Product Description

Card games offer loads of fun and one of the best socializing experiences out there. But picking up winning card strategies is a bit of a challenge, and though your buddies may think that picking up the rules of the game is easy, winning is a totally different story.

With Card Games For Dummies, Second Edition, you’ll not only be able to play the hottest card games around, you can also apply game-winning strategies and tips to have fun and beat your opponents. Now updated, this hands-on guide shows you everything you need to know—the basics, the tricks, and the techniques—to become a master card player, with expanded coverage on poker as well as online gaming and tournaments. Soon you will have the card-playing power to:

• Pin down your opponents in Texas Hold’em
• Show off your power in Stud Poker
• Hit wisely in Blackjack
• Break hearts ruthlessly in Hearts
• Mix up the night with Gin and Rummy
• Build yourself a victory in Bridge
• Send them fishing in Go Fish

This straightforward, no-nonsense guide features great ways to improve your game and have more fun, as well as a list of places to find out more about your favorite game. It also profiles different variations of each game, making you a player for all seasons!

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #70692 in Books
• Published on: 2005-10-07
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 384 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780764599101
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

Amazon.com Review
Card Games for Dummies bills itself as "the fun and easy way to play and win your favorite card games." The book is broken down into different sections that broadly encompass the types of card games available: card-swapping games (gin and rummy), trick-taking games (whist and euchre), games where you try to score as many points as possible (pinochle), and games where you don't want to score any points at all (hearts). Each chapter starts with the fundamentals--the definition of a "trick," for example--and builds from there, progressing from the simplest games in each category to the more complex.

Written by journalist Barry Rigal, Card Games for Dummies is a nice companion piece to the more staid Complete Hoyle's Games. Unlike Hoyle's, Card Games for Dummies not only explains game mechanics, but gives you useful tips for play, provides the lowdown on strategy, and warns of the boneheaded blunders that you'd undoubtedly make if you'd been taught the rules and nothing more.

So if you've always wanted to learn cribbage, but never wanted to ask a friend for a tutorial, this is the book for you. One word of warning: if you want to learn how to play bridge, you won't find much here other than a synopsis of the rules and a recommendation for Bridge for Dummies. --Matthew Baldwin

From the Back Cover
Covers live, tournament, and Internet Poker

The fun and easy way® to play and win the most popular card games!

Card sharks of the world beware! With this plain-English guide, you'll not only understand how to play top card games like Blackjack, Bridge, and Gin Rummy, you'll also get expert strategies you need to win! Plus, there's expanded coverage of Poker favorites such as Texas Hold 'Em, Omaha, Draw, and Stud. You'll score, deal, and play like the pros in no time!

Discover how to

• Improve your card-playing skills
• Develop a winning strategy
• Play regional game variations
• Find and play cards online
• Teach kids to play responsibly

Get the inside deal on these games and more!

• Blackjack
• Bridge
• Canasta
• Cribbage
• Draw Poker
• Eights
• Euchre
• Fan Tan
• 500 Rummy
• Gin Rummy
• Go Fish
• Hearts
• Oh Hell!
• Omaha
• Palace
• Pinochle
• President
• Setback
• Snap
• Solitaire
• Spades
• Spit
• Stud Poker
• Texas Hold 'Em
• Whist

About the Author
Barry Rigal was born with a deck of cards in his hand. Having started with the children’s games, Whist, Rummy, and Solitaire, he moved on to Bridge at the age of 12. After graduating from Oxford University (where he captained the Bridge team), he worked in accountancy. Highlights of his work career were learning how to play Piquet and Clobyosh in the Tax Department of Thomson McLintock. After four years with Price Waterhouse, supervising the partnership’s Bridge team, he went into the world of business, working seven years in the Oil Taxation department of Conoco. During that time he began a career as a journalist and commentator on card games. Over the course of the last two decades he has written newspaper and magazine articles and six books on Bridge.

Customer Reviews

An overall look at some great games
This book has some fun games! It has popular games like Hearts, Rummy, and Cribbage. It also has games that I have always wanted to learn how to play, like Euchre and Canasta. In all, the book discusses over twenty games.

The layout of the book is a discussion about games. Even if you have felt confused before in reading through card game rules, this book is an excellent introduction to playing card games. It goes over everything that happens in the game, from the rules, to strategy and tips, to history of the game-a fascinating book.

Because it goes in-depth into each of the games, you will not find one place in the chapter that has a concise list of the rules. The rules are scattered throughout the discussion of the chapter. I found it useful to check a book of rules from the library to read along with this book.

Most frustrating & least helpful book I've ever read on any subject, ever.
This is the most frustrating & least helpful book I've ever read on any subject, ever.

I've read & understood texts on everything from software engineering, to military strategy, to electromechanics and audio circuitry design and repair, to wood furniture refinishing, to home repair - but this book is a total failure.

The reason: It is TOTALLY written for PEOPLE WHO ALREADY KNOW all the "slick cardshark jargon". THIS BOOK IS NOT FOR PEOPLE NEW TO CARD GAMES. If you don't ALREADY KNOW HOW TO PLAY, this book won't even TRY to teach you!

Basically, Amazon user Gadgester's review is dead-on: I'll repeat his opening and closing statements, cause I can't say it any better:

"Simply put, this is absolutely one of the worst instructional books I've read. If you know nothing (or next to nothing) about card games -- like I still don't after reading this book twice -- avoid this very confusing book. ... I haven't read a book as frustrating as this one in a long time. I highly recommend you stay away from it. "

Totally Confusing for ANyone New to Cards
I wasted big money on this book. The author doesn't bother to explain (in simple terms) ANYTHING!!

I can't add to the other 0ne-star reviews here....both of them nailed it on the head.

If you are new to cards and want to learn....get another book...browse..find anything but this.....you're just going to get confused and frustrated........