Funny Card Games

There are many different ways to classify card games, none of them entirely satisfactory. An excellent discussion of the difficulties can be found in David Parlett: A History of Card Games

Following Parlett, the main classification used to organise games on this web site is by mechanism: games are categorised according to the process for playing them. what you do when it is your turn to play. On this page I have also attempted a classification by objective, based on what the players have to do in order to win.

These abstract classifications are useful in understanding the evolution of funny card games and the relationships between them, but in a practical situation of deciding what card game to play, other types of classification might be more useful, and will be progressively added to this page in future. Some of these will be rather subjective. For example, in response to many requests, I have tried to produce a list of children's card games.

The aim in this classification is to put together games which have similar mechanics of play. As funny card games evolve and change, players tend to keep the basic mechanism of a game they know, but vary the objectives or some of the details. Sometimes complications are added to make the game richer; sometimes games are simplified to speed them up, and sometimes ideas are introduced by analogy with other games. A result is that in this classification games that are historically related, being derived from each other or having a common ancestor, tend to end up together in the same group.

I use just five main categories: outplay, exchange, comparison, patience (solitaire) and other. These categories are subdivided into groups and subgroups. Some of the subgroup divisions may take into account the objectives of the game as well as the mechanism. This classification scheme seems to be working reasonably well - nearly all the traditional games being added to the site can be fitted into one of the existing groups.

 

 

This classification is intended to help people who have some cards of a particular design and want to find out what games they are used for.

French Suited Cards Four suits: hearts, diamonds, clubs and spades. Each suit usually has three picture cards (king, queen, jack) plus numeral cards from 1 (ace) to 10 (some packs have fewer or more numerals per suit). One, two or more jokers may be included. Some games use multiple packs.

German Suited Cards Four suits: acorns, leaves, hearts and (spherical) bells. Each suit has three picture cards, generally all male, an ace or deuce, and some numeral cards, which often run from 10 down to 7 or 6. Some games use a double pack

Latin Suited Cards Four suits: swords, batons, cups and coins. Each suit has three picture cards, generally a king, a knight on horseback and a jack or maid. Numeral cards run from 1 (ace) to 7 or 9 or occasionally 10.

Swiss Suited Cards Four suits: acorns, flowers (roses), shields, and (spherical) bells. Each suit has three picture cards (king, over and under), a banner, an ace or deuce, and some numeral cards - usually 9, 8, 7, 6, sometimes 9's only, and sometimes from 9 down to 3. Some games use a double pack.

French Suited Tarot Cards Four suits: hearts, diamonds, clubs and spades. Each suit has four picture cards (king, queen, cavalier, jack) and up to 10 numeral cards. In addition there are 21 trump cards with large roman or arabic numbers and various illustrations, and the fool, which has no number or suit, but often depicts a jester or musician.

Italian Suited Tarot Cards Four suits: swords, batons, cups and coins. Each suit has four picture cards (king, queen, cavalier, jack) and up to 10 numeral cards. In addition there are trump cards - usually 21 of them - with traditional illustrations such as sun, wheel of fortune, death, chariot, plus a card depicting a fool.

Domino Tiles or Cards Each tile has a number of spots at each end, usually arranged like the spots on a die. Usually  all combinations of two numbers from 0 or 1 up to 6, 9, 12 or 15 are present. The card version has a representation of a domino at each end.

Money Cards or Tiles These oriental cards are usually long and narrow and have three or four suits, which originally corresponded to denominations of money - cash, strings of cash, tens of thousands, and so on. Each suit generally has numerals from 1 to 9 and there may be some additional special cards. Mah Jong tiles or cards also belong to this type.

Chess Cards The ranks of these cards correspond to the pieces in Chinese Chess (Xiangqi), and each rank is present in either two or four colours. Some packs have additional cards.

Flower Cards These cards, used in Japan, Korea and Hawaii, have four cards for each month of the year, each month corresponding to a different flower or plant.

Indian Circular Cards There are usually eight or twelve suits, each with two picture cards and ten numerals.

Number Cards or Tiles There are several types of cards which have numbers rather than repeated suit marks to represent ranks. As there are no suitmarks, the different suits are generally replaced by different colours or different styles of numeral.

Single Suited Cards There is a sequence of cards, the ranks being represented by numbers or pictures, with no distinction between suits (or colours). Often there are two (identical) cards of each rank.

Other Types of Cards or Tiles There are many cards, especially those made for proprietary or commercial games, which do not fall into any of the above types.