All You Need Is a Deck of Cards Quiz

Answer: Crazy Eights

Crazy Eights has scores of variations and as many alternate names in the English-speaking world: Swedish Rummy, Rockaway, Last One, etc. Germans call it Mau-Mau, and the Swedish call it Tschausepp. Some Britons call it Black Jack, though it is nothing like the American casino game Blackjack (also called Twenty-One).

A very similar game is Uno, sold by Mattel with a specialty deck. Uno adds cards labeled "skip", which forces the next player in rotation to lose a turn, and "reverse direction" which changes the rotation from clockwise to counter-clockwise (or vice versa). Some variants of Crazy Eights use the Queen for "skip" and the ace for "reverse direction". Another variation of Crazy Eights is called Spoons, which involves grabbing spoons when a Jack is played, or face a penalty.

Answer: Old Maid

Cards must match by number; some play that colors must match as well. Players discard matching pairs until the loser is left holding the Old Maid.

Old Maid goes by many other names in other countries. In Germany, Sweden, Finland, and the Netherlands, the game is known as "Black Peter", and in France "The Old Boy". (Perhaps only in anglophonic countries is a female the dreaded card!) These use an odd Jack; if played this way in English-speaking countries it is called Jackass. Likewise, in some specially crafted sets using barnyard animals, the Donkey is the odd card. In the Philippines, any card can be removed in a version called Ungguy-Ungguyan. In a British variant, however, called Scabby Queen, the loser must pick a card. If he picks a black card, the dealer scrapes the deck across his knuckles. Ouch!

Answer: Euchre

The Cornish and the Pennsylvania Dutch brought this German game to Michigan, where it eventually spread across America. Euchre introduced into modern decks the Joker, invented in 1860 as the top trump, although generally it is played in the U.S.A. with a Jack as the trump card.

The Jack of the trump suit is called the Right Bower, while the Jack of same color is the Left Bower. (The Jacks of the other color are the high cards in their respective suits, but they aren't trumps.) In the U.S.A. the cards 2-8 are removed, but in some countries players retain the 7s and 8s, for a total of 32 cards.

A typical game lasts about half an hour. It takes a good memory, clever tactics, and strong communication skills to play this game well.

Answer: Klondike

Klondike is by far the most popular, so much so that people use "solitaire" or "patience" to refer specifically to Klondike! Many solitaire or patience games share one or more similar elements with Klondike: tableau (layout), stock (draw pile), waste (reserve pile), foundation (build piles). They also have a similar object, to move all the cards to the foundations. Specifically in Klondike, the cards are dealt into a tableau of seven columns. Cards are generally drawn three at a time, but some varieties permit one card drawn at a time, and some limit the number of runs through the deck. In any case, the top card is placed on a card of the opposite color (red on black and vice versa) and in descending sequence on the tableau. Aces are pulled out to form foundation piles that are of the same suit and in ascending sequence.

Sometimes Canfield and Klondike are confused, and people in some areas, such as the U.K., switch their names. Canfield was invented in Saratoga Springs, New York in the 1890s by a saloon owner named Richard A. Canfield. It has a completely different tableau of just four cards, although the object of the game is similar. The confusion lies in that Mr. Canfield called his game Klondike, even though the real Klondike game already existed, and while Americans nonetheless called it Canfield after the inventor ("that Canfield game"), the misnomer stuck overseas, and so the confusion stands.

Answer: Kings in the Corner

Sometimes the obvious answer is the correct one. Legend has it that the Grey family invented this game aboard the SS Suevic in the 1910s, but this may be apocryphal. Also known as Kings' Corners and a few other names, this game borrows elements from solitaire games and is sometimes labeled a competitive patience game.

It is also layout game as cards are arranged, added, and manipulated within a layout according to specific rules. Players draw from the stock on card at a time and play cards on the foundation piles, putting Kings in the corners to start those foundations. Entire foundation piles can be moved on another if the foundational card is one lower and the opposite color (red on black or vice versa).

The object is to empty your hand first (hence, a shedding game).

A game can be just one round, the victor being the one who goes out first, or a game can be multiple rounds, with players receiving penalty points for the cards in their hand. Game ends when a target score is reached, usually 100 in individual games or 200 in partnership games.

Answer: Hearts

Hearts emerged in the Anglophonic world in the 19th century from an 18th-century Spanish game known as Reversis. In 1850, the idea of a Black Maria or Black Lady was added; whereas hearts cost one point, the Black Lady costs 13 points. A variant emerged in the 1920s that permits a deduction of ten points for taking the Jack of Diamonds.

More recent additions to the game include passing three cards to one's opponent before gameplay and leading with the Two of Clubs. (Some enthusiasts prohibit passing the Ace, King, and Queen of Spades).

Although four players are ideal, three or five persons may reasonably play. Card counting comes in handy.

Answer: Chase the Lady

In Five-Card Draw every player is dealt a complete hand before betting commences, and then he may discard and draw cards. This is the simplest Poker version and the one favored for teaching beginners the game. Five-Card Stud originated during the U.S. Civil War. Unlike in the closed Draw Poker, in Stud Poker most of the players' hand is revealed on the table from the get-go. Texas Hold'Em, which emerged in the 1920s, goes even further and uses community or window cards, which are shared by all players. In most versions of Poker, the highest-ranking hand is the royal flush, which consists of A,K,Q,J,10 of the same suit.

Chase the Lady, which refers to the penalty incurred by the Queen of Spades, is another name for Hearts, an evasion-type, trick-taking game.

Answer: Whist

Classic Whist developed in the 17th and 18th centuries from an even older game, Ruff and Honours, popular among the English in the 16th century. Other variations have emerged since then, some of which include bidding. In the U.S.A., a game is seven points, although in the U.K. five suffice.

In Long Whist, nine is the target number. Despite the game's simplicity, strategy matters, and writers such as Edmond Hoyle wrote extensively on rules and tactics in 18th and 19th centuries. Originally viewed as a game for servants and coffee-house denizens, Whist eventually found popularity among the upper crust. William Henry Seward, President Abraham Lincoln's Secretary of State, was an avid player of Whist.

Whilst Americans had pretty much abandoned Whist for other games by the 21st century, there were still several Whist drives (tournaments) in U.K.

Answer: Contract Bridge

The basic form of Contract Bridge is played in a rubber, or the best of three games. The scorekeeper writes the scores on a pad with columns marked "We" and "They". The value of the trick does not depend on the cards it contains; the point is to win the number of tricks specified during the bidding (the auction). Elly Culbertson is responsible for popularizing Contract Bridge after its invention in the 1920s. Contract Bridge has multiple variations as well, but the basic form described here is most common in the U.S.A. Contract Bridge developed from Boston Whist, a game played in the late 18th century that essentially adds bidding to the simple trick-taking game of Whist.

Answer: Rummy

The game is best with two to four players. Each player draws from the stock and then may meld, lay off, or discard. If someone discards, another player may use that card to create a book or a sequence, or even lay off if the original player overlooked that possibility. (Sequences are also called runs, and books are also called sets or groups).

Another popular version of Rummy is 500 Rum or 500 Rummy, sometimes referred to as simply Rummy, just to make things confusing. In 500 Rum, jokers may be included and are wild (basic Rummy uses no jokers), points are deducted from non-winners' hands, and the game score is 500. There are hundreds of Rummy games, including Contract Rummy and Three Thirteen. The ancestor of all Rummy games is the Mexican game Conqian, which in turn derives from the Chinese game Mah-jong.