Life Lessons From A Card Game Trivia Quiz

Answer: Ten of Diamonds

Cassino was a particular favorite of my family. It is a game that can be played with two, three or four players. The object of the game is to collect specific cards that have point value. Four cards are dealt "up" in the middle of the field and players take turns matching "up" cards or creating "builds" of cards. For example an "up" three plus a player's two can be "building" a five for the player to take the turn. Each of the aces and the two of spades are worth one point each. The player with the most cards at the end of the round receives three points and the player with the most spades receives one point. However, the ten of diamonds is worth two points, making it a highly coveted card.

Cassino is an example of a game that teaches basic math and basic life lessons. Some cards are more valuable than others for no reason other than capriciousness. Cassino also teaches that life is not always fair. A "build" can be altered or taken by an opponent. For example, you place an ace on a nine and state that you are "building" tens. You eagerly await your next turn when you will scoop up your "build" with the ten of diamonds, and claim three points. However, instead your opponent smiles says thank you, and takes your build before your next turn with another ten.

Answer: The players turn up cards of equal value

War is a simple game that has even made its way into casinos across the US. Players are an even number of cards. If there are two players, each player gets 26 cards; if there are three players each player gets 17 cards (the two of clubs is removed). The players turn over a random card and the highest card played "captures" the other player's lower card. If the players turn up the same card, then a "war" is declared. Each player lays out three cards face down and a fourth face up. Again the highest card takes all the "spoils". If the players again turn up cards of equal value, then the hostilities continue until a winner is achieved. The game ends when one player ends the war by capturing all of the cards of the other.

Like real war, the card game is often mind-numbing and pointless, and is decided by randomness. While not an official variant, I have played a version of the game called "Helen of Troy" where a special war is called whenever a King takes an opponent's Queen.

Answer: Picking a card that is not part of a meld

Gin rummy or Gin is a classic card game that is as much a test of patience and skill as it is luck. Players must make connections or melds of all ten cards in their hand. Each meld must be at least three cards. A meld is a set of cards that is either the same number (different suits) or a consecutive set of the same suit. Generally a player will have two melds of three cards and one four card meld. At the start of play one player is dealt 11 cards. That player discards a card and the net player can either pick the discard or pick the top card from the remaining discard deck. To "speculate" in Gin Rummy is to pick a discard that does not make a full meld but "could" make a meld later. For example, if a player has a queen and the opponent discards a second queen, to pick the discard is to "speculate" in queens hoping to either draw or receive a discarded third queen.

Speculation in Gin Rummy is generally a bad strategy because you waste a turn picking a card that does not advance your hand, and you telegraph your desires to your opponent. Risky and speculative investments in the stock market or Gin Rummy might pay off, but usually they just cause large losses. I learned Gin Rummy from my grandfather who would tell me in Yiddish "chap nit" or not so fast, as he smiled and told me to stop speculating. Usually he would then tell me I was a "chamoole" or a fool after he would win the game. After a while, I speculated less and won more. Oddly my grandfather still smiled as my play got better.

Answer: queen of spades

Hearts is a card game that can be played by two, three or four players. Hearts is similar to Spades, Bridge, Euchre and many other games where the players must play a card that follows the suit of the player before them. Like these other games the player playing the highest card of the suit played "takes" the hand, which is also called a "trick". Unlike most games, the object in Hearts is not to collect the trump cards - hearts of course - but to avoid these cards. The players are assessed negative points when they are forced to take the hearts in the game. Each heart is worth one negative point. In addition, in the common version of Hearts called "Black Maria" the player who is stuck taking the queen of spades 'receives" negative 13 points. The player who has the least number of points when one of the players reaches 50 or 100 negative points is the winner.

Hearts is believed to have originated from card games played in Spain in the 18th Century, and has numerous variations. The most common variation requires players to pass three cards from their hand to another player in a set pattern. A player's hand can be improved or weakened by the pass. Hearts also has a risk reward element in that a player can choose to gather all the hearts and the queen of spades in what is commonly called "shooting the moon". If a player is successful in gathering all the negative points, rather than he/she being penalized, all the other players receive 26 negative points. Hearts is not usually played as a team game. Often the player who tries to "shoot the moon" counts on the fact that no player is going to willing hurt their hand by taking points. In addition to the often painful lessons of being stuck with the queen of spades, Hearts also teaches you that most people are unwilling to make sacrifices to benefit a group.

Answer: Concentration

Concentration is a simple game that is often used as a teaching tool to help develop short term memory skills. In the game, cards are laid out on a grid. A player turns over a card and must turn over the matching card. If the player does not correctly locate the matching card, then both cards are turned back over.

The next player is asked to turn over a card and must locate its match or lose his turn. The game continues until the players can "concentrate" on what clues they have seen to recall where all the paired cards are located. Playing concentration can help to stimulate younger players to pay more attention to the game and hopefully other intellectual exercises. Concentration is not a game with deep or varied strategy and tends to be more of a challenge to young children. Educators often use the game or one of its many variants as a testing tool to quantify short term memory skills of test subjects.

