It's in the Cards! Trivia Quiz

Answer: shoots the moon

In the game of Hearts, the object is to take no point cards, for the contestant with the lowest score wins the game. However, if a player can capture all of the thirteen hearts, each worth a point, as well as the queen of spades, which is worth thirteen points, then he or she makes everyone else add twenty-six points to his or her score. Some, however, play with the rule that the one who shoots the moon gets to subtract twenty-six points from his or her own score. If the players play with the rule that the contestant who takes the jack of diamonds gets to subtract ten points from his or her score, then the person shooting the moon must also take this card as well as the fourteen others mentioned.

Hearts is a trick-taking game of evasion and is probably the derivative of a group of games referred to as Reversis, which seems to have emerged during the mid eighteenth century in Spain.

Answer: Old Maid

While one may purchase a deck with various faces or animals that can be paired except for a single old woman or a single donkey, the traditional method of playing Old Maid uses a regular deck of cards. At the beginning of the game, the players remove one of the queens so that there are an odd number of queens in the deck instead of the even four. Thus, one player must, in the end, be left holding a single queen that cannot be paired with any other cards. Some players, however, choose to leave all the queens and to add one joker to the deck to create an odd number.

Old Maid most likely is a derivative of an ancient gambling game used to determine who would buy drinks for everyone else. One can certainly see that the element of bluffing is very important to one's success at this game. As such, it's good practice for poker and not necessarily a children's game as many consider it.

Answer: the crib

The players alternate who receives the crib, for the crib always goes to the dealer, and the position of dealer alternates each hand. Some players also refer to the crib as the "box".

The game of Cribbage is believed to have been invented by the seventeenth-century English courtier and Cavalier poet Sir John Suckling, who wrote such pieces as "To Althea, from Prison" and "To Lucasta, Going to the Wars". Suckling based Cribbage on an earlier game referred to as "noddy".

Answer: Crazy Eights

In the game of Crazy Eights, each player attempts to shed all of his or her cards until he or she has no more. UNO is played in the same manner; however, UNO has cards that are designated as Wild Cards whereas in the game of Crazy Eights, all of the four eights are considered wild.

UNO is not the only variation of Crazy Eights. There are also Mau-Mau, Craits, and Swedish Rummy among many others.

Answer: Rook

A Rook deck consists of four suits with each suit consisting of fourteen numbers, and the card with the bird on it--The Rook--makes for a total of fifty-seven. However, in a traditional game of Rook, the ones, twos, threes, and fours are removed from the deck before playing. The deck and game are based on the older French Tarot or Jeu de Tarot playing cards.

Parker Brothers issued a specialized deck for Rook in 1906 to provide individuals of the Mennonite faith as well as other Christians an opportunity to play cards without face cards, which were associated with fortune telling and gambling. Thus, some refer to Rook as "Missionary Poker" or "Christian Cards".

Answer: Blind

By not looking at his or her hand and bidding "Blind Nil", a player takes a significant risk, for there is no card higher in value or more powerful than the Ace of Spades. If the player has that card in his or her hand, then he or she is guaranteed to take at least one trick and the achievement of his or her Nil bid is thus impossible. That player is now guaranteed to lose 200 points instead of winning that amount.

Spades appears to have been born sometime during the 1930s in the United States as a simpler version of Whist or Contract Bridge. Players of Spades never have to compete to name the trump suit, for spades is always the trump suit.

Answer: Run

Rummy requires players to build melds or matching card collections, of which there are two kinds. A run is, as the question mentions, a series of three or more consecutively ranked cards, all of the same suit (such as a two, three, and four of hearts). A set or book is a collection of three or four cards, all of the same rank (such as three eights or four kings).

Rummy is a very old game and exists in several variations. Many believe the game to be a derivation of a Mexican game called Conquian, which is itself a derivation of the Chinese game Khanhoo, which in turn is a derivation of Mahjongg.

Answer: Bower

In Euchre, a new suit is determined to be the trump suit for each new hand, and the jack of that suit becomes the highest trump card and is referred to as the Right Bower for that hand. Furthermore, the jack of the suit matching the color of the trump suit becomes the second highest ranked card and is referred to as the Left Bower for that hand. For example, if spades is the trump suit, then the jack of spades would be the Right Bower and the jack of clubs would be the Left Bower.

The term "Bower" is a corruption of the German word "Bauer", which means "farmer" and was used by some to refer to the jack in various card games. Interestingly, some American players of Euchre decided to create a "Best Bower" card, and it is this card that eventually became the Joker, a name derived from the German for Euchre--Juker or Jukerspiel.

Answer: Pinochle

Pinochle is an interesting game because three stages of playing follow every deal: bidding, melding, and then playing to take tricks. Points are earned in both the melding and playing stages. The jack of diamonds and the queen of spades--a pinochle--are considered a meld for points, if the player holds these in his or her hand prior to the trick-taking stage. There are, of course, many other melds, such as arounds, abounds, and marriages.

Furthermore, Pinochle is played with two copies of the 9, 10, jack, queen, king, and ace of all four suits, so players must have two traditional decks or must have a specialized Pinochle deck. Also, these cards have nontraditional ranks and ordered in the following manner from highest to lowest rank: ace, 10, king, queen, jack, and 9.

The name Pinochle is a corruption of the French term "binocle", which means "eyeglasses".

Answer: Pitch

Pitch, which is sometimes referred to as "High Low Jack", is an American derivation of the British card game All Fours. Technically speaking, playing Pitch with the bidding contest is called Auction Pitch and playing without it is just Pitch. There are many other variations that players can agree to before playing, which is usually true for a great number of card games.

Six cards are dealt to each player, and those are the only cards used in a hand. As stated in the question, a player receives points only for accomplishing any of the four tasks: taking the highest trump card played that hand (which may not be the ace, considering the only cards used are what are in the players' hands after the deal), taking the lowest trump card played that hand, taking the trump suit's jack (if it was among the players' hands), and taking the most pips in tricks. Taking any ace earns a player 4 pips, any king earns a player 3 pips, any queen earns a player 2 pips, any jack earns a player 1 pip, and any 10 earns a player 10 pips. None of the other cards taken in tricks count for any points whatsoever.

The name "Pitch" comes from the name of the action of the first person to play a card. This player is said to "pitch" a card and thus establish the trump suit for that hand.