What to play, and with whom.
The game pages tell you how each one is played. These answer what people ask first: what works with two, what to play at a table of six, what a child should start with, and what the difference between Macao and Seven Cut really is.
Card games for two.
Many card games are written for a full table and thin out when only two are left. Others are built for two and break when you add a third. Here’s which is which, among the five here.
Card games with friends, online.
The hardest part of playing cards with friends isn’t the game, it’s getting everyone together. Here a link solves that: you open the table, send it to the group, and whoever gets there first sits down.
Macao or Seven Cut?
Almost everyone in Romania knows these two games, and they’re more different than they look. One is played from your hand, the other from your memory.
Card games for kids.
For many generations, playing cards were the first place a child counted to ten without being asked. Here’s the order to learn the games on this site, and what each one asks of a child.
Card games for groups.
With two players, almost anything works. With six, half of all games drag and the other half turn chaotic. Here’s which of the five on this site are built for a full table.
Card game dictionary.
You pick up the words of the card table as you go, and anyone who hears one for the first time in the third hand usually pretends to know it. Here’s what they mean, each with the game it’s used in.
How to win at Macao.
Macao looks like a game of luck, and over a single match it is. Over ten, the winner is whoever spends their cards in the right order. The advice below is for the variant played at the tables here.
How to lie convincingly at Liar Liar.
In Liar Liar, the cards matter less than the moment. You can win with a bad hand and lose with a good one, and the difference lies in when you choose to lie and who you’re watching when you do.
How Sweep is scored.
Sweep is the only one of the five games here that asks for math, and it’s where everyone gets stuck. Scoring has four rules and none of them is complicated, but you need to know all four.
Romanian card games.
The games on this table weren’t invented in Romania, but they were raised there. What follows is what can be said with some certainty and, just as important, what can’t.