Cool Card Games to Play with Friends & Family

With the holiday season on the horizon, you may well be thinking about organising a get-together with friends and family. For anyone who may be stuck for entertainment ideas, staging a good old-fashioned card night will get you out of a hole every time. There are a plethora of different games to choose from, each of which can be played for a few dollars or simply for the fun of it. Read on as we take a closer look at some of the coolest card games you can play with friends and family, either during the holiday season or any time of year.

Blackjack

Millions of players visit an online blackjack site regularly, making this a game that most people will know how to play. 

The aim of the game is to get as close to the number 21 as possible and beat whatever the dealer has in their hand – it’s that simple!

There are numerous different variants of blackjack, with the ‘classic’ version likely to be the one that most people are familiar with.

To play the game, everyone is dealt two cards, with one of the dealer’s cards remaining face down. You must then decide to hit, stand, double down or split pairs. You win the hand if your card total isn’t higher than 21 and beats what the dealer has in their hand. If you hit 22 or over, you have busted and the dealer takes your stake. To keep a logged record of the bets you place, utilize Bet Bind as your bet tracker and keep your winnings in line. 

Poker

If you’re looking for a cool card game to play, then poker has to be high on your list. The film ‘Cool Hand Luke’ featured poker – what can be cooler than that!

Poker nights have become the ‘go-to’ entertainment activity for many people in recent years, with this iconic game lending itself perfectly to being played with friends or family.

The Texas Hold’em variant is the most commonly known, with widespread television coverage over the last two decades firing the game into the mainstream.

If you have around four to six players, a deck of cards, and a box of casino chips, you can enjoy a couple of games of Texas Hold’em in a single evening. Poker is undoubtedly one of the best card games around and is the perfect game to enjoy a few hours socialising with the people closest to you. 

Solitaire

Solitaire is one of the best cards game, Solitaire can be very good for your mental health and it can help you exercise your mind. When you do something that does not require you to be perfect, the mind treats it as relaxation. this game has so many versions that you possibly cannot get enough of it. One of the versions is klondike, which is similar to the game that is pre-installed on Windows computers. Another version is a spider.
To play a game of Solitaire, you’ll need to put one card face up and place six face-down cards beside it. After that, place a single card on top of the first card, face up, but slightly lower than the face down card.
There are a number of places to play solitaire on your apps or your browsers. Mobilityware has an excellent app, and Solitaire Bliss offers a variety of solitaire games, including FreeCell and Spider, where you can play in your browser.

Baccarat

If you fancy playing something with a classier reputation, baccarat is a card game that is well worth checking out.

Baccarat is played against the banker, with the dealt cards totaled and the player accruing the closest to nine declared as the winner of the hand.

Each hand starts with two cards, and a third may optionally be dealt. When the total goes beyond nine, the value returns to zero instead of going to ten.

For instance, a pair of cards six and seven has a value of three as opposed to 13, while nine, six, and nine have a value of four. In simple terms, where the sum is two digits, you ignore the first one.

While the skill level in baccarat is lower than other card games, it is still a fun way to spend an evening with friends or family.

Rummy

There are numerous versions of rummy in existence, with the most popular variant involving players being dealt seven cards.

This is best played by a maximum of four players, each of whom must try to become the first to create two hands – one containing four cards and one containing three.

These must be comprised of three or four cards of the same rank or three or four cards of the same suit in a sequential row.

Each player places an equal ante in the center of the table before the start of the game and whoever completes two hands scoops the pot.

The stakes in rummy can be adjusted as the evening progresses, giving you the chance to finish off with a bumper pot for the final game.

Chase the Ace

In Chase the Ace, each player starts the game with three dollars, and they must try to keep hold of this for as long as possible.  

The dealer must deal out one card to each player. Everyone looks at their card to determine whether or not they want to keep it. The aim is to avoid having the lowest value card.

The player to the left of the dealer starts by either keeping their card or swapping it with the player to their left. If that player has a king, they are immune for that round.

Play must continue to the left until it reaches the dealer who can swap their card with the top card from the pack. The player(s) with the lowest card places one dollar into the pot.

The rounds continue until there is just one player left with at least one dollar. They take the prize pot, and another game can be started.

Featured Image by Free-Photos from Pixabay