Fall of the House of Cards Trivia Quiz

Answer: Matching Games

Go Fish is a classic family card game using matching pairs of cards. According to most rules, each player is dealt five cards, from which they remove card pairs to a discard pile. The players then take turns asking each other for specific cards that would match ones in their hand; for example, Jenny holds an ace and asks, "Edward, do you have an ace?" If the answer is yes, then Edward gives Jenny the ace and Jenny matches it to her own card, putting both into her discard pile. If the answer is no, then Edward calls, "Go fish!" This means that Jenny has to draw a card from the top of the undealt cards. She adds it to her hand if it matches nothing she already has, or matches and removes them if it does match any of her cards.

The game goes on in this way until one player has matched and removed all of the cards from their hand. This can be quick or take longer, but it never lasts longer than it takes to draw all of the cards from the undealt stack.

Answer: Trick Taking Games

Whist stemmed from the 16th century game Trump, and means "quietly attentive". It was especially popular during the 1700s and 1800s, and was a favorite game of the character Phineas Fogg in Jules Verne's classic 19th century novel "Around the World in 80 Days". Whist is a precursor to the game of Bridge.

Although the rules of Whist are long and many variants exist, the game is played by four people and involves the taking of tricks. Each player plays a card into the trick, and the player with the highest suit card wins the trick. Thirteen tricks are played, at which point the team of 2 players who has won the most points through trick-taking wins the game. Ardent players of Whist are known for their strategy in playing for the most points.

Answer: Layout Games

Spite and Malice is one name for a popular layout card game, and is very similar in rules to the manufactured game Skip-Bo. It is also a form of double Solitaire. To play Spite and Malice, two decks of cards are usually combined. Players are dealt stacks of cards in front of them, as well as hands of cards, and another stack each; the first player to get rid of the cards in this stack wins the game.

Players play the cards from their hand onto the stacks in front of them and onto a communal pile which begins with ace and ends with king. They draw more cards as they continue. The special stack that each player has can only be played onto the communal stack. It can take a long time for the game to finish and the winner to deplete his or her stack! The game gets its name from the ways in which players can add cards to each other's stacks, setting each other back.

Answer: Matching Games

Old Maid is a classic children's game whose rules were first published in 1831; it was also known as Old Bachelor when played by boys. The cards used for Old Maid, if not using a regular deck, often depict pairs of different careers and trades, with a solitary card depicting an old maid, or spinster.

When playing the game, all of the cards in the deck are dealt between the players, who then take turns selecting a card from one of the other players' hands without knowing which card it is. All pairs that the players acquire are discarded. In the end, one player will be left holding the Old Maid card, and that person is the loser and is declared an old maid.

Answer: Layout Games

There are many, many different versions of Solitaire that people have used to entertain themselves over the years. In one version, you deal yourself 7 piles of cards, the first having one card, the second two, the third three, and so on, with all of the cards facing downwards but the top card of each stack. The goal of the game is to place on the table, above these stacks, the four suits beginning with aces and extending to kings, by taking cards from the stacks and the remaining undealt cards.

A more difficult version of the game is to deal yourself 6 face up cards and a stack (usually 9, with the top card face up) in the middle, and a lone card above these piles. The goal is to place all four suits of cards on the table much in the same way as the other version of Solitaire, but beginning with whatever number is turned up above the stacks, instead of aces. This game is difficult to beat because cards from the face down stack can only be placed on the piles of four suits, so if a needed card is buried in the stack, losing is imminent. This author has had some experience with losing Solitaire!

Answer: Matching Games

Originating in Mexico, Rummy refers to several matching card games. Because there are so many variations amongst these games, an overall set of rules is difficult, but they usually contain several similarities. In most versions, players are dealt between 6 and 13 cards, while the rest of the cards are placed face-down as a discard pile.

Players take turns adding and discarding cards from their hands to create "melds", or sequences of cards, known as either sets (3 cards of the same rank) or runs (3 cards of the same suit). After the Show, during which players reveal their melds, points are added and the player with the most points from melds wins.

Answer: Trick Taking Games

Spades is another child of the older game of Whist, which was described above. Devised in the United States during the 1930s, Spades can be played with two or more players, though generally its is played with two sets of partners for four players total.

Although similar to Whist and other trick taking games in many respects, a main difference between Spades and other variants is that rather than having a trump suit determined by random draw, the Spades suit always trumps (the reason behind the name of the game).

Answer: Vying Games

Poker is one of the world's most known games, and is both very simple in play yet can be very difficult to play well. Poker is specifically a game designed for gambling, in which players bet into the "pot" or stash of money a certain amount depending on how likely they see the hand that was dealt to them as being able to beat the hands of other players.

There are more than 100 variants to Poker, including Texas Hold 'Em, Stud Poker, and Omaha.

Answer: Trick Taking Games

Also known as Contract Bridge, Bridge was first derived as a version of Whist in the late 1800s, and was known as Britich. It is a very popular game, is the focus of Bridge clubs, and is even a competitive game internationally.

A Bridge hand begins with an auction where players successively bid for higher contracts or pass, giving information about their dealt hands in the process. The cards are then played and the bidding side attempts to take as many tricks as the last contract bid for requires. Rubber bridge is the original type of bridge played; in this game format, pairs must win two games (each of one or more hands, depending on hand values) to win a rubber.

Answer: Vying Games

Brag is an ancestor of Poker, which itself descended from the 16th century card game Primero. Brag became extremely popular in Britain in the 18th century, and continues to be the most popular Poker-like game there.

The play of Brag comprises of 3 phases, the second of which is the distinctive "Brag phase", in which players brag about their hands for the purposes of betting. The highest hand that can be achieved in Brag is three cards of the same rank.