Store shelves and shelves at home are piled high with board games, card games, and video games that cater to fans of every conceivable genre. But at a time when boredom is at an all-time high, we’re all cooped up together in our homes, and we’re looking to try something new, it’s easy to forget that all kids really need to have a good time (or a fun game night) is a traditional deck of 52 playing cards and some fun card games to play. And while everybody’s got their favorite easy card game from childhood, a handful stand out as tried-and-true classics. They just work. These are the 19 best, easy card games for kids that are fun, simple, and sure to get everyone laughing and happily competitive.
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War
If there was ever a classic card game to keep two kids busy for long stretches of time, it’s ‘War.’ The objective is simple: Destroy your opponent by winning all the cards.
Players: 2
How to Play: Simply deal the entire deck face down between the two players so that each has a stack of 26 cards. Without looking at the cards, players simultaneously turn one over on the table ⏤ the higher number wins both cards. If both cards are the same, there’s a ‘war.’ Players then deal three cards face down followed by one card face up. Now, the higher numbers takes all 10 cards. Play continues until one player is out of cards and either angry or crying.
Old Maid
One of the oldest and best-known card games in the world — it’s called “Vieux Garçon” or “Old Boy” in France — the history of Old Maid dates back to the 1600s. And while they’ve sold any number of fancy decks in stores since the 19th century, it’s just as easy to play with a traditional deck of cards. The objective is to get rid of all the cards in your hand without getting stuck with the one unmatched Queen, or Old Maid. It’s a fun game partly because there are multiple winners, but only one loser.
Players: 2 to 6
How to Play: First remove one of the Queens from the deck before dealing all the cards face-down, one at a time to each player in a clockwise rotation. Players then look at their cards and remove any pairs, laying them face down on the table. The first player to go (usually the one to the left of the dealer) then holds their entire fan of cards face down and allows the player to their left to choose one. If they make a pair, it’s placed face up, and play continues in a similar fashion around the table. Eventually, all the pairs are made and one player, the “Old Maid” is stuck holding the lone Queen.
Go Fish
One of the first card games a lot of toddlers learn to play, Go Fish is an interactive matching game in which players try to get rid of the cards in their hand by collecting all four suits of the same number (called books).
Players: 2 to 5
How to Play: If there are two to three players, deal each player seven cards face down, one at a time, in a clockwise rotation. If there are more players, everybody gets five cards. The rest are the ‘pond’ and are scattered face down in the middle of the table. After organizing the cards in their hand by number or royals (Jacks, Queens, etc.), the player to the left of the dealer begins by asking anyone in the group if they have any of a specific number, one they already have in hand.
For example, Matt might ask: “Julie, do you have any Aces.” If Julie does, she turns them all over to Matt and he can ask if she has any of a different number. If she doesn’t, she says “Go Fish!” and Matt selects a card from the pond. If Matt collects enough Aces through his inquiries to form a book, he must lay them face up on the table. After collecting a card from the pond, however, his turn ends. Play continues clockwise until all the books have been collected. The player with the most sets wins.
Slap Jack
A frenetic physical game that involves quick reflexes, Slap Jack is for slightly older kids (at least those who can recognize the difference between a Jack, Queen, and King) and involves trying to win cards by being the first player to slap the stack. There’s not a lot in terms of strategy, and it’s a fun game to up the energy level of a room.
Players: 2 to 6
How to Play: Deal out the entire deck, face-down and one at a time, until each player had a stack of cards. The person sitting to the left of the dealer then turns over one card and places it face-up in the middle of the table. Moving to the left, each player follows suit and does the same. When a Jack is played, however, players race to be the first person to physically slap the pile of cards in the middle of the table. The first to do so wins the pot and adds them to the bottom of their card stack. When a player runs out of cards, they have one more chance to slap a Jack to get back in the game, but if they fail to do so, they’re out. Play continues until one person collects all the cards.
Memory/Concentration
On the exact opposite end of the spectrum from the energetic Slap Jack, Memory (or Concentration, as it’s also known) is a decidedly quieter game that helps kids work on their mental acuity. In addition to its brain-sharpening benefits, it’s also nice because a single child can play on their own.
Players: 1+
How to Play: Another game that’s sold ready-to-go in a boxed version, Memory is just as well played with an ordinary deck of cards laid out face down in a grid (or shattered all over the table/floor if you want to make it more challenging). The goal is simple, match all the cards in sets of two. Play starts with one child turning over two cards in hopes of finding a match. If a match is made, they keep both cards. If not, they note the exposed card’s number and position before turning them back over. The person to the left then takes a turn and play continues in a clockwise rotation until all the cards have been matched. The player with the most cards/number of sets wins.
Crazy Eights
Players: 2+
How to Play: Each eight is 50 points, each K, Q, J, or 10 is 10 points, each ace is one point, and each other card is the ‘pip’ value, which is the number of symbols on the cards.
