Designer Playing Cards and our favourite card games...
Since there's still plenty of us in lockdown, now is a great time to brush off your playing cards and bring back some of your favourite childhood card games. We are also celebrating the launch of our very cool, artist designed playing cards, available here. So here’s the run down on our favourite family card games and how to play them.
These cards games may seem basic, but there is more to them then you think and they can be played with friends and family of all ages. Just get out your favourite playing cards and you are ready to go!
How to Play Snap?
Number of plays: 2+
Divide the playing cards equally between all the players. Each player puts their pile of cards face down in front of them. The youngest player turns over their top card and starts a new pile in front of them. The cards in this pile should remain face up. The next player then does the same and so on.
If someone turns over a card that is the same as a card on top of someone else's pile, the first person to call out "SNAP" wins both piles. If two people call out "SNAP" at exactly the same time, the two piles are combined and placed in the centre of the game, with the top card still facing up. The first person to call out "BIG SNAP" when a card matches the top card in the middle pile wins this pile too.
Once a player runs out of cards that are face down, they can take their pile of cards that are facing up and use that pile. Once a player has no cards left in either pile, they are out.
The winner is the first person to get all the cards.
For added fun try a speed round.
How to play Go Fish?
Number of plays: 2+
If you are playing with 2 – 4 players, deal each player seven cards to start. If you are playing with more then 4 people, deal each player 5 cards. The remaining playing cards are placed face down in the middle as the stock pile.
In Go Fish, the Ace is the highest rank card and two is the lowest, the suits are not important.
The youngest player goes first. They can ask any player for a card. However, the player asking can only ask for a card that they have in their hand. For example, they might ask “Give me your queens” or “Give me your sevens”. The player who is addressed must accordingly hand over all of their queens or sevens. If the player addressed does not have any of the playing cards that they were asked for, they must say “Go Fish”. The player who asked must then take the top card from the stock pile and add it to their hand. It is the next person’s turn to ask.
If the player who asked is handed one or more of the cards they asked for, then they can ask the same player or another player for a card – it can be the same playing card that they previously asked for or a different one. The player’s turn will continue for as long as they succeed in getting cards. Once a player gets all four playing cards of a particular value (i.e. all four queens, or all 4 sevens), the player must place all 4 cards face up on the table to show everyone.
The game ends when all 13 sets of 4 have been revealed. The player with the most sets of 4 wins.
If a player runs out of cards during the game, them may draw cards from the stock pile. If there are no cards in the stock pile, that player is out of the game.
Playing Cards for Maths Class?
It makes us very happy to hear that some of you have been using our gorgeous Madeleine Stamer playing cards to help with home schooling! Here are pictures from one of our favourite ceramic artists, Ebony Russell, who is currently home-schooling her daughter in Sydney. If you have to teach maths at home, do it with designer playing cards!
Everyone has packet of playing cards somewhere around the house, so give these games a go!
