I love to play games of any kind, but I really like to play card games. Card games are just easy and versatile. If you don't have a table top for a board game you can just play a card game. Plus, if you're by yourself, you really can't play Monopoly or Risk, however you can play any number of versions of Solitaire with a deck of cards. This Wednesday night we'll be playing some fun card games. So in honor of my love of card games as well as this Wednesday night, here are my top 10 favorite card games.
10. Go Fish - This is a very basic game. I remember playing this with my brother and my grandma in her RV on family vacations. It's a really fun game. I always played where you have to get a book (all 4 cards) to lay it down and get the points as opposed to just pairs.
9. Rummy (& Hearts) - My brother, sister & I would play this on long, family road trips. We had it down to an art. We would all sit in the back seat of my parents van as they drove. We would then put down the two middle seats and use those as a table to lay down our cards. My strategy in Rummy was to hold on to the cards until I could lay all my cards down and go out on one turn. When it worked, it would catch my siblings off guard. When it didn't, I had a lot of points counted against me. When we played Hearts I tried to 'shoot the moon' more than I should have. I only pulled it off like 10 times.
8. Apples To Apples - This game didn't come out till I was in college. This is a classic party game. I remember being at the RHCC Fall Youth Ministry Staff Retreat at Alpine. So much fun, so many inside jokes. And playing it late at night when everyone is beyond the tired phase and onto the giddy tired phase makes it so much funnier. Though with this game, I always seem to misjudge people. What I think will be a winning card turns out not to be even close. Needless to say, I didn't win very much. But it was still fun anyway.
7. Super Uno - I remember learning this later in high school. This is like Uno, but much better & faster paced. It's played like regular Uno with a few extra rules: 1) You can slip in a card, out of turn, if it is the same color AND same number. 2) 'Draw 2' cards can stack up on top of each other. 3) If anyone plays a '0' then everyone passes their hand to the left. I remember a 20 person game that was just crazy!
6. Family Business - This is a fun mob game where you try to be the last mob standing. I remember that if you played with some of the guys from my college group, you could only talk using a mob-like accent. It made from some hilarious and good times.
5. President & Scum - I remember I learned this game at a youth center on a cruise ship. It was a really fun game. You try to get rid of your cards first by playing cards. The first 2 players to get rid of all their cards, is the president and vice president. The last 2 to get rid of all their cards is the scum & vice scum. You can play as many hands as you want but typically the presidents and scums change each hand. This is a fun game if you have the right amount of people.
4. Spoons - This is a classic, fast paced, party, card game. I remember playing with my family and some family friends. Once, my friend, who is pretty competitive, went to reach for the spoon, he tried to fling the rest away from me to the other end of the table. But in the process he inadvertently fell back in his chair. He didn't get hurt, but we were all laughing about it. I also remember another time when I was able to get a spoon without anyone noticing for 3 full minutes.
3. Egyptian Rat Slap (or Egyptian War) - This one I remember playing at high school summer camp. Everyone loved it and it was easy to jump into a game even if you weren't there when it started. I remember we would play anytime we had free time. Sometimes we'd even play for hours.
2. Hand & Foot - This is actually a game my parents taught me within the last 3 years and it has become one of my favorite. When you have the right cards it's really fun. When you don't it really stinks. I remember playing during Thanksgiving break 2 years ago with my parents and my brother and his wife. I remember Campbell & Krista going out and my mom and I weren't even half way done. We had half our deck count as points against us. Needless to say, they dominated that round. There was no chance to come back. Even though we lost, and even though I complained, I still had lots of fun.
1. Phase 10 - This is one of my favorite card games. But why this is ranked number one is all the memories I have playing this game. I remember when I was going to Biola, my friends Brian, Lauren and I would drive to Denny's or Red Robin late at night (at like 11PM) and sit and play Phase 10. Sometimes we had other friends who would join us. But it was always us. Those were some really good times that I will never forget.
Well, that's it for now. I hope to see all you junior high students tomorrow night at Crash, where we'll have fun playing cards.
By now most of you have heard the news, that I'm stepping down as the Pastor of Junior High "Crash" Ministries at Desert Springs Church. It was not an easy decision for me to make. It took a lot of prayer and careful evaluation, but I feel like it's the right decision. It's time for me to move on to the next chapter of my life.