Deal five cards, face down to each player. Leave the rest of the cards face down at the center of the table. This is the ‘stock.’ The dealer turns the top card up from the stack and places it in a separate pile. If an eight is turned, it’s buried in the middle of the pack.
Starting to the left of the dealer, each player must place one card face up on the stock pile that matches the suit or number of the card showing on the starter pile. So if a King of Hearts is played, the next card either has to be a King or a Heart. If no one can play, the dealer draws from the stock and puts a new card face-up on the pile until a play is possible. If unable to play until the stock is exhausted, the player has to pass. All eights are considered wild cards and can be used at any time in a turn and can represent any denomination or symbol.
The player who is the first to have no cards left wins the game, and the winning player collects from each other player the value of the cards remaining in that player’s hand. (For playing with kids, use M&M’s or jelly beans instead of money.)
Peanut Butter & Jelly
Players: 4, 6, or 8
How to Play: Peanut Butter & Jelly is a team-based card game. A dealer deals four cards to each player, and the teams split up to determine what their ‘sign’ will be (tugging an ear, winking, coughing — you get the idea) if someone gets a hand of cards that contains all four of the same suit or face value.
The dealer picks up a card and can either pass it or put it in their deck in order to build four of a kind. When a player gets their four-of-a-kind, they signal their partner with their signal. If their partner sees it, they yell “Peanut Butter.” That team wins. But, if a player on the other team thinks that they see the other team signaling one another, they yell “Jelly,” and that team wins even if they haven’t put together four-of-a-kind.
Spoons
Players: 4+
How to Play: Spoons is a lot like PB&J but without teams and with a set of spoons in the middle of the table, one fewer spoon than player. It’s much more of an ‘every player for themselves sort of game. Players sit in a circle with the same setup and objective to get four cards of the same suit or kind. The first player to reach the goal grabs a spoon. If someone grabs a spoon, everyone else can, and the only person without a spoon can’t play in the next round. The game goes on until there’s only one winner.
Speed
Players: 2
How to Play: Each player is dealt five cards to form a hand, and then 15 more cards face down to form a draw pile. Take jokers from the deck. Then, two single cards are placed in between the players, face down, and a pile of five cards on each side of those two single cards are also placed face down. Each player flips the single card at the same time and discards their cards one by one, using only one hand, by either moving up one or down one in numerical card order. Players refill their hand constantly to have five cards in their hands at all times. When there are no more moves on the two cards, players each flip a card from the deck of 5 and continue until they run out of cards. Whoever runs out of cards first yells “Speed!” and wins the game. The game is usually a two out of three game, determining the winner in a sort of Rock, Paper, Scissors type manner. This is a great game to play in a tournament style if you have more than one deck of cards, where winners of games play against one another, etc.
52-Card Pickup
Players: 1
How to Play: The dealer throws 52 cards on the ground. Someone else (usually a very young kid) picks them up. Kind of a last-ditch-effort-how-to-entertain-my-kid type of game, but that’s fine.
I Doubt It! (AKA ‘Bullshit’)
Players: 3-6
How to Play: Sit in a circle and divide the entire deck (minus the Joker, of course) among all the players. Whoever has the Ace of Spades starts the game by placing that card in the center of the circle. Then, the game moves clockwise — the next player places all of their 2’s in the center, face down in the center of the deck. If the player doesn’t have any 2’s, they place down any cards they have to keep the game-play going, and the next round. The next player puts down all their 3’s, 4’s, and more. If another player thinks someone is bluffing when they put down their cards, they can say “I Doubt It!.” If they are right, the player picks up the stack of cards in the middle. If they are wrong, the accuser has to pick up the cards in the middle. The first player to get rid of all of their cards wins. It’s a fun game that can test your kid’s lying skills.
President (otherwise known as Asshole, Scum, or Capitalism, but let’s keep it kid-friendly)
Players: 4+
How to Play: It’s like spades or bridge, but with a hierarchical game play and dealing pattern. It might take a few rounds for the game play to make sense — it’s more confusing than Speed or 52-card pick-up — but once it’s picked up it’s an easy game. There’s also a value order to the cards and kids have to learn what ‘trick’ games are, so this is more of a project than a simple game.
My Ship Sails
Players: 4-7
How to Play: The game is like Spoons or PB&J but there is only one winner and three losers. Grab a regular deck. Each player is dealt 7 cards and the rest are set aside. Players pick up their hand and discard one card to the table on their right. Then, everyone picks up the discard card on their right, which becomes a part of their hand. The first player to get 7 cards of the same suit says “my ship sails” and lays their hand down, face-up, on the table. If two players get a suit at the same time, the winner is the player with the highest ranking card.
