Best Traditional Card Games

Some of the best traditional card games are trick-taking games, such as Hearts, Spades, and Euchre. These games are simple to learn but require many games to master. They are great entry-level games for those new to playing cards.

The best players at games like Hearts play online. Online play is much faster, with automatic shuffling and scorekeeping. Hearts.co is the perfect place to try a game quickly and easily. Seeing so many games happen quickly sharpens skills and allows for a deeper understanding.

In this post, we’ll dive into some additional information regarding these trick-taking games!

Hearts

Hearts is a simple game with one goal: be the player with the fewest points at the end of the game. Heart cards represent one point, and the Queen of Spades represents thirteen points. Hearts is best played with four people.

Each player is dealt thirteen cards from a standard fifty-two card deck. Next, they remove three cards from their hand and pass them to the player to their left. Each player takes the cards from the person to their right, so they once again have thirteen cards.

Play begins with the two of Clubs, and anyone with Clubs must follow suit. The highest card takes all four cards on the table, known as a ‘trick.’ The person who won the trick plays the first card of the next round.

If a player cannot follow suit, they may play a card of any suit. The winner of the trick is still the person with the highest-ranked card of the original suit played. The goal is to dump Hearts onto other players and make them take points. Getting rid of the Queen of Spades is also necessary.

Play continues until all cards are played, scores are tallied, and the next round begins. The game ends when the first player reaches a predetermined number of points, such as one hundred, and the player with the lowest points wins.

Spades

The goal of Spades is to win as many tricks as possible. However, before play begins, players must ‘bid’ on the number of tricks they think they can win. Points for tricks only count if the player meets their bid. If they bid five and only take four tricks, they get no points and sometimes lose points. Play continues until a player has 200 or even 500 points.

A player starts the round by putting a card in the middle of the table. Other players must play cards of the same suit. When a suit cannot be followed, players may play a card of any suit. Spades are the trump suit and will win the trick unless a higher Spade card is played. A player can’t lead with a Spade card unless they have no cards of another suit.

Euchre

Euchre is a faster-paced trick-taking game. The deck is reduced to only cards nine through the Ace of each suit.

Five cards are dealt to four players made of two two-player teams. The remaining four cards are placed on the table with the one on top, face-up. This card is the trump suit and can be changed to the next card in the stack if all players decline to make a bid on taking tricks.

Play is very similar to that of Spades and Hearts and continues until all cards are played. The team that chose to bid must win at least three tricks to take one point, if they take all five tricks, they get two points. If they fail, the opposing team takes two points. The first team to ten points wins.

Get Better, Faster

Learning how to play cards is easy when practiced online. Hearts.co is a site where players can start a game instantly. Practice multiple games in a single hour and see how quickly you can become a better player.

Looking to start with the basics, such as how many cards are in a suit? Be sure to read our latest post!