The advantage of playing card games is that it is hassle-free. You don’t need boards or board pieces to get the action going. All you need is a deck of cards (or maybe two), and a room where everyone can sit down together. Not only does it provide some fun activities for families and friends, but it also helps bring them together. Especially for families, where the younger generations probably have a generation gap with the older generations, card games are a good way to bridge the gap. Everyone knows how to play cards, and they can easily learn the rules for new games. This is a great way to get people away from their gadgets, even if it is for a short pile. But if you don’t have a card deck at home, you don’t need to worry. There are online variations of these card games, and you can download an app or visit a certain site to play the card game of your choice.

Here, we take a look at some of the most common card games that you can play to have a great time with your loved one. But be warned: it is better to finish off any pending tasks you have. If you are planning to get something done, after just a game or two, you are in for a surprise. “Let’s stop playing cards”, said no one ever while playing cards. Once you get sucked into a game, you can only leave once the game is over. Matches become so competitive that people often forget they are playing a game. Here are some of the card games that you can play:

Satte pe Satta

As the name suggests, the showstopper of the game is the seven of any suit. To play this game, you need to choose a person among the group to deal the cards. You can use one deck, or two decks if there are a lot of people. The cards have to be distributed among the players equally. To start the game, you need to find out the person who holds the 7 of hearts. The next player has to put a card in sequential order. This means that the next player can only put the six or the eight of hearts. If the player doesn’t have any of those cards, the next player gets the turn. In case the player has a 7 of any other suite, then it has to be played. Thus, the game continues sequentially, and the one who gets rid of all their cards first is the winner. It is a strategy-based game, and players need to come up with tricks to block the cards of the other people to be able to win the match.

Bluff

For this game, it’s time to put your poker face to use (if you don’t have one, work on it). Depending on the number of people playing the game, divide one or two decks equally among the players. The goal of the game is pretty simple- get rid of all the cards in your hand. You need to cheat and lie your way through the game to achieve this goal. The players choose a lead player in each round, who initiates each round. The lead needs to announce the ranks that are to be played in each round. Whether the players actually play that card or not is up to them, but they have to claim to play that card. For example, if the lead says that queens are to be played in the round, players can only put down their cards if they say they are putting a queen on the stack.

Since the cards have to be discarded face down, players can deceive other players. If you think that the person before you has made a false claim, you can challenge the move by calling out, “Bluff!” If they are indeed found to be lying, they will have to add all the cards in the discarded stack to their cards. If the challenge is found to be false (meaning the previous player had NOT been lying about his cards), you will have to add the whole stack of discarded cards to your hand. A good way to discard your cards without being challenged is to discard lesser cards when lying. This is the reason that a poker face is important for playing this game. This goes on till a player can get rid of all their cards. In some variations, people continue the game to declare second and third positions as well.

Teen Patti

Teen Patti is a card game that originated in India, and has a huge fanbase in India, and the rest of Asia. It is a combination of poker and rummy and can be easily played with a large group of people. Since the game only requires the players to have three cards each, a maximum of 10 players can play using a single deck of cards. The game is also super easy, which is why a large number of people like to play this game. The game starts with a dealer dealing the deck to the players present. Each player gets 3 cards, which are kept face down, so no one knows what cards they have received. To win a game, a player must have the highest hand in the group. The highest hand is decided according to the rules of the game.

Here is a list of the most powerful card sequences in teen Patti:

●    Set

If a player gets three cards of the same rank, they have the highest hand among all players. A group of three aces is the highest set, and the cards decrease in value, with a set of twos being the lowest set.

●    Straight Flush

You have probably heard this term thrown around a lot in James Bond movies. A straight Flush is a group of three consecutive cards from the same suit. For example, cards five, six and seven of spades would make up a straight flush.

●    Sequence

A sequence is made when a player has three consecutive cards, but they don’t belong to the same suit. For example, if a player has a two of spades, a three of clubs and a four of diamonds, they have a sequence.

