With the price of gas going up, up, up, going out anywhere gets very expensive. Going to the movies, out to eat, golfing, a day trip all adds up and can really take a toll on your budget. With that in mind, many people are looking for more at home ways of entertaining themselves. One of the oldest forms on entertainment in the world is a deck of cards. Literally, cards have been around for thousands of years. So here’s a look at some of the most entertaining group card games.
1) Spoons
This game can get really crazy with a ton of people. Although, theoretically, the most players you can have is 13 but if you use more than one deck you can up that number. The goal of this game is to collect four of a kind (four kings, four aces, four two’s etc). You will need a deck of cards and one less spoon than there are people playing. Place the spoons in the middle of the playing surface. The dealer deals four cards to every player. The person to the right of the dealer takes the remaining cards and one at a time looks at them and decides if the player wants to take the card: if not then the player passes the card to the next player, if so then the player takes the card and passes on a card from his own hand. The first person to collect four of kind takes a spoon from the middle of the table. As other players notice that a spoon is gone, they too take a spoon. The last player will not get a spoon and is the token loser of the game. This game can be played tournament style where each round the losing player is eliminated or group style where each game starts anew.
2) Egyptian Rat Screw
Honestly, I have no idea why this game is named this way. The object of this game is to collect all the cards. In order to win cards you slap the discard pile when certain card combinations occur. The card combinations that are slapped are doubles and sandwiches. A double occurs when one player lays down a card (ex. A nine) and the next player lays down the name numbered card (ex. Another nine), which ever player slaps the pile first, wins those cards. A sandwich occurs when two cards of the same number “sandwich” a card of another number (ex. Nine, three, nine). Face cards and aces also have special properties. If Player A lays down a jack Player B has one chance to lay down another face card or ace. If a queen is laid down the player has two chances, a king gives three chances and an ace gives four chances. If a player runs out of cards after a face card is laid down, the next player must complete the face card lay down. For example, Player A lays down an ace. Player B now has four chances to lay down a face card or an ace. Player B lays down two non-face cards and runs out of cards to play. Player C must now finish out the four chances by laying down two more cards. This game is particularly fun because even when one player runs out of cards they can still slap back in.
3) BS
This game tests just how well you can lie and is best played with three or more people. The object of the game is to get rid of all your cards. All the cards are dealt and players are allowed to view their own cards. Whoever has the ace of spades discards first face up (all other cards are discarded face down). After the ace of spades is discarded face up the player to the left selects the number of two’s from his hand and declares how many and discard’s them face down. The next player continues with three’s and the next player with fours and so on. For example, the ace of spades is discarded by Player A, Player B declares “two two’s” and discards, Player C declares “one three” and discards, and the game continues on. At any time if one player thinks another is lying, the suspicious player declares “BS” and the other player must display the cards he just discarded. If he was lying the lying player collects the discard pile, if not, the suspicious player collects the discard pile.
