misc. - Card Games All-In-One For Dummies

Card Games All-in-One For Dummies

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John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
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Copyright 2017 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey

Published simultaneously in Canada

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Library of Congress Control Number: 2016951043

ISBN 978-1-119- 27571-8 (pbk); ISBN 978-1-119- 27572-5 (ebk); ISBN 978-1-119- 27574-9 (ebk)

1. Table of Contents

Card games offer the most fascinating challenges that you may ever encounter. In most games, you can manipulate the 52 pieces of pasteboard into infinite permutations and combinations. Working out those combinations is the fun part of cards in almost every game, you dont know what the other players have in their hands. During the course of play, you use strategy, memory, cunning, and a whole host of other qualities to put together the best hand possible (or to bluff with the worst hand out there).

All in all, figuring out the fundamentals of a new card game can bring untold satisfaction. At the same time, you dont have to play cards all that well to enjoy yourself. Card games allow you to make friends with the people you play with and against.

If youve never played a card game before, you may wonder why you need to buy a book about the subject. All your friends say the games are easy to pick up, so cant you just sit down and start playing, picking up a few rules here and there? Well, no.

Many card games have been in circulation for hundreds of years, generating scores of variations. A reference book not only explains the core rules of a game but also lists the main variations to let you choose the rules you and your friends want to play by.

Regardless of how much experience youve had with card games, youll find something here for you. Absolute beginners will appreciate that we discuss each game in this book starting at the very beginning, before a card hits the table. If youve played a few card games before, you can try out a new game or pick up a variation on one of your favorites.

Throughout this book, we talk about specific cards. Instead of constantly saying the king of hearts or the 7 of spades every time we refer to those cards, we abbreviate the cards and suits by using the following symbols:

• The suits: We represent each of the four suits in a standard deck of cards with spade , heart , diamond , and club symbols. (However, these symbols are also used when bidding for tricks in Bridge. More on that in .)
• The card values: We use the following abbreviations to refer to specific card values: ace (A), king (K), queen (Q), jack (J), 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, and 2.

We havent assumed that you have all that much technical knowledge. The book is aimed at serving as an introduction to many card games (and a few popular non-card casino games like Roulette and Craps). If you get hooked on a game after reading about it, you can access many other Dummies titles (all published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.) that can provide more knowledge of the games. For example, if you want to focus on Bridge, check out Bridge For Dummies by Eddie Kantar. You Poker fiends can find more information in Poker For Dummies by Richard D. Harroch and Lou Krieger, and Texas Holdem For Dummies by Mark The Red Harlan. If playing card games (as well as a few other bonus chapters on games, such as roulette, craps, and slots) in a casino is your thing, get a copy of Casino Gambling For Dummies by Kevin Blackwood.

In each chapter, we place icons in the margin to emphasize certain types of information.

This icon points out the wrong way to play a game. Pay special attention to these icons so you avoid finding things out the hard way.

This reinforces a point that may be less obvious (or intuitively right) than meets the eye. You should keep these points in mind as you play the game.

These icons emphasize some insights born of our experience that will help make you a sharper player.

Clear your calendar for the next few days because youre going to be busy playing new card games and trying out smart strategies. If you want to play a variety of (mostly) quick and easy card games, head to and search for Card Games All-In-One For Dummies Cheat Sheet in the Search box.

Book 1