Scott’s Toy Box: One Deck, Many Games
Growing up I would spend time visiting my grandparents a lot. They had a small plastic container that housed two decks of cards. I would often take a deck of cards and play solitaire, but there are many different games you can play with a deck of cards. On website Bicyclecards.com under “Rules” tab, you can find rules for over 100 games. Here are a few of my favorites.
Spoons
Spoons is a game I enjoyed playing in youth group. Here’s how you play. You get one less spoon than how many players there is and place them in the middle of the table. You then deal out four cards to each player and place the deck next to the first player. The first player will draw a card from the deck and then decide if he wants to keep it or replace one of the cards in his hand. The goal is to get four of a kind in your hand. Once a player has four of a kind, he reaches for a spoon, and all the players can grab a spoon. The player who doesn’t get a spoon gets a letter in the word “spoon.” Once you spell the entire word “spoon,” you are out.
War
War is a simple game to play with two people. You start by splitting the deck in half by dealing out two hands until you are out of cards. Then each person takes a set and holds them face down. Each player then turns over the top card of theirs and the person with the highest value card gets the two cards. Once a player is out of cards, he picks up all the cards he won and start again. This continues until all the cards belong to one of the players and he wins.
Go Fish
Go Fish is a classic game. You start by dealing out seven cards to each player. The person whose turn it is will ask another player for all his cards of a certain number. The player must give him those particular cards and the asker gets to go again. Or if he doesn’t have any, the asker goes fishing in the deck of remaining cards. If the player draws a card of the number he asked for, he “fished his wish” and gets to go again. When the player has all four cards of the specific number, he lays them down. The winner is the person who ends up with the most sets in front of him once all the cards are claimed.
