Card games

Klondike, dealt on illuminated cards.

FreeCell with the authentic numbered shuffles, all thirty-two thousand of them: four free cells, supermoves, safe cards flying home on their own, and every move retractable. Nearly every deal can be won, and the fastest clears go on the board. No. 11982 remains at large.

The great two-deck patience, at last: ten columns, five deals waiting in the stock, and eight full suits to spin from king down to ace. A finished suit sweeps itself off the table; a run only travels together when it is all one suit. One suit is a gentle evening, two is the classic, four is for the patient. Unlimited undo, a nightly web the same for everyone, and the fastest clears go on the community board.

Pyramid solitaire: pair cards to thirteen and take the pyramid apart, row by row.

The beloved peaks-clearing solitaire: three summits of cards, their base row open, and a descent that runs one rank up or down with aces and kings wrapping. Baring a card’s coverers turns it; the stock lends twenty-three cards but every turn breaks your run. Fell all three peaks to clear the deal. Tonight’s deal is the same for everyone, and the fastest clears go on the community board.

The quick classic of the golf family: seven open columns of five, one rank up or down to the waste, and nothing wraps; the ace knows only the two, the king only the queen, and the walls end many a fine run. Sixteen cards in the stock, every draw breaks your run, and not every course can be cleared. A nightly course the same for everyone, and the fastest clears go on the community board.

The classic game of Hearts against three souls from the taproom: pass three cards, follow suit, and let no sorrow land on you. Every heart is a point, the queen of spades is thirteen, and taking all of it hands everyone else twenty-six. Lowest at the table wins.

The partnership classic with the Pilgrim at your side against the Reeve and the Ale-Wife: bid your tricks, dare a nil for a hundred, and mind the bags, for ten of them cost the same. Spades trump all and may not be led until one has fallen. First side to three hundred.

The great trump-making partnership game, with the Drover at your side against the Tinker and the Reeve: order the turned card up or name your own trump, and mind the bowers, for the jack of trump rules the night and the same-colour jack rides second. Three tricks make the point, a march pays two, a lone march four, and a side caught short is euchred. First to ten. Solo or live at the open tables.

The grandmother of every trick game, with the Shepherdess at your side against the Widow Hale and the Pardoner: no bidding and no honors, the dealer’s turned card names the trump, and every trick past six is a point to the side that took it. First side to five points. Solo or live at the open tables.

The exact-bid trick game against the Fiddler, the Horse-Leech and the Drover: seven shrinking deals, a card flipped for trump each round, and the dealer barred from the bid that would make the table come out even. Land your bid to the trick for ten points and the bid besides; miss by one and take nothing. Someone at the table must always be wrong. Solo or live at the open tables.

Partnership pinochle with the Pilgrim at your side against the Reeve and the Ale-Wife: win the auction, name trump, lay your melds (marriages, pinochle, a run in trump), then take the point cards in the tricks. Meld plus tricks must make your bid or your side is set. First to a hundred and fifty. Solo or live at the open tables.

The old two-hand duel against the Elder: exchange with the talon, then score the point, the sequences, and the sets before a card is led; take the tricks for the cards and dare the capot. Six deals to the partie, and woe to the player left short of a hundred, for the rubicon doubles the loss. Solo or live at the open tables.

Germany’s national card game and the finest three-hander ever devised: the auction climbs the ladder (18, 20, 22 and on) and its winner plays alone against the other two. Take the two-card skat or play brave from the hand, then name the game: a trump suit with the four jacks always on top, grand, or the null that dies on a single trick. Sixty-one card points win the deal; fail, or win under your bid, and it pays double against you. Twelve deals, richest name takes the table. Solo or live, three chairs gathered.

Italy’s dearest card game, two-handed against the Potboy: forty cards, a turned briscola beneath the talon, and no duty to follow suit. The ace is eleven, the three is ten, and the trick goes to the suit led unless a briscola falls. A hundred and twenty points in the pack; sixty-one takes the game. Solo or live at the open tables.

The two-hand classic against the Widow Hale: draw, discard, and knock when your deadwood runs low. Melds reckoned exactly, layoffs and undercuts kept honestly, gin worth its full twenty-five, and matches to one hundred. She counts every card you lift from the pile.

Straight rummy, the root of the whole family, two-handed against Widow Hale: draw from the stock or take the top of the pile, meld your sets and runs aces-low, lay off on anything down, and discard to end the turn. Every pile pick is public knowledge, and going out pays the pips left in the far hand, doubled for going rummy. First to one hundred. Solo or live at the open tables.

The great partnership melding game, you and Widow Hale against the taproom’s pair: two decks and the jokers, melds of three with the wilds counted close, and the whole war fought over the discard pile: take it only by melding its top card, freeze it with a wild, guard it with a black three. Seven deep is a canasta, and your side needs one to go out. Red threes lay themselves. First side to three thousand. Solo or live at the open tables, four chairs gathered.

The Italian fishing classic, two-handed against the Pardoner: play a card and it takes its match from the table, or a set that adds up to it, the single always barring the sum. Sweep the table clean for a scopa, then count the reckoning: most cards, most denari, the sette bello, and the primiera. First to eleven. Solo or live at the open tables.

The old English fishing game, two-handed against the Chapman: a number card gathers every like rank and every sum it reaches, a court takes a court, or lay a card on the table and announce a build you hold. Raise a single build, fix a double one, sweep for a point on the spot. Cards, spades, the two casinos and the aces make the count; first to twenty-one. Solo or live at the open tables.

The kitchen classic, two-handed against the Ale-Wife: name a rank you hold and she hands over every copy, or the pond gives what it gives. Every ask is a confession the whole table hears, and the ledger under the pond forgets nothing. Thirteen books in the deck, so nobody ever ties. Solo or live at the open tables.

The shedding classic the boxed card games descend from, two-handed against the Fiddler: match the suit or the rank, or play an eight and name the suit to follow. Draw until something comes, and mind the reckoning, for an eight held is fifty against you. First to one hundred. Solo or live at the open tables.

The great Russian card game, two-handed against the Cellarer: thirty-six cards, the trump turned under the stock, and every bout a small war of attack, answer, and throw-in. Beat everything and the attack passes to you; take, and the whole table follows you home, in the ledger for all to read. The stock runs dry, the hands play down, and the one left holding is the durak. Solo or live at the open tables.

Six-card cribbage against the Netmender: two to the crib, a starter cut, the pegging to thirty-one with its fifteens, pairs, runs, and goes, then the show counted in strict order, hand, hand, crib. First to a hundred and twenty-one, and the game ends the instant a peg crosses the line. Solo or live at the open tables.