Menagerie
Players: 4+
How to Play: Menagerie is a really high-energy, funny game that will have you bursting into stitches. To play Menagerie, each player chooses an animal name that is long and hard to say. (Not cow, Bos taurus, not Horse but Equus caballus, etc. You get the idea.) Each player writes up the names of the animals on slips of paper, which are folded up and shaken in a box like a game of charades. Each player takes a slip of paper out of the box and whatever they grab is their animal for the rest of the game. Then, each player learns all the names of the animals. Cards are then dealt clockwise and kept face down.
The player to the left of the dealer turns the card on top of his deck over to start a pile that’s face-up, and every other player does the same. When a player notices that another player’s face-up card is of the same rank (i.e. number or King, Queen, etc) he has to shout the name of the other player’s animal three times. The first player to shout the name three times without messing up wins the other player’s face up pile, which he adds to the bottom of his face-down pile. The game is over when once person collects all the cards. They’re the winner.
Snip, Snap, Snorem
Players: 3+
How to Play: Snip Snap Snorem is like “I Don’t Buy It” without all the lying. It requires a standard playing card deck. The dealer passes out all the cards, face down, to each player. The player to the left of the dealer places any card in the middle of the game area, and to complete the set, each player going clockwise tries to complete a set of cards. So, if someone puts down a King of Hearts, the next player would try to put down a King in a different suit. If a player can’t build on the set, their turn is passed. The player who lays down the fourth card plays the next set. The trick of the game is that players must say either Snip, Snap, or Snorem while building on a set — Snip being the second card, Snap being the third, and Snorem being the fourth. The first player to get rid of all their cards wins the game.
Egyptian Ratscrew
Players: 2+
How to Play: The dealer deals cards face down to each player until all the cards have been dealt. Starting to the left of the dealer, players pull the top card of their pile and place it face-up on the table in the middle of the table. If the card is a number card, the next player puts down a card. This continues until someone puts down a face card (J, Q, K, or an A.) When a face or Ace is played, the next person has to also play a Face or an ace. If the next player can’t play a face or ace card, the person who played the last face card wins the round and gets the whole pile, then starts the next round of play.
If you want to make the game a bit more competitive, you can add the ‘slap rule.’ The first player to slap the pile of cards is the winner of that round when the slap rules are put into effect. If you slap the pile when the slap rules don’t apply (which are numerous) then you have to add two cards to the bottom of the pile. The person who ends the game with all the cards wins.
Mao
Players: 3+, but best with more than 5 and less than 8
How to Play: Mao is one of the more fun and frustrating games ever created, — partly because when you play, you can never explain the rules to new players. In fact, new players are often told “the only rule you may be told is this one.” Each player is dealt an initial hand of the sme number of cards — which is usually three cards, but can sometimes be 7. You can combine decks if you’re playing with more than three people. The dealer has to say “the game of Mao has officially begun.” The player to the left of the dealer begins and the game proceeds clockwise.
While the rules aren’t explained to new players, there are common rules that are often used to play the game. Some, for example, include that aces cause the next player to skip their turn, spade cards must be named out loud when played, if someone puts down a seven, they have to draw a penalty card and they have to announce “have a nice day.” The next person then has to say “have a very nice day” and the player after that draws two penalty cards. The “verys” increase as long as sevens can be played. So, look around, establish some rules, and become the keeper of the rules for your family. It will be a hilarious game.
Like “I Don’t Buy It” or “Speed,” the object of the game is to get rid of all of the cards in your hand, and when players break the rules (which are discovered only through observing the gameplay) they have to take a card from the deck. Have fun!
House of Cards
Players: Any
How to Play: Build a house of cards. Spend hours doing it. Try not to cry when it falls apart. Cry. Cry a lot.
Hearts
Players: 3-6
How to Play: Hearts is a trick-taking card game with anywhere from three to six players. They’re like Bridge, Spades, and President, which are also trick-taking games. The rules are a little bit complicated, but like Bridge and Spades, are easy to get a handle on after you play a round.
Three Thirteen
Players: 2+
How to Play: Three Thirteen is a variation of Rummy, but requires two decks of cards. The dealer deals three cards to each player, and the dealer passes to the left in every round. In the second round, the dealer deals four cards to each player; five in the next; and thirteen in the final round. When it’s a player’s turn, he draws one of two cards. He can draw the top card from the discard pile or the top of the deck. Then he discards one card from his hand and places that card on the discard pile to conclude his turn.
The object of Three Thirteen is to get all the cards in your hand to two sets. A set is defined by two parameters: three or more cards of the same rank, such as 6-6-6-, or a sequence of three or more cards of the same suit, such as a J-Q-K of Diamonds. Sets can contain more than three cards, but the same card can’t be in multiple sets, so if you have a Queen in one set you can’t have a Queen in another. But what you want is the fewest number of points — you’ll need to check out how to calculate points — because the player who has the fewest points and two sets at the end of the final round wins. It’s a little more involved than other games, so play a few rounds to get the rules down.
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