●    Colour

This is the most common group of cards which is used in a lot of card games. If players get three cards belonging to the same suit which do not form a sequence, they have a group of cards with the same colour.

●    Pair

When there are only two cards which make a pair, the player is ranked according to the value of that pair. In pairs, the value is decided according to the traditional values of the cards, with aces being the highest, and twos being the lowest.

●    High Card

If a player gets a hand where none of the cards is related to each other, the value is decided according to the highest card in the hand.

Rummy

Rummy is a popular card game that is played among two to six players. You need two decks of cards to play rummy. The game starts by choosing a dealer who deals 13 cards to each player. After all the players have received the cards, the dealer chooses a random card from the remaining cards, which becomes the wild joker. There are two decks for the players to choose a card from- the stack with the undistributed cards and the stack which has the cards discarded by the players. The players can pick a card and dispose of a card at a time so that the total number of cards remains 13 at all given times.

The goal is to make sequences and sets using these 13 cards. Players need to make at least one pure sequence to win. A pure sequence is a group of cards in consecutive order belonging to the same suit, without any wild jokers being used. A player cannot declare their cards if they don’t have a pure sequence.

Since this game is so popular, it is also easily available on multiple sites as an online game. So even if you are alone at home, you can engage in a game of rummy with online players at the click of a button.

Donkey

No, you don’t need a four-legged animal in your room to play this game. All you need is a deck of cards and a group of willing participants. The dealer (elected by the players) removes one card from the deck and distributes the rest of the cards equally among the players. No one can know which card has been removed, not even the dealer. In order to ensure that, the card is drawn face down. Once all the players have received the cards, the first player starts the game by drawing a card from the adjacent player’s hand.

If the player manages to make a pair, they can throw the cards in the middle. The next player does the same, and this goes on till all the players lose their cards. Since one card has been removed from the deck, one card would be left. The player who holds that card at the end of the game is declared to be the donkey.

Fish

Here is another card game with the name of an animal. But just to clarify, the fish in the name is not a noun, but a verb, which means to search for something hidden. The game is played between two to five players, and the goal is to make as many books as possible. A book is a group of 4 cards of the same rank. To start the game, the cards are dealt among the players. If there are two players, each receives 7 cards. In case the number of players is more than two, each player receives 5 cards. The rest of the cards are kept in the middle, spread out as a pool.

Unlike most games, where the cards are kept in a neat stack, this game requires the cards to be kept in a disorderly manner. The game starts with the first player asking any of the present players to give them cards belonging to a certain rank. For example, player A might turn to player B, and say, “give me all the 5s you have”. Player A must have at least one card of the same rank that they are fishing for. The other player would have to provide all the available cards belonging to that rank. In case the adjacent player does not have a single card of the same rank, they will tell the initial player, “Go Fish!”. The player who made the request will pick up any card from the pool. If the player picks up the card that they requested, their fishing was successful, and they get another chance. Players have to show the card that they picked up to verify the truth. As long as the fishing is successful, the player will keep on getting chances to request more cards. The game continues till 13 books have been made.

Solitaire

Unlike most card games, solitaire is a card game that is played with only one player. Standard solitaire uses one deck of cards, but players might also use more than one deck. The cards are arranged in seven piles before the start of the game. In the first pile, the player places a face-up card, while in the next six piles, the cards are placed face-down. Next, the player places a card face up in the second pile, while adding face-down cards to the rest of the piles. This continues till the last pile has a face-up card in the middle. All the remaining cards are placed above this tableau and are referred to as the stockpile. A player might withdraw cards from the pile when the need arises. The goal of the game is to arrange all the cards into a whole suit, or different sequences.

