Card games to play with friends: easy classics for any group size
The card games that work best with friends, sorted by group size and mood. Quick rules for Cheat, Spoons, Crazy Eights, President, Hearts and more.
A deck of cards is still the best party game you can fit in a pocket. It costs almost nothing, nobody needs to download anything, and half the table already knows at least one game. The hard part is picking one that suits the group in front of you.
These are the card games we’d reach for with friends, sorted by how many of you there are and how loud you want it to get. All of them use an ordinary 52-card deck.
For a big, loud group
Spoons. You need one spoon fewer than the number of players, in the middle of the table. Everyone gets four cards. The dealer picks up a card from the deck, keeps or discards one, and passes the discard to the left; everyone does the same, as fast as they can. When someone collects four of a kind, they quietly take a spoon. The moment anyone notices, everybody grabs. The player left without a spoon is out, and you play again with one spoon fewer. Works with 4 to 10 players and gets physical, so move the drinks.
Cheat. Deal out the whole deck. Players take turns putting cards face down on a pile and saying what they are, going up in order: “two aces”, then “one two”, then “three threes”. You have to claim the next rank, whether you’ve got it or not. Anyone can shout “Cheat!” If the player lied, they pick up the whole pile. If they told the truth, the accuser does. The first to get rid of all their cards wins. It’s a bluffing game first and a card game second, and it’s best with 4 to 8.
For a mixed group that wants something easy
Crazy Eights. Deal seven cards each for two players, five each for more. Turn over one card to start the pile. On your turn, play a card that matches the top card’s suit or number. If you can’t, draw until you can. Eights are wild: play one at any time and name a new suit. First player with no cards wins the round. Kids pick it up in a minute, and it gets surprisingly tactical once people start saving their eights.
If you know any of the shop-bought shedding games with coloured cards, this is the old game most of them come from.
For four people and a longer evening
Hearts. Four players, each dealt thirteen cards. Before each hand, pass three cards to another player. Then play tricks: follow the suit that was led if you can, and the highest card of that suit takes the trick. Every heart you take costs a point, and the queen of spades costs thirteen. Lowest score wins. The twist is “shooting the moon”: take every heart and the queen in one hand, and everyone else gets the points instead. Once someone at the table knows that rule, every hand gets nervous.
President. Deal the whole deck. The first player leads a single card, a pair or three of a kind, and each player in turn has to beat it with the same number of higher cards, or pass. When everyone passes, the pile is cleared and the last player to play leads again. The order you get rid of your cards decides your rank for the next round: the first out is President, the last is at the bottom. Before the next deal, the bottom player hands over their best two cards and gets the President’s worst two back. It’s unfair on purpose, and that’s why people keep playing.
For two players
Speed (or Spit). Fast and a bit frantic. Each player has their own cards and you both play onto two shared piles at the same time, placing any card one higher or lower than the top card. No turns at all. Great for when it’s just the two of you and you want something over in five minutes.
Rummy. Slower and calmer. Draw a card, discard a card, and try to collect sets (three or four of the same rank) and runs (three or more in a row of one suit). Lay them down as you make them. First to go out wins the hand. It’s an easy game to play while talking, which is half the point.
When you don’t have a deck, or you’re not in the same room
Card games are hard to play over a video call: someone has to deal for everyone, and nobody can hold a hand of cards for you. That’s where phone games help, because each player’s cards stay on their own screen.
Card Clash is our take on the old stat card game. Everyone holds a hand of real things, animals, countries, cars, tech giants or football clubs, each with real numbers on it. One player calls a stat and everyone plays a card face down at the same time, so there’s no waiting and no reacting to what others put down. There’s also an Ace that beats every card and a few weak cards that are the only ones able to catch it. It takes 2 to 12 players and a game lasts about five to ten minutes. If you’d like to play the paper version too, we’ve written up the rules of the stat card game and how to make your own deck.
If Cheat is your group’s favourite, try Number Bluff. It isn’t a card game, but it’s the same kind of bluffing. Each question has a real, surprising number as its answer, everyone writes a believable fake, and the real one is mixed in among the fakes. You score for picking the truth and for every player your fake fools. It takes 3 to 12, and it’s just as good in a room as on a call.
Both run at play.guezzer.com. One person opens a room and everyone else joins on their phone with the code or a link, no accounts needed.
A few things that make card nights better
- Write the house rules down before the first hand. Every family plays Crazy Eights slightly differently, and the argument will happen anyway, so have it early.
- Use two decks for big groups. Spoons and Cheat both work with two shuffled-together decks once you’re past eight players.
- Teach by playing one open hand. Everyone plays a round with their cards face up, then you start properly. It’s quicker than any explanation.
- Rotate the dealer. It sounds small, but it keeps one person from doing all the work, and it gives everyone something to do between hands.
