Do you play cards?

[Prophet Zacharia]

My wife and I love to play hearts, but can’t find quality opponents in our friends circle.

We mainly play a game called “Oh Hell”, which involves predicting and winning the exact number of tricks, if you go over or under you get no points. If you get exactly your trick total, you get 10 points plus the number of trick you bid.

A trump suit is identified for each hand. With four players, the first hand is 13 cards, that’s reduced by 1 card each round all the way down to 1, then increased back to the original count. So 13, 12, 11, 10... 3, 2, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 ... 11, 12, 13. 

I play “Shnarps” on my phone. While I am usually well over 0.500, I am struggling in July.

I’m not a poker or blackjack player.

[maddmaxx ★]

I played a lot of Hearts when I was in the service.  Not so much anymore as like you I can't find quality opponents.  These days I just dabble at poker but I'm not in the class of oldest son who makes an alternate income sometimes with the game.

[Wilbur ★]

Oh Hell is a fun game.   Yes, we play but primarily Cribbage.  

[petitepedal ★]

I use to play cribbage with an old friend..but not anymore...  would love to play cards but not much interest in my friends..also want to learn mahjong..aside from lots of cards we have some mahjong players at work. The damn set is expensive...I suggested to my one neighbor we keep our eyes peeled when we are at thrift stores or junk/antique shops. Just found out the neighbor I watch the TDF at has a set, but she has only played a few times.

[Wilbur ★]

3 minutes ago, petitepedal said:

I use to play cribbage with an old friend..but not anymore...  would love to play cards but not much interest in my friends..also want to learn mahjong..aside from lots of cards we have some mahjong players at work. The damn set is expensive...I suggested to my one neighbor we keep our eyes peeled when we are at thrift stores or junk/antique shops. Just found out the neighbor I watch the TDF at has a set, but she has only played a few times.

Start a cribbage night at your complex if you have a common room.  

[Square Wheels]

I don't have friends.

[Prophet Zacharia]

1 minute ago, Square Wheels said:

I don't have friends.

You can play online!

[Dirtyhip]

We play a lot of chess.  

[Square Wheels]

Just now, Dirtyhip said:

We play a lot of chess.  

giggle giggle giggle

[jsharr ★]

I figured you as the type to turn tricks, but not your sweet wife.

[smudge ★]

Learned to play pinochle when I met HoSmudge. Learned to play cribbage as a kid. 

We have double pinochle app on our phones.

[Airehead]

I like Hearts but the game around here is Euchre.  The gun club has a serious Friday night gathering.

[late]

I went to high school in a tiny NH town that had a tiny ski mountain. Most days after school the ski team bus went there, and you could jump in. So I did, most days.

I managed to hurt myself one winter, I don't remember how (let's just say I am no stranger to injury and leave it at that). Let's also say TV reception was worse than awful, and my grandparents had first dibs.

So I started playing bridge. I kinda liked it, been thinking for a couple years of joining a bridge club.

[groupw]

Used to play 10 point pitch on the bus. Can’t even remember the rules, now. Dad taught us poker and blackjack. I never got good at it. As teens, we would play Spoons with our cousins. It was a full contact game the way we played!

Not too many people in our circle play cards. Closest we get is Cards Against Humanity! 

[Zephyr]

Played a lot of Hearts through school, and Asshole, which is a fun 5 person game.  When we are canoeing we always take the cards and crin board, but at home we rarely pull it out unless WofZ is interested in playing strip cribbage

[12string]

7 hours ago, Prophet Zacharia said:

My wife and I love to play hearts, but can’t find quality opponents in our friends circle.

We mainly play a game called “Oh Hell”, which involves predicting and winning the exact number of tricks, if you go over or under you get no points. If you get exactly your trick total, you get 10 points plus the number of trick you bid.

A trump suit is identified for each hand. With four players, the first hand is 13 cards, that’s reduced by 1 card each round all the way down to 1, then increased back to the original count. So 13, 12, 11, 10... 3, 2, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 ... 11, 12, 13. 

I play “Shnarps” on my phone. While I am usually well over 0.500, I am struggling in July.

I’m not a poker or blackjack player.

Love that game, found very few people who know it.  I heard Tom Hanks in an interview once talking about how he and Spielberg play it but can't find people who know it.

We're headed to Vermont for a few weeks.  It's been the family vacation since the 60's.  With no TV (still), evenings are spent on games, usually the traditional Oh Hell.  Taught to us by my Aunt, Sister Margaret Mary.  She enjoyed having a legitimate reason to cuss.  I still have copies (probably need to make more) of the blank scoresheets my dad drew up decades ago.  I started making an Excel scoresheet, but electronically scoring just seemed wrong.  We'll have a few loud games going the next 2 weeks, 3 generations at the table.

