December 28 is Card Playing Day

What I will be sharing with you are some of my favorite games and some of my favorite decks of cards. Yes I have a tendency to collect cards. The interesting thing is that I don't remember paying for them. They have all been given to me.

So on this page you will find my favorite games and my favorite cards. Mentally I might not be playing with a full deck, but every deck I play with has the correct amount. This includes the jokers. Yes Cesar Romero in my opinion you are still the best Joker.

Do you play with a deck of cards or use the computer?

A game for my grandfather and I

Have you ever had to sit somewhere for several hours and not move from that spot. Well this is what my grandfather had to do for several years of his life. You see he was on dialysis. Basically his kidneys had shut down and the doctors said that he was too old for a transplant.

That is why this other lens was created If you were a Perfect match, Would You Donate a Kidney?

Any ways back to the card game. He and I would sit and play cards. There was one game that we tended to play the most. The title was Kings in the Corner. There is a description of how the game goes below. There was also one deck that we used. And that is where the images came from for this and the next section.

This was a four hour process that was gone through three times a week. So during the summer I would walk down the road to their cottage and spend as much time as I could with him. Even if it was just sitting there. If he was up to it I would shuffle the cards and deal them out. Other times when he was just to tired to do anything but sit there I would mow the lawn or help grandma clean. It just meant that I was there with them.

Its amazing how just spending time with someone creates memories. Even if it is just sitting and playing a game of cards. I am not sure who came up with the game of Kings in the Corner but if I did I would be running up to them and giving them a hug and a thank you that most likely would involve tears and a feeling of not wanting to let go.

If you would like to know how to play Kings in the Corners then please use this link. It will open up a new web page for you to use.

- Rules for Kings in the Corners

And as they say you shouldn't drink and play cards at the same time. So as an alternative use these cards instead of drinking.

A game from my dad

My dad took a 2' x 4' board and made two circles. He than made 12 sections between those two circles just like a clock. As you can tell by this image it sort of looks like a clock with a section in the middle sort of like the small area where the hands of a clock would be. Each section had the type of card that would end up in that space. Ace , two, three all the way around to the Queen. The King would be the one in the center.

You would then deal out the cards starting with the Ace - one and going around the board / clock four times to fill in all the spaces. This would mean Ace, two, three ... ten, Jack, Queen and then King in the center. With a deck of 52 cards you would go around four times.

At this point you would draw a card from the center of the board, the King spot. That card would go into the location of that number. So if it were a 10 it would go next to the ten stack. You would then take a card from the pile in the 10 section. That card would then go to the pile next to what it was, say an ace. You would then take a card from that pile and place it where it needed to go.

The object of this game was to get all the card from the outside spaces completely filled in before all four kings were revealed. If you could do this you would win the game. If not then sorry to say you loose.

Having the board at the younger age helped a lot to get the cards lined up. At this point in my life I can deal them out without that board and keep going. But as a learning aid this was a good one from my dad.

An addictive game on the computer.

Yes it is addictive. The idea is to clear out all the cards in the tripeaks before the cards in the lower deck run out. And if you are playing on the computer then there is scoring also involved.

The scoring part is what got me. The game comes with places for the top 10 already filled in. At least the one I have is filled in. My goal was to work my way up the ladder until I beat the high score. I have done this twice. You think I would learn. Shortly after reaching the high score my hard drive crashed. And this was on two different computers.

Now I can also play this with a normal deck of cards but in my opinion it is not as much fun. After all I like to get the high score.

The clasic version

There are many different kinds of solitaire in the world. This is the most common one. It is also the first type of solitaire that I remember learning and playing for hours on end. And that was before there was a version on the computer.

You will also notice from this image and the previous one what my favorite deck of cards is. Also if you let it sit long enough the little bats will move a little bit.

This is one game that I tend to play with a deck of cards

Here is another game that I am unsure where I learned how to play it. I just know that I tend to play it in sets of three. Shuffle, deal, play repeat two more times. Another unsure moment here as two why it is only three games worth. There are others that I play but this is the most common. I have a deck of cards on the night stand that I will play different kinds of solitaire with. This would be my FinnAir deck shown below.

I have listed out the directions on how I play the game. Their might be others out there but you will have to find those on your own.

The goal of this game is to get all of the face cards around the outside of the board in their designated locations. Its not as easy as it may seam as you read on.

Step one: shuffle the cards. I know that this is obvious but I am throwing it in just because.

Step two: Deal out 16 cards face up. Start by placing out four cards in the center like the picture shows. If you get a face card place it in the correct location. Now the idea is to fill in all of the 16 locations with a card. This means that the K - King, Q - Queen and J - Jack may have another card in their locations.

Step Three: Remove the non-face cards in groups of 10.

- 10's

- 9 and Ace

- 8 and 2

- 7 and 3

- 6 and 4

- 5 and 5

Step Four: Fill in the empty spots with new cards. Here is the point that could actually happen during the first deal. I know I have had it happen. As I said you have to fill in all the open spaces with new cards. So say you have all of the K - King spots filled in with cards and your next card is a King. There is no place for that K - King to go. The game is over. This is the most common way for the game to end. Another way is to have all 16 spots filled in with cards and have no matching pairs to remove. Not as common but it can happen. Again this is experience talking.

Lastly the image has two piles.

Stock - These are the cards that waiting to be added to the board.

Waste - These are the cards that have been removed that add up to 10. See Part 3 above.

Variation to this game: Try and get all the suits in the same corner. Example Spades in the upper right, Hearts in the upper left and so on. I have tried this and actually pulled it off. Once.

In an Ice storm?

Yes when I was in college many years ago there was an ice / snowstorm that hit our area. The power went out and there was no heat. Needless to say several of our friends on campus came over to our apartment thinking it was a small space with lots of people. We all piled into one room and started playing games.

Finally the deck of cards came out. We started with basic games like go fish and rummy. Eventually someone suggested poker. First of all I never dealt for this game. We only played two hands and then they all did not want to play anymore. Why you ask? My first had was four aces and a king hing. My second hand was a full house kings over queens. Considering the situation this was some how appropriate. Disclaimer: There was no gambling involved in these two hands. After all we were college students and money for us was a foreign object.