Answer: Slap Jack

Slap Jack is another simple game that is similar to the card game "War". Players are dealt an equal number of cards. Each player turns over a card into a common pile one at a time. When a jack is turned over the first player to touch or "slap" the card on the pile wins the pile of cards.

The winner is the player who collects all the other cards by being the fastest "slapper". Slap Jack rewards speed and eye-hand coordination. Oddly, the faster player often also learned a lesson. Being the first person on the bottom of the pile also means that slower players will be slapping your hand, rather than the pile. If this happens often enough, you might also learn the definition of a "pyrrhic" victory.

Answer: Solitaire

Solitaire is the French form of the Latin root word "solus" which means alone. There are many variations of card games named Solitaire, and all share the ability to be played by a single person. Classic Solitaire starts with seven piles of cards with varying number of stacked cards. The first pile has one card turned up, the next two, then three and so on. Within the stacks, you move cards to create a pile sorted by alternating color in descending order. Thus, a black Queen can only be moved to sit after a Red King. The remaining cards are turned over in either groups of ones or threes. The goal is to uncover and separate form the stacks and pile cards of each suit starting with the Ace and placing in consecutive order until you reach the King. Often the game ends without completing the objective. A patient and determined player may spend hours setting up and trying to win the game. The almost infinite numbers of possible arrangements of the cards make it so no two deals are ever exactly the same.

While the classic card game played alone is referred to as Solitaire in the US, in the UK you will often hear the game called Patience. While people have been playing card games alone for centuries, the first recorded description of rules for the game Solitaire is attributed to Lady Adelaide Cadogan (nee Paget) in 1870. Lady Cadogan was a noted hostess and member of the English nobility. Lady Cadogan also served as one of the eight train holders for Queen Victoria's wedding procession in 1838.

Answer: Your Forehead

Indian Poker or Blind Man's Bluff, as it is often called, is a truly easy game played frequently by "friendly" amateur card players at social gatherings. Each player is dealt one (sometimes two) card(s) that they do not look at. Instead, the player puts the card face up on their forehead so that all other players can see the card. Thus, each player knows what the other players have but not what card they have. Each player then plays a round of poker making assumptions on how to bet based on knowledge of the opponents' cards. Since you do not know what your card is, all bets are simply guesses based on the reading of the reaction of the other players to looking at your card.

Why does this rather silly game teach the value of temperance? Well most friendly poker games often provide more than a slight opportunity to imbibe copious amounts of alcohol. When the player's skills become more impaired by alcohol, playing Blind Man's Bluff is a way to continue the gambling but eliminate the need for higher brain functions. Often the most sober of a poker group will find that his/her impaired opponents are easy pickings during a round of Indian Poker. Since everything eventually becomes a sport, it is no surprise that the first Blind Man's Bluff World Championship was held in 2010. I will chronicle, without commentary, that the location of this "Championship" was Dublin, Ireland.

Answer: Spades

All of the listed games are games where you play in teams of two, and are rewarded by how many tricks you and your partner take during a round. In Whist, Bridge and Euchre a process to determine which suit will be the trump suit occurs each hand. In Spades, as one might expect, the trump card suit is always the spades.

Otherwise, the pace of play is very similar between Spades and the other games. Each player gets 13 cards. The player bids in a set order how many tricks he expects to take from the hand. Both your opponents and your partner will also bid the number of tricks they expect to take. During the play, you and your partner must complete the number of tricks each of you has promised.

A team is awarded ten times the tricks bid, and one point for any tricks over your bid. If your team does not reach the bid amount or "contract", the team is penalized ten times the bid. Winning more tricks than you bid is called "underbidding".

A team that accumulates 10 underbids is penalized 100 points for being too cautious.

A player may also bid zero or "nil" to signify they will not take a single trick. If the player is successful, he/she will receive 100 points. If unsuccessful (i.e. he/she takes one or more tricks) the team is penalized 100 points. The game is played until a team reaches a total of 500 points

Answer: Whist

Whist is one of the oldest card games still played today. Whist takes its name from the root word for "wistful", and means quiet and attentive. Whist is itself a variant of an older card game called Ruff that was played in the 15th and 16th Centuries. Whist is played with 4 players divided into two teams. The last card dealt the dealer is played face up and sets the trump. Play is relatively simple, in that the person to the left of the dealer opens the play with any card and players then follow suit. The player playing the highest card wins the trick. The winner of the trick plays the next card. If a player does not have a card within the suit played, they may play a trump or any other card. At the end of the thirteen tricks, the team with the most tricks will receive one point for each trick over six.

Whist is the root game for a myriad of trick taking variants, including the less complicated Spades, Hearts and Euchre, as well as the more complicated Bridge and Vint (Russian Whist). Edmund Hoyle, the 18th Century gaming author, wrote a definitive treatise setting the rules of Whist in 1742. Hoyle's pamphlet on Whist strategy proved so popular that Hoyle was able to publish treatises on numerous card and board games. In turn, these pamphlets collected into a compendium known as "Hoyle Rules" became the standard for playing these card games. So pervasive was Hoyle's influence, that even today when referencing a card game's rule a person might state reflexively "according to Hoyle", upon giving for the correct answer.