Card Games
Every family of cardplay — bridge, poker, rummy and whist, shedding games like Uno, collectible card games such as Magic: the Gathering and Pokémon TCG, and regional traditions from Hanafuda to Truco.
51 sports in card games.
Aluette
French trick-taking game from the Vendée coast — played with a special Spanish deck and secret partner signals.
Badugi
Korean draw lowball poker — best four-card hand with all four cards different suits and different ranks.
Belote
Popular French trick-taking card game for 4 players (2 partnerships). Standardized 1920s France. Uses 32-card deck (7-A × 4 suits). BIDDING selects trump suit. Considered NATIONAL CARD GAME of FRANCE — 60% of French adults play. Also popular Balkans, Greece, Belgium, Cyprus. Contract Belote (higher-stakes bidding variant) considered pinnacle.
Briscola
Italian trick-taking game — 40-card Italian deck, one trump suit; ace and three carry huge weight.
Canasta
Rummy-family card game invented 1939 by Segundo Santos + Alberto Serrato in Montevideo, Uruguay. Uses 2 standard decks + 4 jokers (108 cards). Players form MELDS (3+ cards same rank) — CANASTA = 7-card meld (500 pts natural, 300 mixed). Massive American craze 1948-1953. Partnership Canasta (4 players) standard. Cult classic; declining but active online.
Cardfight!! Vanguard
Bushiroad's flagship TCG — 'Vanguard' units power up by stacking, with dramatic 'Trigger' reveals from the deck.
Chinese Poker
13-card poker — arrange your cards into three hands (3 top, 5 middle, 5 bottom) and beat opponents hand-by-hand.
Crazy Eights
Classic shedding card game (ancestor of UNO) — players discard cards matching top card by suit or rank; eights are wild + let player change suit. First to empty hand wins. Simple, fast, universal children's + family game worldwide.
Cribbage
Classic 2-player English card game (also 3-4 player variants) with unique peg-based scoreboard; combines card play + hand-scoring with combinations like 'fifteens' (cards totaling 15), pairs, runs, flushes, and the iconic 'nobs' bonus for jack matching cut card.
Digimon Card Game
Bandai's Digimon-branded TCG — 'digivolve' your creatures up through evolution stages to overwhelm the opponent.
Disney Lorcana
Ravensburger and Disney's TCG — cast Disney-character 'glimmers' to be first Illumineer with 20 lore.
Doppelkopf
German trick-taking game with a doubled 48-card deck — partners are revealed only through play.
Duel Masters
Wizards' and Takara Tomy's Magic-inspired TCG — five 'civilizations', mana-driven summons, and shield-breaking finishes.
Durak
Russian attack-and-defend shedding game — beat cards played against you or pick them up; loser is the 'durak' (fool).
Euchre
Fast 4-player partnership trick-taking card game using 24-card deck (9-A of each suit); features 'bowers' (jack of trump suit = highest card, jack of same-color suit = second-highest); popular in US Midwest, Canada, UK, Australia — origin of the joker card.
Five-Card Draw
The poker of the American frontier — five cards each, discard and draw once, best hand wins.
Flesh and Blood
New-Zealand-made TCG designed for a competitive-first, in-store organised-play scene — no lands, resource-neutral gameplay.
FreeCell
Solitaire card game where ALL 52 cards are dealt face-up + 4 FREE CELLS for temporary card holding. Invented ~1960s by Paul Alfille (Illinois computer teacher). Popularized by MICROSOFT WINDOWS 95 (bundled version). Notably 99.999% of dealt hands are WINNABLE with perfect play (only 1 known unwinnable — #11982). Game of pure skill, minimal luck.
Ganjifa
Round hand-painted cards from Mughal India and Persia — used in trick-taking games with 8, 10 or 12 suits.
Gin Rummy
Fast 2-player card game invented in 1909 in New York — race to form sets (3-4 same rank) and runs (3+ same suit consecutive) in your 10-card hand, then 'knock' when unmatched cards total 10 or fewer, or shout 'Gin!' with all matched.
Go Fish
Children's card game — 'Do you have any fives?' — ask for cards to complete four-of-a-kind books.
Hanafuda
Traditional Japanese playing cards. 48 cards divided into 12 SUITS = 12 MONTHS, each with 4 cards depicting flowers/plants for that month. Origin 1600s Japan (during Tokugawa shogunate). MANY GAMES: Koi-Koi (2 players), Hachi-Hachi (3 players), Go-Stop (Korean Hwatu). NINTENDO founded 1889 as hanafuda card maker.
Jass
Swiss national card game family — trump-taking with Swiss-suited (Shields, Roses, Bells, Acorns) or French decks.
Karuta
Japanese card-matching family — a reader chants a verse, players race to snatch the matching card.
Klondike Solitaire
Classic single-player card game. THE 'Solitaire' most people know. Named for Klondike Gold Rush (1896-99). Popularized globally by MICROSOFT WINDOWS SOLITAIRE (1990) — likely the most-played card game in history. 7 tableau piles + foundations built A → K by suit. Draw-3 (harder) or Draw-1 (easier) variants. ~30-40% win rate with skill.
Klondike Solitaire
The 'Windows Solitaire' — seven tableau piles, four foundations, draw from stock in ones or threes.
