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What are Two Player Card Games?

2-player card games are games designed for player counts of 2 or more, and are extremely popular thanks to their ease of access. There is a is also a unique aspect to gameplay due to human nature, as the games are natively competitive.

All you need to play two player card games is the standard Anglo American 52-card deck, which consists of 4 suits of 13 cards. Certain games may also use additional Joker cards. Certain two player card games that will be discussed below, particularly those of European origin, use the Spanish decks, which are normally 40-card variants. To get these decks, simply remove the 8, 9 and 10 cards from the standard 52-card deck.

Due to the inclusion of more than one player, two player card games have an added element of competitiveness, which is a huge part of its appeal. These games are also popular in casinos and dinner tables alike, becoming the preferred pastime for most of the public. The modern age even allows players to play these games online, removing the factor of distance entirely.

Games For Two People

Examples of the most played two player card games areprovided in the following section.

What are the Most Popular Two Player Card Games?

The large appeal of two player card games mean a wide range ofcreative and fun twoplayer card games are available. Some of best 2 player card games are discussed below,providing you with all you need to go host game night.

Rummy

Rummy is arguably the most popular 2-player card game, with the most played variations being Gin Rummy and Indian Rummy. Each player improves their hand by replacing cards using discards. Once satisfied, the player knocks and the round ends, with the opponent being able to respond by laying off extra cards.

Spit

Sometimes known as Speed, spit is part of the shedding genre, which is all about clearing your cards quickly. In fact, speed is the only factor here, with turns being non-existent. To sum it up, imagine two players racing to complete a simplified solitaire puzzle, with the quicker player winning.

Pinochle

A game from the trick-taking genre, this game revolves around winning individual tricks by playing a card with a higher rank. The complications are that you can’t win with a differing suit, which makes it a careful game of choosing when to forfeit rounds, and when to risk a win.

Egyptian Rat Screw

A game about matching cards, with a side of slapping involved. All players have face-down card piles, and they throw out cards in order. When certain agreed upon conditions are thrown onto the board, such as a double, players slap, with the first stealing those cards. The player with the most cards wins.

Kemps

Kemps is another card game from the matching genre. The goal is to get a four of a kind. Each player gets 4 cards to start with, and more cards can be taken from the board as soon as the dealer places them face up. Through continuously switching cards, the goal is to call “Kemps” when the desired four of a kind is assembled.

Double Solitaire

For those familiar with classic Solitaire, just double things up. Two decks are shuffled together, with each player shuffling their individual decks. There are 9 stacks set up in standard Klondike fashion. Then, players play as if it was a game of Solitaire, but they can place suitable cards on the opponent’s foundations.

Guts

A game of comparing cards, taking heavy inspiration from games of Poker. Each player is dealt 2 cards face down, and players simply decide whether to stay “in”, or go “out” by forfeiting the round. The player with the best cards win.

How to Play Two Player Card Games

Two player card games are less about luck, andmore about reading your opponent and making the best play possible at eachpossible turn. These are the standard steps in two player card games.

Dealing

When dealing cards to two players, cardsare generally given one at a time to alternating players. Once the desirednumber of cards are dealt, the remaining cards are set aside, forming the drawpile for games that require draws.

Play

The focus of two player card games depends on the game type.However, it generally becomes a game about playing a higher valued card.

Trick-taking

In trick-taking games, each round is known as a trick, with the winner of the previous trick leading the next. At its most basic, the leader will determine the trump suit of the trick with their played card. For example, if the trick is led with a 6♣ and the other player plays a 7♥, despite the higher value, due to the difference in suit, it does not win.

Matching

Card Matching games tend to be about assembling specific hands. These games naturally involve the action of drawing and discarding cards. The main rule to follow is that every player will need to have the same number of cards at the end of their turns.

Comparing

Comparing games involve a layer of luck, asthe games are decided based on the draws. In general, larger ranks win, withAces normally being the highest rank. In the case of same rank cards, thensuits are, from weakest to strongest, ♦ ♣ ♥ ♠.

Frequently Asked Questions

What are easy two player card games?

Guts is by definition, the easiest game since there is no real skill involved. However, games like Slapjack and Rummy are popular thanks to their simple rules.

Which two player card games can I play with one deck?

Egyptian Rat Screw and Rummy are playable using a single 52-card deck.

What is the trick to winning in two player card games?

The trick is to count cards, especially in matching and trick-taking games. Learning to count cards will dramatically increase your chances of winning.

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If you're anything like us, Valentine's Day brings to mind iconic images of candlelit dinners, boxes of chocolate, roses, and, of course, board games.

'What tabletop games are best for couples?' is a question we get all the time here at Ars Cardboard, and today we're answering (again) by reprising our 2016 two-player guide with fresh new picks. Of course, you don't have to be romantically linked to your gaming partner to enjoy these titles; our recommendations are perfect for any time your group is running behind and you only have one other person to push some cubes with. Or maybe you don't have a group—all you need to play these games is one other willing (or kinda-sorta willing) partner.

The games below are new-player-friendly card and board games (sorry, we're not tackling miniatures or wargames today) that can be played in an hour or less. While most board games accommodate two players—many quite well—we've found that the best two-player experiences are often those built from the ground up for duos. So we're sticking with two-player-only games for this list (including one that has recently added support for other player counts).

