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Two decks
Games that need two decks shuffled together – rummy families, canasta, bézique and other big-table classics. Two identical decks with the same backs are best.
- Mao The only rule we can tell you is this one – the rest you'll learn one penalty card at a time.
- Bezique Win tricks, lay out marriages and sequences, and hunt for the Queen of Spades and Jack of Diamonds – twice, for a 500-point double bezique.
- Swoop Play equal or lower, swoop the pile away with four of a kind, a 10 or a joker – and empty your hand before the penalty points pile up.
- Guandan Two decks, four jokers and a wild Heart – team up, climb the levels from 2 to Ace and smash your bombs on the table.
- Doppelkopf Germany's favourite four-player game – two against two, but nobody knows who is on which side until the Queens of Clubs show up.
- Rummy (Rommé) Germany's family-table rummy – collect sets and runs, open with 40 points and be the first to get rid of every card.
- Orbit untested Win together or fail together – everyone has a tricky task, and nobody may say a word about their cards.
- Nova untested Launch a firework show together – you can see everybody's cards except your own.
- Paternoster Two piles go up, two go down, and the whole team must squeeze all 104 cards onto them – without ever saying what you hold.
- Pokerface untested Hold'em without betting and without opponents – guess where your hand ranks at the table and line up the whole team without a word.
- Sheng Ji (Tractor) Two decks, four jokers, a trump suit that changes every hand – and pairs that roll across the table like tractors.
- Pinochle America's partnership heavyweight – bid for trumps, swap cards with your partner, then meld marriages and pinochles.
- Three-Hand Pinochle Every player for themselves – win the auction, grab the three-card widow and take on the other two with your melds and trumps.
- Four-Hand Bezique Bezique for two teams – four decks, partners building melds together, and a triple bezique worth 1500 points.
- Binokel Pinochle's Swabian ancestor – win the Dabb, meld families and the Binokel, then fight for every Ace and 10.
- Gaigel Swabia's pub game with a double deck – race your partner to 101, open with a hidden Ace and call "Aus!" at exactly the right moment.
- Continental Fifteen cards, runs only, and no melding along the way – lay down your whole hand in one go and collect from everyone.
- Canasta Uruguay's gift to the world – build seven-card canastas with your partner, freeze the pile, take it at the right moment and reach 5000.
- Hand and Foot Canasta with two hands each – play out your hand, pick up your foot and fill the table with seven-card books over four rounds.
- Samba Canasta with three decks and runs – draw two cards a turn, build seven-card sambas and take your partnership to 10,000.
- Indian Rummy India's 13-card rummy – build a pure sequence, use the cut joker as a wild card and declare before the others can.
- Contract Rummy Seven deals, seven contracts that get harder every time – and when the discard you need goes by, just shout "May I?"
- Kalooki Open with 40 points, build on everyone's melds and stay under 150 – or lay down all 13 cards at once for a kalookie.
- Burraco Canasta's Italian cousin – meld runs and sets, pick up your pozzetto as a second hand and close with a clean burraco.
- Panguingue The old gambling rummy of the American West – eight decks, melds that pay chips on the spot, and eleven cards down to win.
- Russian Bank Patience for two – race your rival to the empty table, share the foundations and load your spare cards onto their piles.
- Spite and Malice Build up from Ace to Queen, clear your pay-off pile first – and never feed your opponent the card they need.
- Nertz Everyone plays their own patience at once – onto the same foundations. Empty your Nertz pile and shout "Nertz!"
- Baccarat (Punto Banco) Bet on Player or Banker – whose two or three cards come closest to 9?
- Faro Bet on a rank and let each pair of cards from the box decide – the banking game of the Wild West's saloons.
- Forty Thieves Two decks, forty open cards and one pass through the stock – the tough patience said to have whiled away Napoleon's exile on St Helena.
- Spider Two decks, ten columns and eight long runs from King to Ace – the big patience that rewards patience, with an easy mode for beginners.
- Terrace Eleven cards on the terrace show you the trouble ahead – pick the right foundation rank and a two-deck patience rewards careful planning.
- Big Ben Twelve piles round a clock face, two decks and one aim – build every hour up until the clock strikes twelve.
- Miss Milligan Two decks dealt eight cards at a time, and at the end a special trick called weaving – a classic that can turn round the most hopeless position.
- Sultan Eight Kings and an Ace surround the Sultan – build each up to a Queen, and the King of Hearts ends up in the middle of his harem.
- Alhambra Eight foundations, eight little reserve piles and a waste pile you can build on – up or down, round the corner from King to Ace.
