The Penguin Book of Card Games

by David Parlett

The Penguin Book of Card Games is the authoritative up-to-date compendium, describing an abundance of games to be played both for fun and by serious players. Auctions, trumpless hands, cross-ruffing and card players have a language all of their own. From games of high skill (Bridge) to games of high chance (Newmarket) to trick-taking (Whist) and banking (Pontoon), David Parlett, seasoned specialist in card games, takes us masterfully through the countless games to choose from. Not content to merely show us games with the conventional fifty-two card pack, Parlett covers many games played with other types of cards - are you brave enough to play with Tarot? With a 'working description' of each game, with the rules, variations and origins of each, as well as an appendix of games invented by the author himself, The Penguin Book of Card Games will delight, entertain and inform both the novice and the seasoned player.

Genres: Games, Nonfiction, Reference

658 pages, Paperback

First published February 1, 1979

About the author

Parlett is a noted games scholar who has written extensively on the history of board and card games, as well as inventing several of his own.

Reviews

[Andrew]

I read this straight through, in order to get a feel for card games.

Wow.
It turns out, that there are a lot of card games. I realize this sounds stupid. I can think of more than a few times where 3 of us wanted to play a card game, and were quickly dejected as we didn't know any good 3 player games.

I have now discovered several.
Also, ERS has another name: Bloody Stumps. It is rather apropos and far better than simply calling it Egyptian Rat.
Also, I need a Spanish Pack. And a Swiss one. And German. And French Tarot. So many card games!!!! MUST PLAY ALL THE GAMES!

How long until my children are old enough for these games? Far too many years...

[Shirley Revill]

We had a lot of family fun with this book. Really enjoyed.

[William Schram]

Card games such as Poker are ubiquitous in the United States and Europe. They have been around for centuries, as long as there have been cards.

The Penguin Book of Card Games compiles over 250 games using cards. David Parlett did a fantastic job of collecting the various rules for these games. The lion’s share of games uses a Western Deck of 52 cards. Some of the games use fewer cards, though, so pay attention.

Parlett goes beyond listing the rules, though. He discusses the history of cards and the falling out of various games in the favored position. One example is Whist. I heard of the game, but I never played it. Back in the day, though, Whist was hugely popular.

The book isn’t one to read cover-to-cover. It gets tedious reading the rules of something you won’t play. I recommend using the index to find a game and look it up. On the other hand, you can stumble on a game you might not have seen before.

Thanks for reading my review, and see you next time.

[Jacob Oliver]

This is one of the best books on games I’ve read. It gives an overview of the most common card games that use the familiar 52 card deck, except for the section on games that use a tarot deck. The book organizes games by family with each member of the family having a similar central theme (i.e. bridge, spades, and whist being members of the same family of games, with whist being the forefather). Each section has short, encyclopedic entries that give context of how the game came to popularity, what culture popularized the game, and some common variants.

The focus of the book is on practical knowledge of each game. You will not find an exhaustive set of rules that could be used in a tournament setting. The context of the book is in teaching fun games that can be played with friends. The rules are presented in a concise and readable manner with little bits of the author’s opinion on some of the games sprinkled throughout the book. The book works well if you use it to quickly remind yourself of how to play your favorite game, but you could also sit down and read through an entire section without too much effort. I think this is an excellent book to have around if you have any interest in card games.

[Eric Bryant]

playing card ♣️

Finding new games to play can feel like an enjoyable journey, much like flipping through the pages of a book. However, when you're in the mood for something specific, it's easy to go directly to that section and find what you need.

Some people might prefer a different organizational style for the book. Still, since I only knew about four card games when I bought them, I appreciate starting with games I'm familiar with (or thought I was familiar with) and then learning about similar games. This approach makes it easier to pick up something new without it feeling completely foreign, allowing me to avoid constantly referring back to the pages.

[Ben]

i can't believe i read the whole thing. thought it was supposed to be the history of a bunch of card games, and that's what i was interested in: how all of these games came to be and how their rules evolved and how they branched off each other. instead it's an incredibly disjointed and inconsistent high level overview of a bunch of rules. you'd get more by going to pagat.com.

[Shannon]

The brief history, with playing instructions, of hundreds of card games.

[Timothy Dyck]

So well-written. Easy to understand. I'm enjoying the section of King-Queen games.

[Morris Nelms]

You don't really "read" a book like this, or at least I don't. I keep it around to use as a reference, and this is a great one.

[Robert Jolin]

An invaluable guide to anyone who wants to learn to play more card games than just pontoon or whist

[Vanessa]

By far the greatest book on card games to exist, a staple of my library for half my life & counting.

[Lysergius]

An invaluable guide to anyone who wants to learn to play more card games than just pontoon or whist...

[Cws]

795.4