Okay friends, here are some of our favorite games we love to play with a deck of cards! That means these games can easily go on the road with you to swim meets, dance competitions and vacation! And of course we just love playing them gathered around our own dining room table! So many fun times right here. Alright let’s just jump in!

1. Egyptian War: 2-6 players, age 7+, 20-40 minutes playing time

This game is fun, fast paced and is best played with 3-4 players and a savvy 6 year old could also play along. The point of the game is to win, and the way you win is by winning all the cards! No points taken here!

To play deal out all the cards to the players, players do not look at their cards. The player to the left of the dealer starts the round by flipping over a card into play. Clockwise the next player flips a card over into play and this continues until one of two things happen. First, if doubles is played, anyone can slap the deck and take the cards! (Woo hoo!) Second, if a royal is played, then the player to the left comes on high alert, because someone is about to take the deck!

The Royals vary the play in the following manner:

• Ace the next player can flip up to 4 cards hoping for a royal
• King the next player can flip up to 3 cards
• Queen 2 cards
• Jack 1 card

For example: if an Ace is played, the player to the left has 4 chances to play a royal herself. So she flips over cards into play and perhaps she plays a queen on the third card flipped. Now the play shifts to the next player on the left who has 2 chances to try for a royal. If no royal is played, then the deck goes to the player who played the final royal. Keep watching for those doubles though! Any player in the game can slap the deck at any time doubles has been played, including players who have are out of cards can slap back into the game! This game can get crazy! The person who slaps first gets it. (Best to take off rings for this game!)

Players are eliminated as they run out of cards and it comes down to a duel of 2 players until one takes all the cards. Fun! Get playing! Woo Hoo! Kayleen’s kids love this game!

2. 2500 3-4 players per deck of cards age 8+, 30-60 minutes. (Add another deck for 5-8 players)

The point of the game is to win. First one to 2500 points wins! This takes several rounds to achieve that many points and often we just decide to play to 1500! This game is played clockwise, with a rotating dealer each round. Remove Jokers from the deck for this game. Here’s how to play.

The dealer begins by flipping one card over in front of the player to her left. The revealed card determines how many additional cards that player receives. i.e. if the card is a five, then the dealer deals 4 more cards face down so the player has a total of 5 cards. Continue dealing to each player in this manner. The most cards someone can be dealt is 10, so for 10 through Ace, you would deal 10 cards total. A player cannot receive fewer than 3 cards, so if you flip over a 2, then move that card to the bottom of the stack and try again! Put the remainder of the deck in the middle of the table accessible to everyone. Important: The dealer deals herself last and the card that is flipped over becomes the wild for the round. For example, if I were dealing to myself and I flipped over an 8, I would immediately deal myself 7 additional cards and hope for more 8s! Anyone else at the table with an 8 also has a wild. Hooray! Everyone can look at their cards and start arranging them in their hand.

Each turn starts with drawing one card from either the deck or the discard pile. Then the player lays down in front of them any set of 3 or run of 4 they have! A set is a group of cards that are the same number of any suit. For example you have three numbers 9s so you lay them in front of you, or 3 kings or etc. Or you have two number nines and one wild. A run is cards of the same suit in numerical order. For example if I have the 4, 5, 6 & 7 of clubs, hooray– you have a run you can lay down! Or any set or run can be played with a wild replacing the card needed. Finally, the player discards one card at the end of their turn. So draw, play, and then discard.

Once you have placed cards down in front of you, on your next turn you can play cards on the other players sets & runs allowing you to eliminate more cards in your hand. When playing on other people’s cards, you still place the cards down in front of you–because you want the points! The first person to place all their cards goes out and wins an extra 100 points! Anyone else left with cards in their hands, those cards count against them!

Scoring: At the end of the round everyone totals their points.

• 2-9 = 5 points.
• 10 to King = 10 points
• Ace = 100 points
• Wild = 100 points
• Going out first = 100 points
• Any cards in your hand equal the above points except in negative!

Tally up your points, the scorekeeper in the group will write it down and the next round begins! 🙂 First one to 2500 wins!

3. Fruit Basket (or Fruit Salad)! 4 players is ideal, but we have played with more, Age 7+, 35-45 minutes

This game is so fun and everything can change in the last round! The goal of the game is to win, and you win by taking the least amount of points! This is a trick taking game and every round the objective is different and so are the penalties! Explained below! 🙂 Take out the jokers and deal out all the cards. If you have 4 people it will be perfect, if you don’t just deal them out and occasionally you will have to take the extra card! Yikes! This is a rotating dealer and clockwise play game.

This game has 6 rounds, played in the following order with the objective listed first! Tally your score and the scorekeeper notes it between each round!

• Round 1: Take no tricks! Each trick won is 5 penalty points. Total of 65 points in this round.
• Round 2: Take no Hearts! Each heart taken in a trick is worth 10 penalty points. Total of 130 points in this round.
• Round 3: Take no Queens! Each Queen taken in a trick is worth 25 penalty points. Total of 100 points in this round.
• Round 4: Take no King of Spades! The Player who takes the King of Spades in this round scores 100 penalty points.
• Round 5: Don’t take the last trick! The player who takes the last trick scores 100 penalty points.
• Round 6: All the rules from above apply! Tricks, Hearts, Queens, King of Spades and the last trick! Total of 560 possible points.

In the first round the person to the left of the dealer puts a card in play, everyone follows suit. The highest card of the suit takes the trick. (Everyone must play the suit if they have it, otherwise try to sluff off the cards that are liabilities! You’re welcome.) The person who took the trick now starts the next round.

Oooh this one is fun! Writing down the rules has been surprisingly tricky, it would have been much better if you were here with me and then we could just play a couple rounds together, but hopefully you will have some fun with your loved ones! Play on friends! Make those memories! 🙂