Craggy's Favorite Card Games

One of our favorite activities is tasting a flight at a new brewery or going to our local brewery for a pint of our most-loved cold one. While we’re sipping, instead of forcing conversation, we prefer to play cards! Sometimes we do an impromptu stop so having a small deck of cards in my fanny pack is a must. Here is a list of our top 5 favorite card games to play. Less talk, more play.

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01. Golf
Players want the lowest number of points. King is zero, Ace is one, numbers are their values, Jack and Queen are ten.

Set up
Deal four cards to each player. Remaining cards create a draw pile, and top card is turned up to start the discard pile. Players arrange their cards in a 2-by-2 square face down. Players look at their bottom two cards only and must memorize them. Do not look at the top two cards!

How to Play
Reduce the value of your cards by swapping them for lesser value cards. Players take turns drawing a card that may either be swapped for one of their four cards or discarded. If the card is swapped, it remains face-down. Yes - you’re taking a risk swapping out your top cards (we recommend not swapping those unless you draw a three or less).
To end the game, a player can choose to “knock” instead of taking their turn. They are claiming to have the lowest amount of points. Remaining players then have one turn to draw a card to improve their hands.

Scoring
If the knocker is lowest, they win. Rest of the players drink the difference in seconds. If the knocker is not the lowest, they automatically lose (or you could record on a running score sheet).

02. Crazy 8’s
Think Uno! Players try to be the first to get rid of their cards.

Set up
Deal 7 cards to each player. Remaining cards create a draw pile, and top card is turned up to start the discard pile.

How to Play
Players take turns placing a card on top of the discard pile. The card must be the same number or same suit. 8’s are wild: player chooses the suit for the next player.
If a player cannot place a card, they must draw from the draw pile (either just 1, or until they can play).

Scoring
First player to get rid of all their cards wins! Losers can take a sip for the round or points are tallied of remaining cards in your hand.

03. Frick the Dealer
The aim of this game is to guess the top card of the deck. You have two attempts!

Set Up
Just shuffle and one player decides to be the dealer.

How to Play
Beginning at the dealer’s left, the player guesses the top card. If they are incorrect, the dealer tells them if the card is higher or lower than their guess (Aces are high). The player gets a second guess. The dealer lays the card on the table in order to see what’s left in the deck. When all 4 of a number is on the table, flip them face down.

Scoring
The dealer must get three consecutive players to guess incorrectly to pass the deck to the next player. If a player guesses incorrectly, they must take a drink. If the player guesses correctly, the dealer must take a drink. The more correct guesses, the more the dealer “gets f*****” - especially towards the end of the game.

04. 3-13
This is a variation of Rummy with wild cards. It is an eleven-round game where each round increases by one card from 3 to 13. Winner needs the fewest amount of points.

Set up
The first round, deal 3 cards to each player. 2’s are always wild. The other wild card is the number of cards dealt. So 3 for the first round. Remaining cards create a draw pile, and top card is turned up to start the discard pile.

How to Play
Each player attempts to make sets in their hand. A set may be either: three or more cards of the same (7, 7, 7) or a sequence of the same suit (5, 6, 7 of hearts). Remember wild cards! Each player takes turns drawing from the pile, and discarding one card.

Scoring
Once a player has made all their cards into sets, they can place their cards down and go out. Remaining players are given one more draw to better their hands and place down any sets they have. Cards left in hand are counted as points.
Continue to the next round by dealing four cards. 2’s and 4’s are now wild. Player with the fewest points after eleven rounds, up to 13 cards, is the winner!

05. Slap / Egyptian Rat Screw
Your goal is to collect every card in the deck.

Set up
Deal the entire deck so that each player has an equal number of cards. Players keep their cards face down in a pile.

How to Play
First player places their card face up in the center of the group. Players continue to place down one card on top until the below occurs in which players try to be the first to slap the pile and win the cards.
When two consecutive cards match - a pair - or when two of the same numbers are separated by one card - a sandwich.
When someone lays down a face card, the player after them has to put down the following amount of cards: Ace - four, King - three, Queen - two, Jack - one. If one of the cards is another face card, the game continues on regularly. If a face card is not laid down, the person who laid the original face card gets to pick up the entire pile.

Scoring
First player to collect all the cards wins! Eliminated players can slap their way back in. Warning: slapping can get intense.