Card stuff

bnuungus

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Poker is extremely fun but I rarely have people to play it with. Also I generally get annoyed at the people I play with bc they don't understand that betting 5 chips into a pot of 200 on the river doesn't constitute a real bet and their opponent will call every single time bc the price vs pot winnings ratio is simply too good.

One card game I will always tell people about is The Crew - Quest for Planet Nine
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It's a collaborative trick taking card game. This means that everyone playing is on the same team and you have the same objective. The games premise is that after pluto was declared not a planet, NASA got confusing readings that there might be another 9th planet out there and you are a crew sent to investigate it. So the game is structured into different "missions" with goals for each of them that increase in difficulty as you progress through the game.
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Goals are usually something like "this person needs to win this specific card in a trick and this other person needs this one" but there's also variance on the order in which the cards are one among other things that can spice up a round. Also there is very limited communication that is allowed between players, which makes it even more fun when you start to learn what people are trying to imply when they communicate information. Overall, it's a very fun and unique game and I would definitely recommend buying it.
 
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Orlando Smooth

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I grew up playing euchre, but apparently it's a regional game only played around the Great Lakes region of the US (and maybe somewhere in Europe)? Now where I live no one knows how to play and I miss it a lot. There are online versions but you play with a partner against exactly 2 other people, so a lot of what makes it fun is being able to read your partner and the opposing team. It's also very fast paced (if you're all good) which makes digital versions rather tedious.

I've always wanted to learn poker but don't really know where to start. If anyone has some suggestions please let me know, but I'm not looking to lose all kinds of real money while learning.
 
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bnuungus

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I grew up playing euchre, but apparently it's a regional game only played around the Great Lakes region of the US (and maybe somewhere in Europe)? Now where I live no one knows how to play and I miss it a lot. There are online versions but you play with a partner against exactly 2 other people, so a lot of what makes it fun is being able to read your partner and the opposing team. It's also very fast paced (if you're all good) which makes digital versions rather tedious.

I've always wanted to learn poker but don't really know where to start. If anyone has some suggestions please let me know, but I'm not looking to lose all kinds of real money while learning.
Living in the great lakes region myself I've always hated that euchre was the game of choice around here. It's a dumbed down version of pinochle. Euchre and pinochle are very similar games but pinochle has a betting auction for who get's to decide the trump suit, rather than leaving it up to mainly chance. Also there's more tricks to every hand meaning that you can actually strategize with your cards and sacrifice some earlier in a hand to gain an advantage later on. There's no kitty either so you can keep track of the important cards that have been played as well as count trump to really gain an advantage if you know what you're doing. All in all, in euchre, if you get unlucky then there's nothing you can do about it but in pinochle, if you get unlucky, you can at least do some good damage control and hope your luck gets better the next hand.

This also reminds me of another card game I like in the trick taking variety called 66. It's a two person trick taking game which is rarer than you'd think. I don't really want to try to explain the rules so I'm just going to copy them from bicyclecards.com

The Pack​

The standard 52-card pack is stripped of all cards except the A, K, Q, J, 10, and 9 of each suit, making a total of 24 cards.

Rank of Cards​

A (high), 10, K, Q, J, 9.

The Deal​

Deal six cards each, three at a time, beginning with your opponent. The thirteenth card is turned up for trump and laid beside undealt cards, which become the stock.

Object of the Game​

The goal is to score 66 points as follows: Marriage in trumps (K, Q announced) 40 Marriage in any other suit (K, Q announced) 20 Each ace (taken in on tricks) 11 Each ten (taken in on tricks) 10 Each king (taken in on tricks) 4 Each queen (taken in on tricks) 3 Each jack (taken in on tricks) 2 Winning last trick 10

The Play​

The non-dealer leads first. No one is obligated to follow suit. The higher card of the suit led, or a trump played to a plain-suit lead, wins the trick. The winner of the trick draws the top card of the stock (the opponent taking the next card), and leads for the next trick.

Either player holding the nine of trumps may exchange it for a higher trump card at any time, provided they have previously won a trick, unless the nine is the last card in the stock. A "marriage" is announced by showing the appropriate king and queen and leading one of those cards. Marriages may be announced only when one of the two cards is played - unless a player by showing a marriage makes his score 66 or more.

The non-dealer may announce a marriage on their first lead and score it after he wins a trick.

After the stock is exhausted or closed, the non-leader on each trick must follow suit if possible. Marriages may still be scored.

Closing​

Either player may close (end the game), when they have the lead, either before or after drawing, by turning down the trump card. Thereafter, no cards are drawn, and the last trick does not score 10 points. If either player announces during play that their score is 66 or more, the play immediately stops and the game is "closed.

How to Keep Score​

The player who first reaches 66 scores 1 game point. If he reaches 66 before the opponent gets 33 (a "schneider"), he scores 2 game points; if before the opponent gets a trick (a "schwarz"), he scores 3 game points. If neither player scores 66, or each has scored 66 or more without announcing it, no one scores in that hand and 1 game point is added to the score of the winner of the next hand.

If a player "closing" gets 66 or more, he scores the same as if the game had been played out. If the player fails, the opponent scores 2 points. If a player closes before his opponent has taken a trick, but fails to score 66, the opponent scores 3 points.

The player who scores 7 game points first, wins.
 
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Orlando Smooth

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Living in the great lakes region myself I've always hated that euchre was the game of choice around here. It's a dumbed down version of pinochle. Euchre and pinochle are very similar games but pinochle has a betting auction for who get's to decide the trump suit, rather than leaving it up to mainly chance. Also there's more tricks to every hand meaning that you can actually strategize with your cards and sacrifice some earlier in a hand to gain an advantage later on. There's no kitty either so you can keep track of the important cards that have been played as well as count trump to really gain an advantage if you know what you're doing. All in all, in euchre, if you get unlucky then there's nothing you can do about it but in pinochle, if you get unlucky, you can at least do some good damage control and hope your luck gets better the next hand.

