnazfawadhasan@gmail.com