Best Card Games for Family Game Night

By Neal Taparia - 10/28/2024

Best Card Games for Family Game Night

Family game nights can bring everyone together for quality time and entertainment. There are many card games that are fun for the whole family, such as Spades and Hearts. Prepare family members for some healthy competition by introducing them to new games online. They can play free Hearts in your browser to get ready for game night!

In this article, we'll review different card games to play with your loved ones. Plus, we’ll help you find out which card is the most valuable in Hearts and which card games are excellent choices for family game night.

Spades

Spades is an excellent option for family game night because it involves teamwork. Partners must work together to meet their bid and win the game.

The goal of the game is to accurately bid the number of tricks you and your partner will win in each round. The highest card wins a trick, so you can make an educated guess about how many tricks you'll take by looking at your cards. There's a penalty if you and your partner fail to meet the bid.

Spades is normally played with four players in teams of two and uses a standard fifty-two-card deck. The Spades suit is always the trump suit, meaning it outranks all other suits.

At the beginning of each round, players will bid based on the number of tricks they expect to win. Next, the player to the dealer's left leads the first trick. Players have to follow suit when they can, but if they can't, they can play a Spade or another suit. The highest card of the led suit wins the trick unless a Spade is played. The highest Spade will always win.

When a team wins as many tricks as it bids, it gets ten points for each bid. Every additional trick earns one point. Teams that fail to meet their bid lose ten points per trick bid. The game ends when a team or player reaches 500 points.

Hearts

Hearts is a classic game with simple rules, making it enjoyable for both kids and adults. The game encourages players to anticipate their opponent's moves and manage their hands strategically.

The goal is to score the least amount of points. Players do this by avoiding tricks with the Queen of Spades and Hearts cards. The Queen of Spades is worth thirteen points, and each Heart card is worth one point. The game is over when a player reaches or exceeds one hundred points, and the player with the fewest points wins.

Hearts is played with four players, but can be adapted for more or fewer players. Players pass three cards to an opponent to start a round. The direction of passing rotates each round.

The player with the two of Clubs leads the first trick. Players have to follow suit if they can, but they may play any other suit if they cannot. The highest card of the led suit wins the trick.

Players must strategize how to get rid of high-value cards without winning the trick. It's a fun game full of critical thinking and competition!

Cribbage

Cribbage is a fun game with a unique scoring board. It involves forming combinations to score points and is typically played with two players–but four people can play in pairs of two.

Players take turns creating hands to reach a target score. They can earn two pegs for adding a card that makes the combination total fifteen, or adding a card of the same rank as the last card played. Players earn more pegs for adding cards of the same rank. The game is won when a player or pair earns 121 points.

Family Fun Games

Family game nights allow you to connect and have fun with your loved ones. Card games, such as Spades, Hearts, and Cribbage, are great options. You can play these games online at Hearts.co to prepare to dominate your family on game night!