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Travis Cooper
United States
Salt Lake City
Utah
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Growing up I played the classic board games, but mostly my family played card games. Until high school where I was introduced to Settlers of Catan, board games were secondary to card games at my house. I can still hear in my head, after Sunday dinner was over, my brother-in-law saying "Deal 'em" and we'd get out the cards. So many great memories, and although I play more board games these days, I still have a love for card games.
There was a request to talk about card games here on my blog, so this post is going to be dedicated to them. I will say upfront that we usually don't have the right amount of players for card games (typically 4 is the sweet spot for card games), but we have played some. I'm also focusing on traditional card games, no RftG or Dominion talk here.
Tichu
I have talked about Tichu a couple of times here already. I will just say again that it is moving up rapidly on my list of favorite card games. We had another chance to play 6 player today. While I like the way they handle the 6 player game, I still think that 4 players is much better. The 6 player game seems to turn into whoever can get that straight will get a tichu. Without a good straight it is hard to know if your hand is good enough. It is also strange to pass only to your partners. Again, it is okay with 6, but much better with 4. I can't say enough how well I think this works in a lunchtime setting.
Canasta
I love playing Canasta. My wife and I used to play a lot more than we do now. We loved to get on to yahoo and join the same table and just destroy people. That doesn't necessarily mean we are the best Canasta players in the world, but when playing pick up games like that having a partner you're used to makes a big difference. My wife and I love to hoard cards and freeze the pile. This can be risky, but if you hold enough cards, and mis-lead through discarding and melding you can usually get the discard pile and pour on the points.
I still want to get this out more at work. We did have a day where it was just John and me and I knew he liked card games, so I taught him how to play. I'm not a huge fan of 2 player Canasta, but at least it meant teaching somebody else how to play. We've never brought it back out, but after our recent successes with Tichu I think I might have to try it again. I truly hate 3 and 6 player Canasta. I think this is mostly due to my style. When you freeze the deck a lot and the other team doesn't work at it, they could easily give the 3rd team a huge advantage by giving them easier ways to pick up the deck. In fact I think this is why I typically don't like 3 team card games. That's why I like how Tichu keeps it to 2 teams. I would never turn down a 4 player game of Canasta, and if your group likes to play cards, this is a great option.
Euchre
If it wasn't for my brother-in-law I probably wouldn't even know about this game. That is sad, because I've played it so much. I really liked the uniqueness (at least to me) of the bowers. This is actually used in other games too, but I didn't know any. In euchre you also play to a pretty low score, so the games go quicker.
We did have a 4 player day at work once and so I convinced them to try this out. I still don't know how much the other guys enjoyed it, but we haven't tried it again since. I think the bower was new to them as well, and when teaching new people you have to keep reminding them that the other J is trump too. Probably my biggest complaint about euchre is the number of cards. Since you are only dealt 5 cards, it seems easier for you to have a whole game where you don't feel like you have a single good hand. I've had plenty of games like this, and they aren't very fun. It is so much better when you can call trump, or at least set people. However, when your cards are just bad the whole time you don't even feel like you're making any decisions. You just follow the lead and don't take anything. I think you should give euchre a try in your group, but I can't give a huge vote of confidence that they will just love it. I love the game, and I'll continue to play it when I get the opportunity, but I can see why not everybody would feel this way.
Now, there is the option to play 500. I read the rules and have played it once. However, my family that really loves euchre doesn't live close enough that we see each other often, so I haven't had a chance to play it again since I taught it to them. In 500 you play with more cards, so you are less likely to feel like you are getting bad hands the whole game. The bidding is also more like bridge and gives you many more options than just calling trump. I really liked the one game of 500 I played, and I think it might be a better substitute for euchre.
Cribbage
I really enjoy cribbage, but I'm not sure exactly why. Maybe it's because of the cribbage board that you get to track your points on, or maybe it's because of the different ways to score points, either in your hand, or while playing. With all of this it seems like you really can figure out the "best" things to do in most situations, so maybe you don't have to really think as hard. In spite of that I still enjoy playing.
I did teach people cribbage at work. However, if you think getting only 4 people is bad, then getting only 2 people is even worse. This meant I needed to read the rules for additional players and we tried it that way. We tried 3 player, 4 player and I think 6 player. Probably the biggest reason I did it was just to teach them how to play. However, I really didn't like playing with more than just 2. 3 was okay, but I've just grown so accustom to not having teams that playing this one with a teammate just seemed weird. I would actually suggest not playing this one at work, unless there are just two of you. It's a great game, but I would be happy to never play a 3+ player game again.
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