How Do You Play Cards?

When starting out with playing cards, it’s often best to begin with simple games, such as Solitaire and Hearts. These games teach suits and card ranks, which are the foundations of most card games.

Players looking to improve their skills can practice anytime they like by playing Hearts card games online at Hearts.co. Spades is another popular game, but the easiest of all is Solitaire. In this post, we’ll touch on some basic concepts of playing cards, as well as some rules for easy games!

A Game of Symbols

Any person who can count and recognize symbols can play card games. The basics are that each suit contains thirteen cards: two through ten, a Jack (eleven), a Queen (twelve), a King (thirteen), and an Ace (one or fourteen, depending on the game). In most games, higher-ranking cards are worth more than lower-ranking cards. In other games, the suit is just as important as which number is on the card.

The beauty of playing cards is that the number and suit are displayed on both the top and bottom of each card. This is so other players can recognize any card that is played, even if it's upside-down from their point of view.

A fantastic game for anyone trying to quickly learn about cards and suits is Solitaire.

Solitaire: The Most Basic Game

Solitaire is a great game to learn for card game beginners because its goal is to place the cards in the correct order while alternating suit colors. It is also designed to be played alone. Play begins by dealing out seven stacks of cards in a line.

The leftmost stack has one card, the second stack has two, etc, until the last stack, which has seven. All cards should be face-down, except the top card of each stack, which is flipped face-up. The remaining cards form the draw pile, and the top card is flipped over.

If one stack has a black ten, the player must locate a red nine with no cards below it on the board, or in the draw pile. Then, a black eight must be placed beneath it and so on down to two. When the Aces of each suit are located, they are placed in a separate face-up stack.

The player views new cards by drawing from the draw pile or by shifting columns of cards to other stacks. For example, a stack with a black ten and several cards beneath it may be moved to any other stack that has a red Jack that can accept it. If no alternate color is available, the player must wait until a red Jack is revealed.

Players can also create new stacks by placing or moving Kings to stacks that have been completely emptied. Once most or all of the cards are revealed, they are placed face-up on top of the Ace piles, starting with the two and continuing up with the matching suit. Once all cards have been uncovered and placed onto their respective suit piles, the game is over.

Not all games of Solitaire can be won, but most can with some patience. It remains one of the best traditional card games.

Level Up With Hearts

If you’re ready for a little more complexity, you can try a game of Hearts. Hearts uses the suits and card numbers to create a fun game for three or more people. The goal of the game is to collect as few Heart cards as possible. This is because Hearts are worth points, and the winner in this game is the one with the fewest points.

Getting three or four people together isn’t always possible, especially when you need games to play when you're bored at work. Fortunately, Hearts.co allows anyone to play instantly for free against computerized opponents in fast-paced games. Try it today, and take your card skills to the next level!