I enjoy solving puzzles (logic puzzles, crossword puzzles, etc.—see the Treasure Hunts section of this site—so as a corollary, I also like games where you have to deduce the winning plays.
Card Games
Games with cards are my primary focus; the best games combine great opportunity for skill with elements of hidden information. That means more scope for deductive reasoning than games like chess or go, where all information is open.
- What makes a good card game?
- Card games family tree. A classification of games based on their primary mechanism of play.
- Classification of card games by type of deck. Not all good games use a 52-card deck, after all!
- My favorite card games are trick-taking trump games. Learn all about tricks and trumps.
Bridge
The king of card games. I maintain the following bridge-related resources:
- Eastern Mysticism is a strong club bidding system that incorporates some of the best features of modern 2-over-1 methods and a weak notrump opening.
- Practice bidding hands with a partner on your iPhone, iPod Touch, or iPad using BidPractice.
- Improve your game by reading the Recommended Bridge Books.
- If you’re still a bridge beginner and want some help bidding, check out Elliot’s Bridge Basics and Bidding Guidelines.
Invented Games
Sometimes it’s hard to gather four bridge players, but good card games for two or three are rare. Perhaps that’s because my standards for a good card game are high.
So I created these two games:
- Tennis is a cross between 99 and bridge for two players.
- Whiskey is a cross between Skat and bridge for three players.
Board Games
Go
A game I’d like to know better. As with bridge, there are so many sites on Go that it hardly seems worthwhile to add another; still, I’ve posted a page on the simplicity of Go rules.
Duplicate Scrabble
Duplicate Scrabble compensates for all the inherent inequalities of standard play in this crossword game.
