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Three short lessons for an evening with a single pack of cards: choose the game for who is at the table, teach it in sixty seconds, and meet cribbage, said to be invented by a poet.

Spark & Whetstone · sparkwhetstone.org/learn/one-deck · CC BY-NC-SA 4.0. Answers are at the end, so you can try each question first.

Lesson 1. Choose for the table

One pack of 52 cards holds dozens of games. Choose by who is there. With small children: Snap, Go Fish, Crazy Eights. With a mixed table: Rummy, Spoons, Hearts. With two grown-ups who want to think: Cribbage, Gin Rummy.

Pick the game for the youngest or newest player, not the keenest. A game everyone can play beats a better game that half the table watches.

Question. The table has a six-year-old, two parents and a grandparent. Which game fits best?

  1. Crazy Eights
  2. Bridge
  3. Cribbage

Say it back. In your own words: whose needs decide which game you play?

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Lesson 2. Teach in sixty seconds

Start with how you win: "First to get rid of all your cards wins." Then what you do on your turn: "Play a card that matches the suit or the number, or pick one up." Then one special rule: "An eight can be played on anything."

Stop there and deal. Explain anything else when it comes up. People learn a card game by playing it, not by hearing all of it first.

Question. What do you say first when teaching a card game?

  1. Every rule, in order.
  2. How you win.
  3. The history of the game.

Say it back. Say it back: what are the three things in a sixty-second teach?

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Lesson 3. Cribbage and the poet

Tradition, recorded by the writer John Aubrey, credits the English poet Sir John Suckling with inventing cribbage in the early 1600s. It is still played with a pegboard to keep score.

Much of cribbage is counting combinations that add up to fifteen. A five and a ten make fifteen; so do a seven and an eight; so do a four, a five and a six. Two points for each.

Question. In a cribbage hand of 7, 8 and 5, how many different ways make fifteen?

  1. Exactly one way
  2. Two ways
  3. No way at all

Say it back. In your own words: how do you count fifteens in cribbage?

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At the table: A one-pack evening

Players: two to eight people, 5 or older. You'll need: one pack of cards, paper and a pencil for scores.

  1. Choose the first game for the youngest or newest player.
  2. Teach it in sixty seconds: how you win, what you do on a turn, one special rule.
  3. Play two rounds, then let someone else choose and teach the next game.
  4. End with the game the table liked best.

Answers

  1. Crazy Eights — Crazy Eights is easy enough for the six-year-old and fun for everyone else.
  2. How you win. — Saying how you win first gives every other rule a reason.
  3. Exactly one way — 7 + 8 = 15. The other pairs make 12 and 13, and all three make 20, so there is one fifteen.