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What’s the best card game for two?

20 replies

DryDay · 30/06/2025 19:06

And how do you play it?
I want to be able to play cards with my DH on holiday. I only really know rummy and it’s quite dull.

OP posts:
RhubarbRocks · 30/06/2025 19:11

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amber763 · 30/06/2025 19:17

Following! I love a game of cards!

Smallchangebiggain · 30/06/2025 19:17

Our favourite card game for 2 players is Bezique.
It's really interesting and it doesnt go on too long - generally first to 1000 points wins.
Its played with 2 short packs- Ace down to 7 .
If you Google Bezique you can find out how to play. Even Wiki has a section on it.

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sesquipedalian · 30/06/2025 19:21

Cribbage isn’t bad. Agree with PP that Bezique is good.

birdling · 30/06/2025 19:23

Cribbage

Yellowcar2 · 30/06/2025 19:26

I was coming to say cribbage. I also like 9 card brag. I've never heard of Bezique so am going to google it now.

jaggededger · 30/06/2025 19:27

Crib!

Bythecooker · 30/06/2025 19:37

Sh1thead we quite enjoy

Iloveeverycat · 30/06/2025 19:43

Have you tried uno not a pack of cards game. We used to play it a lot

Bumpinthenight · 30/06/2025 19:47

Games not involving a normal pack of cards I can help with!
Phase 10
Sushi Go!
Exploding kittens

lljkk · 30/06/2025 20:10

I was going to say Rummy, I love that one. But turns out there are multiple versions. Sorry much help, but Gin rummy was one of the games I played a lot with my dad from age 7 or so.

Seeline · 30/06/2025 20:13

jaggededger · 30/06/2025 19:27

Crib!

Is that short for cribbage or a different game?

justusandthecat · 30/06/2025 20:15

We play crib or shithead.

Peradventure55 · 30/06/2025 20:16

Seeline · 30/06/2025 20:13

Is that short for cribbage or a different game?

Short for cribbage

scrivette · 30/06/2025 20:18

Canasta is good - can last a while if you play a few rounds or you could just play one round.

MargaretThursday · 30/06/2025 20:19

My dc's favourite game (even now they're adult is one my dm made up as a child). It was known as "mum's game" when I was little, not it's "granny's game".

You take out the picture cards and play with the numbers.

There are 10 rounds.

In each round you get the number of cards for the round. So round 1 = 1 card. round 2 = 2 cards etc.
You then take it in turn to pick and throw. You can pick up the unknown card, or the one that's just been thrown.

You have to put sets of cards into the right number for that round (ace = 1).

So Round 1, you can only go out with an ace.
Round 2, you could have Ace, Ace (adds up to 2) or two twos.

Eg Round 10 you might go out with 9,A 7,A 2 6,4 5,4,1

What you have left is your score for the round:

So if you had in round 10: 9,A 7,A 2 6,4 (all groups add up to 10) then 6, 8, 1 you would score 6+8+1=15.

Add up the scores for each round and lowest score wins.

My dc are all young adults, but a call of "Who wants to play granny's game?" normally has all three downstairs.

If you're playing with 4+ people then two packs of cards makes the later rounds more fun. We normally introduce the second pack of cards about round 5 or 6.

MsNevermore · 30/06/2025 20:21

My husband and I play 5 card poker while our kids are in the pool in the garden 🤷🏻‍♀️😂

We’ve got a big bag of quarters that we divide between the two of us and use that for bets. Works out at about $10 each so we can play a good few games before someone is broke

VimesandhisCardboardBoots · 30/06/2025 20:26

Bythecooker · 30/06/2025 19:37

Sh1thead we quite enjoy

Yep, we're a Shithead family here. It's better with at least 3 but perfectly playable with 2

Makingpeace · 30/06/2025 20:28

Bythecooker · 30/06/2025 19:37

Sh1thead we quite enjoy

Forgot about that one!

We used to play Slam quite competitively.

Gin Rummy and Trumps were always good too.

MidSumner · 30/06/2025 21:50

scrivette · 30/06/2025 20:18

Canasta is good - can last a while if you play a few rounds or you could just play one round.

We used to play that, haven't in years!

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