Fifteen-Two, Fifteen-Four, Pair's Six...

[slowfox]

P and I have been playing Cribbage, which is a good game, and probably more fun than Rummy - at least for us at the moment.

Our book of card games also has rules for Two-handed Hearts, which was entertaining (playing the rule that the Queen of Spades hits you for 13pts).

Aside from Cribbage, Rummy, Hearts and a few versions of patience, we've not tried any of the other games described.

I do remember getting very into Auction Pinochle whilst at Uni, but you need four players for that one, and sadly P & I simply number two (Mali can't really be trusted to join in).

So, any other 2-player card games that you lot recommend?

Comments

[aome]

War? Go Fish? Multiple solitaire? (Excuse the paradox. :P) You each have your own solitaire hand laid out in front of you, as usual, but the aces are all put in the center, in a common pool, which means you and P may be each trying to beat the other to put down your cards there. Does that make sense?

There was some sort of two-person game my father taught me as a child, called, "Partoot" but I have no recollection of how to play. Rats.

How about a checkerboard?

[slowfox]

P already routinely beats me at chess (although I tend to win at draughts (which is what we call 'checkers')).

Multiple Solitaire sounds rather good - does that mean that you need two decks of cards to play it, though?

[aome]

Yes, two decks - that you can tell apart, so you can separate the piles afterwards. (C'mon, cards are cheap - go get a second deck. Splurge!) :D

[slowfox]

LOL - I have two decks (probably more), but at least two complementary (as opposed to identical) decks. We may well give this one a go - it does sound as though it could be fun (if not a little competitive!!!).

[aome]

Yes, it can get competitive. And, btw, because I'm not sure if it was clear - you don't put all the aces in the center at the outset; just, as you come to the aces in the normal course of play, you put them into the common pool. And then the battle begins. ;) (You can do this with any number of players, btw.)

[linaelyn]

I enjoy games with my kids as well, but as you say, sometimes it's difficult to make up four from those present (usually, YK, EK & me). We've solved this a bit by using the device of having a 4th hand played by a largish stuffed toy (usually Scooby-Doo). YK, being the least-sophisticated player, gets the opportunity to see Scooby's hand and play him. We've not advanced to bridge, but pinochle has been possible.

My kids have been playing a lot of liar's dice with their friends, using poker chips as tokens of win/loss. That can be fun, but some folks take issue with the premise of that game being deception.

[estel]

Hey, I was gonna suggest the "Scooby-Doo" additional player strategy! It does actually work pretty well. Sometimes we switch back and forth who plays Scooby in a given game.

[slowfox]

*nods* that makes sense - although I think the difference between three (live) players and two players is significant. P's certainly sly enough to ensure that a 'dummy' hand plays to his particular strengths at the time!

[slowfox]

I've never played bridge - keep on meaning to learn, some day.

[hamsterwoman]

I remember I enjoyed playing debertz with my parents at around that age. Which is apparently essentially the same thing as Klabberjass, minus some changes in terminology. (It's actually a game that's easier to play than to explain, I think...)

I also played a lot of Yahtzee (and Triple Yahtzee) with them, though that, of course, was dice and not cards.

[slowfox]

Ta for those links - have made a note of them, and P and I will try them out soon!

[schnurble]

I love Offiziersskat, a two player variant of Skat (which is a 3 player card game)

[slowfox]

I've seen Skat mentioned in the card book that we have, but, again, it's a game I've never tried (nor, until now, have I actually heard from anyone who's played it).

It's quite remarkable how flexible a deck of cards can be, in terms of the different games you can play.

[schnurble]

In southern Germany, Skat is very popular, and most people I know know how to play it. My family played it very often, so I was very keen on learning it so I could play with them (and stay up long, because they often played long into the night ;o)

[cynthia_black]

What about Pontoon/Blackjack? It's a very quick game for filling in just a few minutes.

The other Rummy-based game I used to play with my parents as a kid was what they called 'Canadian Rummy', but I'm not sure it quite followed the rules I've now found for it on the internet (will email you these). The main differences are that you can pick up from further down the discard pile than the last card, but you have to pick up *everything* on top of it as well, and as you make sets of three or four of a kind or running flushes of at least 4 cards, you place these down in front of you. So you can end up with incredibly full hands. And you must remember to have one card left to throw on the discard pile to win the game, as with Rummy.

The internet rules start this with 11 cards per person, and it explains the scoring system, use of wildcards, and also has rules for using your own cards to add to another person's set (which I never did in my childhood version)