- Windmill One Ace in the middle, eight sails around it and a centre pile that swallows 52 cards – a quick two-deck patience with a pretty layout.
- Archway Every card on show, an arch of reserve cards overhead – build eight suits, up from the Aces and down from the Kings.
- Royal Cotillion Build every suit up in twos – odd cards on the Aces, even cards on the 2s – until each King stands beside his Queen for the dance.
- Babette Deal row after row and rescue the cards that come free above the gaps – Aces build up, Kings build down, and every choice counts.
- Crazy Quilt Unpick a chessboard of upright and sideways cards from its edges, park helpful cards on the waste pile and build Aces up and Kings down.
- Liar's Post untested Slide a card across the table, tell everyone what it is – and hope they don't believe you, or that they do.
- Ten Phases untested Ten tasks, one after another – collect sets, runs and suits, wave your wild Kings and make your rivals skip a turn.
- Marriage Nepal's festival rummy with three decks and 21 cards – lay down three pure melds to see the hidden joker, then finish with wild cards.
- Hand Rummy A rummy hit from Jordan to the Gulf – open with 51 points, win wild Aces back from the table, or meld all 14 cards at once for a "hand".
- Ellibir (51) Turkey's two-deck rummy – open with 51 points or with five pairs, lay off everywhere and go out to score minus 100.
- Koum Kan Greece's family rummy – ten cards, two decks, jokers you can steal back, and a second life when you go over 100.
- Pinnacola Italy's other two-deck rummy – take any card from the open row of discards, swap out jokers and hunt for the full suit from Ace to Ace.
- Pife (Pif-Paf, Cacheta) Brazil's quick rummy – nine cards, two decks, and all your sets stay hidden until you slam them down at once.
- Normandy (Gypsy) Klondike for two decks – eight columns, eight foundations, and a new card for every column whenever you are stuck.
- Braid Twenty cards plaited into a braid down the middle, eight foundations that start wherever the deal decides – a classic German two-deck patience.
- Lady of the Manor Eight Aces, four hidden packets and an arch of cards sorted by rank – a pretty 19th-century patience that builds without regard to suit.
- Picture Gallery Build in steps of three – 2, 5, 8, Jack – until three rows of Jacks, Queens and Kings hang side by side like portraits in a gallery.
- Frog Sir Tommy's big brother – two decks, five waste piles and a squat pile of thirteen cards, the Frog, that you must clear to win.
- Dungeon Rush untested No turns, no mercy, five minutes on the clock – slap down the right suits together and fight your way through the dungeon to the boss.
- Hot Air untested Low cards win over the plains, high cards over the mountains – and you may play on your rival's side too. Collect prizes and win two trophies.
- Mushroom Walk untested A walk along a line of cards in the woods. Gather mushrooms, sell a few for walking sticks and cook the best ones – with butter if you can.
- One Up untested Play the same number or one higher – or bail out before your hand costs you dearly. Kings are worth ten, and they come round again.
- Pinch untested Lay your cards out in front of you – and whenever you top another player's cards, you pinch them, straight into your own hand if you like.
- Waterhole untested Eight kinds of animal crowd round the waterhole – three of a kind chase off the next weaker ones, and only the tiny Aces dare to chase the 8s.
- Secret Trumps untested Only one player knows the trumps while everyone picks their hand from open rows – then fulfil your secret goals, one per round.
- Flock Together untested Lay your cards at the end of a row, catch everything between two of a kind – and fly a flock home until you hold seven species or two threes.
- Horse Trading untested Bid for animals, pay in hidden money cards and challenge rivals to blind trades – a bluff with two zeros can win you a whole herd.
- Shared Air untested Several divers, one tank of air – every treasure you carry slows you down and uses up everybody's oxygen. Turn back in time or lose it all.
- Power Struggle untested Sixteen cards each, poker hands to climb with and coups that beat everything – and the loser has to hand the winner their best card.
- Temple Gold untested Everyone swears they're an honest adventurer – but somebody wants you to open the chamber with the fire trap.
- Comet Run the cards up to the King in one long tail, call "without" when you're stuck – and keep the wild Comet for the moment it counts.
- Machiavelli Italy's rearranging rummy – every card on the table is up for grabs, so break up sets and runs to find room for your hand.
- Scala 40 Italy's classic rummy – open with 40 points, add to anyone's melds and go out before the penalty reaches 101.
- Eleusis The dealer invents a secret rule for which card may follow which – everyone else plays cards, gets told yes or no and works out the rule.