Go Fish Rules
Go Fish is a simple game that is popular with children (my 6 year old son for example). There are many variations of it, the rules here describe how it works on this website. It may not be exactly the way you are used to playing.
In all the games the cards are dealt randomly at the start, and the computer players make their decisions based only on knowledge of their own hands, and knowledge of what has been played. Basically they use the same information as a human player would have available to them. Like most card games it has plenty of regional variations, but the rules used on this site are the standard rules from Wikipedia. The game is played as follows: Each player gets dealt half the deck, 26 cards, and the cards are put face down in a stack in front of the players.
Objective
To collect as many 'books' as possible. A book is four cards of the same rank. The player with the most books at the end of the game wins.
Dealing and setup
The game can be played by 2 - 4 players. First cards are dealt to the players, if there are 2 players then each gets 7 cards, if there are 3 players then each gets 6 cards and if there are 4 players then each gets 5 cards. Once the dealing is done the rest of the deck is put in a random pile on the table.
Asking and fishing
The initial player is selected at random. The player can then ask one of the other players for a particular rank. For example, you might ask a player if they have any sixes. You may only ask for ranks that you already have at least one card of. E.g. if you don't have any sixes yourself you can't ask for them. If the player you ask has any sixes, then they must give them to you, and you get another turn and can ask again. If the player doesn't have any sixes then they will tell you to 'Go Fish' which means that you will draw one card from the pile on the table. If you get a six, then you show it to the other players and get to play again. If you get anything else you are finished with your turn and the player next to you plays.
Scoring
If you have 4 of the same rank then you show the cards to the other players, and then place the four cards in a pile next to you. This is called a book. The player with the most books at the end of the game wins.
Drawing new cards
It can happen that you finish all the cards in your hand, either because someone else asked you for the last cards that you had, or you just got a book made up of your last four cards. If you have no cards then you can draw new cards from the pile on the table, the same number of cards as you got at the start of the game.
If there are three or four players then it can happen that one of them finishes their cards and there are no cards left in the pile for him to draw. In that case the player who finishes his cards is out of the game and will simply have to wait while the remaining players finish the game.
Strategy
Not much to say here. Just watch what the other players are asking for so you can know what cards they definitely have. If you're playing with more than two players make sure to pay attention to what the other players ask each other for and what they say Go Fish too, that way you can learn which cards they definitely have and which cards they definitely don't have.
Hearts Rules
These are the rules I use for Hearts. There are many variations possible, but I use the basic ones from Wikipedia.
- The objective of Hearts is to get as few points as possible. Each heart gives one penalty point. There is also one special card, the Queen of spades, which gives 13 penalty points.
- When the game starts you select 3 cards to pass to one of your opponents. Typically you want to pass your three worst cards to get rid of them. Which opponent you pass to varies, you start by passing to the opponent on your left, then in the next game you pass to the opponent on your right, third game you pass across the table and in the fourth game there is no card passing.
- Each turn starts with one player playing a single card, also called leading. The suit of that card determines the suit of the trick. The other players then play one card each. If they have a card in the same suit as the first card then they must play that. If they don't then they can play one of their other cards. Once four cards have been played, the player who played the highest ranking card in the original suit takes the trick, i.e. he takes the four cards on the table and he then starts the next turn. Any penalty cards in the trick (hearts or queen of spades) are added to the players penalty score. So you want to avoid taking any tricks that have hearts or the queen of spades.
- The player who has the two of clubs at the start of the game leads in the first hand, and he MUST lead with the two of clubs.
- You cannot lead a trick with hearts, until hearts has been broken (played on another suit). So if it is your turn to lead and no heart has been played yet then you may not select a heart as the card to play first. In some variations of the game you can't play the queen of spades until hearts has been broken as well, but in this version you can always play the queen of spades and she doesn't break hearts.
- In the very first round you may never play a heart or the queen of spades, not even if you don't have any card in the suit of the lead card.
- Once all cards have been played the penalty points are counted and the player with the fewest points wins that hand. When one or more players reach 100 points or more then the entire game is finished, and the player with the least points win. If points are over 100 and there are two or more equal with the least points then play continues until there's only one winner.
- Shooting the Moon! Generally it's bad to get penalty cards, but there is one extra twist! If you get ALL the penalty cards (13 hearts + Queen of spades) then you get 0 points and the other 3 players get 26 points each! This is called Shooting the Moon. Trying this can be a really risky move though, since if another player gets just one of the hearts you'll end up with a lot of points...
Card Game War Rules Multiplayer
As of 21.02.2014 I've changed the game so the Queen of Spades no longer breaks hearts. I used to get complaints that it didn't, then when I changed it to make sure she did break then I got even more complaints about that. So, it looks like most people want the Queen of Spades to not break hearts, so that's the way it'll be from now on. Please do not write to me requesting that I change this again!
About Hearts
This online version of the classic card game Hearts was made by me. My name is Einar Egilsson and over there on the left is my current Facebook profile picture! Hearts is the third card game I've made, the other two are Shithead and Crazy Eights. I used to play Hearts a lot when I was younger, it was one of the games that came with every version of Windows. I wanted to be able to play Hearts online, and just didn't think all the hundreds of other versions of Hearts would do! Of the card games I've made, Hearts is probably my favorite. At least I play it a lot more than the others.
The game is made using html+JavaScript+css with jQuery used for the animations. All the graphics used for the game I found at OpenClipArt, a great site with free graphics. The excellent playing card images were made by Nicu Buculei, and the player images were made by Gerald G.
Any comments, questions, ideas for other games or anything else can be sent to admin@cardgames.io.
This is version 2385 of Hearts.
Card Games With War Theme
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