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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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.
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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.
View Tennis »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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