Many Bridge players lament that three-handed variations lack the real game's complexity. On the other hand, one of the best three-handed card games around—Skat, the German national card game—is filled with arbitrary rules that are off-putting to initiates. Hence Whiskey (from Whist + Skat—say it quickly), which takes some of the best features from each game to solve the three-player dilemma.
View Whiskey »Eastern Mysticism is a bidding system that employs the best elements of a strong club opening, a weak notrump, and 2-over-1. It is optimized for matchpoints but requires only a shift in judgment for IMP scoring.
View The Eastern Mysticism Bidding System »I have definite ideas about what makes a good card game. My favorite card game, duplicate bridge, meets many of those expectations but requires 4 people to play. Tennis and Whiskey are my attempts to develop games for 2 and 3 players that meet all my standards. What are those standards? Glad you asked…
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Tennis is a plain-trick game in which two players strive to match a bid number of tricks exactly for each of their two hands.
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Playing cards are amazingly versatile; they can be used for thousands of different games. But even with all that diversity, games with cards display similarities that let us group them together into a “family tree” of card games.
View Card Games Family Tree »A survey of the different decks of cards used by various popular games worldwide.
View Card Games by Deck »In Bridge, Spades, Hearts, and numerous other card games, the gameplay consists of tricks. A trick is simply one card from each player’s hand. Some games (Bridge and Spades, for example, but not Hearts) allow a trump suit. If there is a trump suit, each card in the trump suit is able to beat any card of any other suit.
View Tricks and Trumps »A custom convention card for use at ACBL-sanctioned events.
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Schnapsen is a terrific game. But it’s a tough sell for American audiences, what with the Ace-Ten card order and point values and a number of finicky rules. So here’s a version tailored for American card players.
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BidPractice is a pass-and-play app for iPhones, iPod Touches, and iPads. It lets up to four bridge players hone their bidding skills by generating random deals.
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