If your favorite game didn't make the cut (and with the endless list of great two-player games, it may not have), share your picks with us in the comments.

Note: Ars Technica may earn compensation for sales from links on this post through affiliate programs.

7 Wonders Duel

7 Wonders Duel, a two-player version of the modern classic 7 Wonders, retools the civ-building-with-cards mechanism of the bigger game into something quick, tense, and interesting from turn one.

On every turn, spread across three 'ages,' you select an available card from the table in front of you and either build it with resources, discard it for money, or use it to build one of the game's titular 'wonders.' Building cards gives you wood, stone, glass, bricks, parchment, scientific achievements, military power, or luscious, unadulterated victory points.

You win the game in one of three ways: victory points, military invasion, or complete scientific dominance. (A clever military track across the top of the game spaces uses a 'push-pull' mechanism between players to track military supremacy; move the shield pawn all the way into the opponent's base and the game ends immediately.) Along the way, you'll build your personal set of wonders to provide powerful bonuses, more resources, and occasionally additional turns.

While the full 7 Wonders uses card drafting to make these same mechanisms work, Duel relies on drawing from specific geometrical card arrangements, such as a pyramid in which every other row of cards is face down and certain cards are only available once the cards below them are removed. This turns the process of card collection into a puzzle of its own, as you don't want to expose powerful cards that you want (or cards you want to deny your opponent) until you're in a place to snap them up.

Best of all, the whole thing offers a meaty experience in around 30 minutes and stores its goodness in a small box. Stop what you're doing right now and go buy this game.

Jaipur

Good Card Games For 2 People

The best gaming partner you have access to might just be your real-life partner. And unless your significant other is as much of an uber-gamer as you are, you'll need to pull out something less intimidating than Terra Mystica when you want to get a game in. Atop the pantheon of two-player games sits the storied 'couples game,' and Jaipur, a game about trading goods in India, is perhaps the perfect realization of the form. It's a snap to teach, it plays in about 30 minutes, and it's interactive in the best of ways.

At the beginning of the game, both players are dealt a hand of cards representing various goods—spice, silk, leather, etc.—and camels, which aren't goods but can be used in trades. A central market of five more goods cards is dealt to the middle of the table. On your turn, you're presented with a deceptively simple choice: get new goods or sell the goods you already have. To get goods, you can either trade cards with the market or take a card from the market without giving anything up. If you decide to sell, you'll discard all the goods of a certain type and be rewarded with tokens representing money. The value on the money tokens goes down as more and more goods are sold, so you want to sell quickly to get the best price. But conflicting with this 'SELL NOW' mentality are the stacks of bonus tokens. The more goods you sell at once, the better bonus you'll get. Do you sell your two silk now to get the best price, or do you hold out and hope to collect more so you can get that nice, juicy five-card bonus token?

Jaipur is a great game of tug-of-war that provides a surprising amount of tense decisions within a small decision space.

KeyForge: Call of the Archons

Any self-respecting list of two-player tabletop games must include a card dueling game, and our pick this year is Richard Garfield's super-hot 2018 release Keyforge: Call of the Archons. The game's schtick is an odd one: Keyforge is a CCG-style card game that forbids deckbuilding. Instead of asking you to buy booster packs or chase down coveted cards on the secondhand market to build a killer deck, KeyForge wants you to let it do heavy lifting for you. Specifically, an algorithm assembles every deck and assigns it a unique name and card back—you buy it and play it, no alterations allowed.

But beyond the intriguing distribution premise, the game is a ton of fun to play. There's no mana economy to manage; instead, each deck has cards from three of the game's 'houses,' and you can only play and activate cards from the house that you declare as active at the beginning of your turn. Creatures you play can attack each other, of course, but the goal of the game is not to reduce your opponent's health to zero. Instead, three 'keys' must be constructed by using the game's 'ember' resource, and collecting ember is one of the actions available to creatures, forcing you to choose between attacking and resource gathering. There are a lot of fun and interesting decisions to make.

KeyForge has a nascent tournament scene, but although the game has some baked-in mechanics for balancing powerful cards and decks, I'm not sure the game has competitive legs. As a kitchen-table brawl between friends, though, it's a blast. A starter set, which includes tokens and four decks (two handcrafted 'learning' decks and two regular, algorithm-constructed decks) is available for around $40, or you can just pick up two $10 packs and see what you get.

Card Games With Standard Deck

Patchwork

A light, two-player game about quilting from the designer best known for the heavy serf farming epic Agricola, the heavy Frisian farming epic Fields of Arle, and the heavy dwarf farming epic Caverna? Yup—and it couldn't be better.

Patchwork is a two-player game about picking up fabric pieces and assembling them, Tetris-like, onto your personal square game board while simultaneously trying to maximize the number of 'buttons' (essentially, money) that these pieces deposit in your personal treasury. The game uses a wonderful circular movement mechanic to ensure that, on each turn, players have a choice of just three fabric pieces—but that these three change constantly.

The rules can be explained in a couple of minutes, the gameplay is quick (20 minutes) and non-confrontational, and play is smooth and engaging. Many Tetris-like puzzle games have flooded the market over the past few years, and Patchwork remains our favorite.