We have a couple differences in the rules.  Hands start at 1 card, go up to 10 (for 5 players), then back down.  Gives us that nasty 1 card twice.  Points are awarded for each trick, 10 point bonus for making your bid.  (No points for missing a bid takes players out too early)  And the "Oh Hell" part - dealer bids last, tricks bid can't equal cards dealt, so when you deal one card and get the Ace of Trumpa and aren't allowed to bid 1..........

[Kirby]

I haven't played in ages, but when we used to spend summer in the Catskills, we played a lot of cards since there was no tv or radio.  My mother, grandmother and I would play our version of pinochle every night, which usually involved a very liberal interpretation of the rules.   There was a good table on the back porch with two bench seats, and we'd often sit there in the morning playing solitaire after breakfast.  Late risers would wander out with their breakfast and provide ongoing commentary for the games.   I miss the concept of having lots of time to kill.

[Prophet Zacharia]

35 minutes ago, 12string said:

tricks bid can't equal cards dealt

We don’t do that. It’s pretty rare for us to come up even, though.

[12string]

3 hours ago, Prophet Zacharia said:

We don’t do that. It’s pretty rare for us to come up even, though.

You're missing the most fun part of it all - the reason for the name!  Someone's gotta get screwed each hand!

If Mom is playing, there's not much worry for the dealer, she's gonna skew the bid anyway.  Otherwise, more than half the hands force the dealer to bid off.

[Prophet Zacharia]

7 minutes ago, 12string said:

You're missing the most fun part of it all - the reason for the name!  Someone's gotta get screwed each hand!

If Mom is playing, there's not much worry for the dealer, she's gonna skew the bid anyway.  Otherwise, more than half the hands force the dealer to bid off.

May have to try that. My mother is a demon at Oh Hell. Our main objective as a family is to make her lose. She’s OK at hearts, but my sister ducks so often even if someone is shooting that it’s frustrating to play with her.

[Kzoo]

Cards are boring...

 

[Airehead]

My grandparents were more Catholic than the pope. My grandmother was the cook at the  rectory and knew all the priests and nuns like family. On Sundays a bunch of nuns would come to their house on Lawrence Street in Washington. DC. It used to be a really nice part of time back in the day.   Anyway, I digress. The nuns would come in and remove their habit headgear. Boy, the first time I saw that I freaked out. I thought they did not have hair.   Oh yeah, that could not be done until the Venetian blinds were firmly closed.  Secret like a speak easy. Perhaps a gimlet or two were served.  After a delicious Sunday meal, they all played OH Hell.  Cussing nuns, out of of uniform, sipping a beverages are an early memory for me. I remember trying to explain this to my Quaker grandparents. Things you don’t realize that are awkward as a kid. 

[Further]

9 hours ago, groupw said:

Used to play 10 point pitch on the bus. Can’t even remember the rules, now.

The card game when I was in high school was pitch, not sure how many points. 

I can't remember any of the rules, decades back when I tried to teach my wife, she claimed I was making it up as I went.

One time a high school friend visited and the pitch question came up. We tried to show her, but she was being difficult... My wife still doesn't believe it is a real game.

Seems like a very localized game.

I grew up near Syracuse N.Y.  Where did you play it ?

[groupw]

Small school near Grand Island, NE

[MickinMD ★]

My parents and their siblings loved Pinochle and I used to play it extensively: both dealer-bids-last and auction bid.  A fellow chemistry grad student named Barbara and I won 3rd Place in the IIT Pinochle Tournament the last year I was there, 1975.

In college, I also played a lot of Pitch, Hearts, and Spades and some variation that was played in the UMBC Student Union Building called "Egyptian Rat Screw."

After meetings of a large political club in which I was an officer, we used to play Nickle-Ante Poker until the wee hours of the night.

Unfortunately, I don't get the chance to play cards as often as I'd like, except against a computer.

If you have Windows 10, the Microsoft Store has a new, free Spades game, I basically has an easy or hard mode and team play. It plays a little on the weak side but is fun:

[maddmaxx ★]

18 hours ago, Kirby said:

I haven't played in ages, but when we used to spend summer in the Catskills, we played a lot of cards since there was no tv or radio.  My mother, grandmother and I would play our version of pinochle every night, which usually involved a very liberal interpretation of the rules.   There was a good table on the back porch with two bench seats, and we'd often sit there in the morning playing solitaire after breakfast.  Late risers would wander out with their breakfast and provide ongoing commentary for the games.   I miss the concept of having lots of time to kill.

Now, thanks to retirement, that I have the time to kill I have a shorter list of potential subjects.   ,

[bikeman564™]

black jack

[Zealot]

Used to be one helluva poker player

[MoseySusan]

Cribbage is a family tradition. How could you not love that moment when “his knobs” is in your hand? 

We also play a lot of boxed card games like Uno and Phase Ten.