There are four foundation piles where the cards must be arranged in sequential order. The arrangement of cards can start in the tableau piles itself. For example, if one of the face-up cards is a five and there is a four among the other face-up cards, you can arrange the four under the five (only if they belong to the same suit, or form a sequence). The unlocked face-down card is then turned over, and the player looks for a suitable place among the piles to arrange the card. The foundation piles can only be initiated using the aces. Once you unlock an ace, place it above the tableau to mark the foundation piles. Once you have arranged cards from ace to two in the foundation piles, you can move the cards to the foundation piles.

Since this is a one-person card game, it is often called patience as well. Solitaire is one of the most popular card games, and also has online versions. In fact, it is probably one of the first online card games on the internet.

Kachuful

Kachuful is a card game that originated in India and is also known as Judgement. Up to 7 players can play using a single deck, and the minimum number of players required is 3. Multiple hands have to be played for the completion of a single game of kachuful. The game starts by choosing a dealer among the players, and there should be one non-playing person to keep score. In case a player keeps the score, he or she would have to be kept in check so that they don’t favour themselves. Once the dealer is chosen, they need to distribute the cards. The number of cards to be dealt depends on the number of players present. The maximum number of cards the players can receive is 10, and the minimum is 7. With each progressing round, the number of cards dealt goes on decreasing, till it reaches one, and then increases till it reaches the initial figure. This means if a game starts with 10 cards given to each player, in the consecutive round the players would receive 9 cards, then 8 in the next and so on. Each round has a trump suit which is decided by the players.

When the players receive the cards, they have to make a bid as to how many tricks can be made using the given cards. A trick is a round of cards which is built by the players dropping a card of their choice. To win a trick, the player has to drop a high-value card into the pile. All the players have to make their bids, and the dealer has to bid last. A person has to note down these bids, and the game can start. The player to the left of the dealer drops the first card and decides the initial suit. If the next player does not have a card belonging to the same suit, they can use any other card and try to complete the trick. The number of tricks is equal to the number of cards that each player receives.

So, in a game where players have 7 cards each, there is scope for 7 tricks. The number of bids for tricks cannot be equal to the number of tricks possible. After all the tricks for a hand are complete, players need to check how many tricks each player has made. If the number of tricks won is equal to the initial bid made by the player, the player scores a sum of ten and the amount of the bid. For example, if the player bid two tricks, and they won two tricks, they will receive 12 points. If the players overbid, they get extra points for them. For players who are underbid, the score is 0. At the end of the game, the player with the highest score wins.

Andar Baahar

Andar Baahar is a card game that is said to have originated in India and can be played with any number of players. Since the game does not require the players to receive the cards, there is no limitation on the number of players playing the game. The game consists of a dealer who shuffles the deck and draws a card by splitting the deck.

This card is known as the Joker card, and the main gameplay revolves around this card. After the dealer shows the Joker to every player in the game, he puts it back on the deck. The deck is then shuffled, and cards are drawn and put into the two boxes in front of the dealer  There are two boxes- andar and baahar. The players have to guess where the Joker will land. The player or players who guess the outcome correctly win the game.

To Wrap Up

In most card games, the dealer is chosen randomly by the players. But there are also many other ways to choose a dealer. Players might draw cards and the one with the highest or the lowest value might become the dealer. It is completely up to the players to decide how they want to choose the dealer. For most of the games, the progression of action is to the left of the dealer, but again, you can tweak the rules to have more fun while playing.

To wrap things up, it is fair to say that there are numerous Indian card games that one can try out with friends or family. Apart from these games mentioned above, you can also tweak and combine games to come up with new games. No matter whether you are in a small group or a large gathering, you can find a card game to bond over. The best thing about card games is that there are no material requirements; only a deck of cards is enough to get the party going. You can use the cards to play a horde of games without it getting monotonous. People often fail to realise how time passes by when they are playing these games. The sheer variety of card games is what makes them so exciting. With just one deck of cards, you can play so many different games. So don’t wait anymore, and go try out these exciting card games with your people!
Learn more at: https://teen-patti-games.com