This also reminds me of another card game I like in the trick taking variety called 66. It's a two person trick taking game which is rarer than you'd think. I don't really want to try to explain the rules so I'm just going to copy them from bicyclecards.com
Eh, I don't think it's fair to say it's "a dumbed down version of pinochle." They're different games and honestly it just sounds like you play pinochle at a much higher level than you can play euchre. The kitty is nice because it results in ambiguity up to and including the very last trick, but you still need to count cards to keep track of what's been played for both rules-based and strategic reasons. I'm not sure how more tricks makes you think it's more strategic when it's really just a different strategy, you still have to know how to respond appropriately to the opponents plays and anticipate what else they have based on what they've already played and make early sacrifices for later gains. The betting in pinochle is very fun, I'll give you that, but calling trump in euchre is still a gamble unless you only ever call on the safest of hands (which at tournament level play will definitely lead to you losing). I've known plenty of people over the years who have hated euchre, but only ever because it's too complicated and too hard to understand the strategy or meta of the game :)

That 66 game sounds pretty cool. Where did you learn of it and do you know people who play irl?
 
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bnuungus

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Eh, I don't think it's fair to say it's "a dumbed down version of pinochle." They're different games and honestly it just sounds like you play pinochle at a much higher level than you can play euchre. The kitty is nice because it results in ambiguity up to and including the very last trick, but you still need to count cards to keep track of what's been played for both rules-based and strategic reasons. I'm not sure how more tricks makes you think it's more strategic when it's really just a different strategy, you still have to know how to respond appropriately to the opponents plays and anticipate what else they have based on what they've already played and make early sacrifices for later gains. The betting in pinochle is very fun, I'll give you that, but calling trump in euchre is still a gamble unless you only ever call on the safest of hands (which at tournament level play will definitely lead to you losing). I've known plenty of people over the years who have hated euchre, but only ever because it's too complicated and too hard to understand the strategy or meta of the game :)
fair i guess. my main problem with euchre is that there's more luck involved and I generally don't like games that make me feel too much that my entire outcome is based mostly on luck. but it definitely is easier than pinochle to just pick up and play the game.

That 66 game sounds pretty cool. Where did you learn of it and do you know people who play irl?
My grandparents house was flooded a few years ago shortly after my grandfather died and that resulted in my grandmother moving to an assisted care village and leaving behind many of my grandfathers things. One of those things was an old book that has the rules to an extensive amount of card games, which i promptly yoinked before anyone else was able to. As for people that I play it with, I mainly just play it with my wife. I've introduced it to a few people but as far as I know we're the only ones that actually play it
 
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Jade

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I used to play Yugioh allllllll the time in elementary school and I still have all my old cards. I remember my friend had the egyptian god cards and back then they weren't tournament legal and were just cards printed for the heck of it, without real effects. So we always thought that their effects must be like how they were in the anime, and this led to a lot of arguments over whether we should play using duelist kingdom or battle city rules, because even though I was a bit of a rules lawyer back then I also knew that if we played using duelist kingdom rules he would be able to summon the egyptian gods without tributes, and once they're on the field, the game was over. I had nothing that could even conceivably stand up to them.
 
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I've been getting into poker recently after paging through a copy of Bill Chen's The Mathematics of Poker & having fun with some games I played with friends.

I also find cards extremely fascinating. I have a few decks of playing cards, Tarot of Marseilles, and Hanafuda nearby. I don't like TCG because the vast number of cards bothers me, I don't feel like I can ever get a handle on it, and in a way it feels quite a bit more finite. There's a linguistic quality normal cards have, it's like hebrew or organic chemistry or runes, where each card is like an alphabet with its own inherent meaning, but can also be recombined endlessly to create new synthetic meanings. A deck of cards, feels like it can be anything - a TCG feels like a very long but finite list.
 
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ZinRicky

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I learned the hard way (~12 years of purchasing and playing) that Yu-Gi-Oh cards are a scam. I've been playing casually on and off since 2019 thanks to YGOPro / YGO Omega / Duelingbook, and refused to buy anything since then.
 
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I used to play quite of bit of MtG on and off at various times before quitting once and for all. the game is just too big, the company too corrupt, and too much of a money pit

i might go back and play with the classic cards, but ill probably never buy a pack again or play any active metagame stuff
 
I used to play quite of bit of MtG on and off at various times before quitting once and for all. the game is just too big, the company too corrupt, and too much of a money pit

i might go back and play with the classic cards, but ill probably never buy a pack again or play any active metagame stuff
I'm in the same boat. I started playing when the Theros sets came out and learned to play with a group of good friends. It was super fun in the beginning and we had some great game nights. We ended up only doing kitchen table commander games at our houses because going into local tournaments and playing against smelly raging NEETs sucked the joy out of the game. However it got to a point where we had to limit the costs of our decks to sub $500 because people kept buying super expensive combo cards.

I stopped playing 4 years ago but I still have a lot of my cards and decks. I sold a bunch recently and made like $600, so it turned into a nice investment. I actually played commander recently for the first time in a few years with my old group of friends and realized most of them had entire proxy decks now (proxys are cards that have been printed out at home). If I was to get back into MTG I'd play nothing but proxy decks. I doubt I'd ever get back into because like you said it's gotten so big, there's an obvious power curve, and it's such a waste of money (unless you sell your old cards 8 years later like I did and make bank).
 
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