Magic: The Gathering
The world's first trading card game (TCG) — 2+ players build 60-card 'decks' (Modern/Legacy) or 100-card commander decks from ~25,000+ unique cards, then battle by casting spells + summoning creatures to reduce opponent's life total from 20 to 0.
Mau-Mau
German-family shedding card game — the standard-deck cousin of Uno, played across Central Europe.
Mus
Basque partnership card game — four bidding rounds of bluffing with visual and verbal signals between partners.
Old Maid
Children's card game — pair off cards and get rid of them all; whoever's left with the Old Maid loses.
Omaha Poker
Community card poker variant with 4 hole cards (vs Texas Hold'em's 2). Player MUST use EXACTLY 2 hole + 3 community cards for hand. Pot-Limit Omaha (PLO) most popular variant. High-action game with more combinations = higher variance + bigger pots. Second most popular poker game globally after Texas Hold'em.
One Piece Card Game
Bandai's One-Piece-branded TCG — leader-driven decks and life-hit combat drawn from the manga's factions.
Pinochle
Trick-taking card game for 2-4 players using 48-card deck (double 9-A of standard cards). Developed 19th-century USA from German bezique. 2 phases: MELDING (declare card combinations for points) + TRICK-PLAY (like whist). Partnership Pinochle (4 players) most popular. Popular ethnic German-American + American Midwest game.
Pokémon Trading Card Game
World's #2 collectible card game — 2 players battle using decks of 60 Pokémon + Trainer cards. Launched Japan 1996; global explosion via Pokémon franchise; 43+ billion cards printed by 2023. Pokémon TCG World Championships since 2004; Charizard rare cards sold for $420,000+; annual sales $1B+.
President
Climbing-style shedding game with a social hierarchy — first out is President, last out is Scum. Hierarchy persists into next round.
Razz
Lowball stud poker — the WORST five-card hand wins. Aces are low; straights and flushes don't count against you.
Scopa
Italian fishing card game — capture table cards by matching or summing to a played card; sweep the table for a 'scopa'.
Seven-Card Stud
Classic stud poker — three cards up, four cards down, no community cards.
Skat
German 3-player trick-taking card game with complex bidding. Invented ~1810 in Altenburg, Thuringia. Uses 32-card deck. NATIONAL CARD GAME OF GERMANY — millions play recreationally + competitively. INTERNATIONAL SKATORDNUNG official rules 1927. GERMAN SKATBUND governs. Highly strategic; considered pinnacle of German card gaming. Fast + deep.
Solitaire
Single-player card game where you arrange a shuffled deck into four ascending suit-ordered foundation piles, working from a tableau of seven descending face-down columns.
Spades
American 4-player partnership trick-taking card game — spades are always trump; players bid the number of tricks they'll take + score based on hitting bids exactly. Wildly popular in USA (military, college, prisons, online).
Spider Solitaire
Solitaire card game using 2 STANDARD DECKS (104 cards). Build 8 complete runs (K→A) same suit to win. 3 difficulty levels: 1 suit (easy), 2 suits (medium), 4 suits (hard). Popularized by MICROSOFT WINDOWS 98 as SPIDER SOLITAIRE. More complex than Klondike; medium-hard win rates.
Sueca
Portuguese trump-taking partnership game — 40-card deck, dealer's last card sets trump, no bidding.
Tarot (card game)
European trick-taking game family — the Tarot deck's ORIGINAL purpose, not fortune-telling.
Tarot (Card Game)
Trick-taking card game family using TAROT DECK (78 cards including 21 TRUMPS + FOOL). Originated 15th-century Italy. FRENCH TAROT (Tarot Français) most popular — 4-player game. Also Italian Tarocchi, German Tarok, Hungarian Tarokk. Different from Tarot DIVINATION (started 18th century). Serious mind sport in France; Tarot Federation organized.
Texas Hold'em Poker
World's most popular poker variant — 2-10 players receive 2 hole cards + share 5 community cards. Best 5-card poker hand wins pot. Exploded globally via 2003 WSOP Chris Moneymaker win + online poker boom + televised broadcasts. WSOP Main Event $10K buy-in draws 10,000+ players; $10M+ prizes.
Truco
Latin American bluffing trick game — bid on your hand's value while playing three-trick rounds; bluff, lie and taunt.
Uno
Family shedding card game with a custom 108-card deck — match colour or number, use action cards to disrupt opponents, and shout 'UNO!' when you have one card left.
War
Simplest card game there is — split the deck, flip cards, higher card wins. Ties go to 'war'.
Whist
Classic 18th-century English 4-player partnership trick-taking card game — direct ancestor of Bridge. 52 cards, 13 tricks per hand; last card determines trump; simple scoring based on tricks over 6. Historically dominant card game 1700s-1900.
Yu-Gi-Oh! Trading Card Game
World's #3 collectible card game — 2 players duel with decks of 40-60 monster/spell/trap cards. Based on manga/anime by Kazuki Takahashi (1996). Launched Japan 1999; global anime boom 2001+. Guinness Record most sold TCG (2011): 25.1+ billion cards sold; Blue-Eyes White Dragon + Dark Magician iconic; Konami owns rights.