Free Family Card Games - Two Card Games For Any Age

There are many excellent card games suitable for children. For example, the many games of the Stops family are all good fun, are all easily learned, and are all suitable for mixed groups of children and adults.


Here are two of this group which can be learned in no time and played for hours. Have fun!

SEQUENCE

NUMBER OF PLAYERS: 2 to 10. Four or 5 players make the best game.

CARDS: Deal one at a time to each player until the deck is used up. It doesn't matter if some of the players are dealt more cards than the others.

OBJECT: TO get rid of all of your cards.


THE PLAY: The player at the dealer's left puts down his lowest card in any suit he chooses to begin with. The rank of the cards is:
(Highest) Ace-King-Queen-Jack-10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2 (Lowest)

After the first card has been put down on the table, whoever has the next-highest card in the same suit must put it down. This process continues, until somebody finally plays the Ace of that suit.

Sooner or later, one of the players will get rid of all of his cards. He wins the hand, and the other players lose one point for each card that they still have when the hand comes to an end.

MICHIGAN

NUMBER OF PLAYERS: 3 to 8.

CARDS: The ordinary deck of 52 cards plus the 4 special cards (we'll come to them later) from another deck.

THE DEAL: The dealer gives one card at a time face down to each player, taking care to deal an extra hand as though there were 1 more player at the table. It doesn't matter if some hands have one more card than others.

PAY CARDS: The 4 pay cards, taken from another deck, are the Ace, the King, Queen, and Jack. These are placed face up in the middle of the table and remain there throughout the game. Before each deal, each player places one counter on each of the special cards. (The counters may be poker chips, matchsticks, toothpicks, dried beans, etc. All players should be given the same number of counters to begin a game.)

OBJECT: TO win counters from the other players. This is done by getting rid of all of your cards or by playing a pay card and thus winning the counters that are on that special card in the middle of the table.

THE PLAY: The dealer looks at his own hand and announces whether or not he will auction off the extra hand. If the dealer wants the extra hand himself, he puts his own hand aside, face down, and plays the extra hand in its place. If the dealer likes his own hand, he may auction off the extra hand to the player who bids the most counters for it. If 2 players make the same bid, the first one to speak counts.

If both speak at the same time, the one who would play first going around to the left from the dealer wins the tie. If the dealer says he is going to sell the extra hand, he is not allowed to change his mind even if he is not satisfied with the results of the auction.

After the question of the extra hand is settled, the play begins. The player to the left of the dealer may begin with any suit, but must put down the lowest card of the suit he chooses to begin with. The player with the next higher card in the same suit continues, and the play proceeds as in Sequence.

When any player puts down a card that is the same as one of the pay cards in the middle of the table, he collects all of the counters on that card. It is therefore an advantage to hold one of these pay cards in your hand.

If a player reaches the Ace of a suit, he must start with a new suit, but must play the lowest card he holds in whichever suit he chooses to continue with.

Sooner or later, some person plays the last card in his hand. He then collects from each other player at the rate of 1 counter for each card left in that player's hand.

Children and adults alike will have fun with these games!