Different card games are popular all over the world and it’s difficult to find out exactly which ones top the tables. However, by looking at a few different sources, we can start to put together a list. These are what are generally considered to be the top five:
- Bridge – hugely popular all over the world, and responsible for hundreds of spin offs. Bridge isn’t an easy or quick game to learn or to play, but that’s just made it even more popular over the years. These days, it has a reputation for being enjoyed mostly by women, but back in 1940 (when the Association of American Card Manufacturers did a survey), bridge was nearly as popular among men as among women.
- Poker (or, more specifically, Texas Hold’em) – Texas Hold’em is the most popular kind of poker game. It came into being back in the early 1900’s in Robstown, Texas, and then spread to a casino called the Golden Nugget in Las Vegas in the late 1960’s. Although it was originally described as the ‘thinking man’s game’, recent legislation in Switzerland has ruled that it is as much about luck as skill, and should therefore be redefined as a game of chance. We think it’s a bit of both.
- Solitaire – Of all the card games, solitaire (or patience) has the most variations. Unlike bridge or poker, solitaire takes little time to learn and can even be played solo. Klondike is the most popular form of the game (helped along by its presence on millions of personal computers the world over). The game has been around since the 19th Century and shows no signs of going anywhere!
- Whist – Whist has one of the oldest histories on this list. It developed from a game called Trump (not related to Donald) that was once popular, way back in the 16th Century! Today, many people view the game as a sort of ‘lite bridge’.
- Blackjack – also known as twenty-one and pontoon. The game has a famous literary reference, as it was mentioned in Cervantes’ book Don Quixote. The game became popular in the States after a new rule (involving a black jack, surprisingly) made the payout more lucrative.
If these don’t make it on your personal top-list, tell us which card games do! We can decide who’s right over a game of Poker…or something.
