A couple of summers ago, I (Evan) wrote a few guest posts on Amy’s blog about one of my big hobbies: board games. Other than soccer, it is my main fun outlet, and I also love how it is social and helps me connect with friends and family. In particular, I have a regular game group of church guy friends, and I get to play a lot with Jackson and Lily, who are pretty amazing gamers for being only 10 and 8.
Anyway, I just did the posts for fun, and didn’t really think much of it, but not too long ago, we were contacted by the friendly folks at the Lotus Card Shuffler.
I guess I must have mentioned something about how card games were fun to play with my (at the time 8- and 6-year-old) kids, but that they weren’t able to shuffle well on their own, which prevented them from playing card games well without an adult around to help. This led them to reach out and offer us a free Lotus Shuffler, which I guess in the parlance of those who know about this sort of thing, would be called a review copy.
I am not a content creator. I am just a dad who likes to play games. But this was pretty cool to be offered this gadget for free, and I wasn’t going to turn it down. It’s a compact, well-organized, efficient, and quiet way to shuffle cards reliably without denting your cards. I’ve never thought seriously about splashing the cash for a card shuffler, but if I did, it would be the Lotus Card Shuffler.
It took me a while to get around to being able to write this review because soccer season was keeping me busy, but now that the fall (undefeated!) season is over, I wanted to sit down and write this post in thanks for receiving the review copy.
Here is my topic: we know that there are tons of board games out there (and more than enough just sitting in my basement), but a lot of times, all you really need is a standard deck of cards. There is essentially no setup (especially if you’ve got the Lotus), and they are the easiest thing to take with you out of your house or on a trip. And those situations are often when you are on vacation and have more expendable time to play games anyway.
Lotus Card Shuffler is the perfect device to take along with you or have available for your kids when they are playing cards on their own because it really does take the hassle out of shuffling and it protects your cards.
I decided to break down the list into these categories: best with kids, trick-takers, and solo/co-op. We all know there are hundreds of card games you can play with a standard 52 card deck, and there are more being created all the time. We also know that every family has their games that they love and maybe even have played through generations, so I’d love to hear what your favorites are in response to this brief list that I’ve prepared.
Best with Kids
1. Spoons
- Spoons. Every person is dealt 4 cards, and then one person starts with the rest of the deck and passes cards along while trying to collect 4 of a kind. You must always keep only 4 cards, and each person around the circle keeps looking at the new cards, making a choice about what to keep, and then keeps passing cards. Once someone has four cards, they sneakily pick up one of the spoons (or other not-sharp objects) that are in the middle (always one less than the number of players). Once the first person has picked up a spoon, everyone else can, and the last person who does not have a spoon is the “loser”, but it’s really just laughs all around. My mother always is so excited to play this one with her grandkids, and I do have some very fond memories of playing this game with family friends while growing up. It’s very easy to play, but there’s something so thrilling about it, especially for kids. There is also the drama of what happens when people start picking up the spoons, and you can even game it a little and fake picking one up if you want to. It’s a good game to have the Lotus Shuffler around for because everyone has been assembling similar cards, thus careful shuffling is needed in between rounds.
2. I Doubt It
- I Doubt It. Deal out all the cards to the players, who then arrange the cards from lowest to highest in their hand. Go around the table playing cards facedown of increasingly higher value. Each time you play, you must declare how many of a certain card you play (2 aces, 4 twos, 1 three, etc.). You can play legit where you play exactly what you said you played, or you can mix in some other cards to try to get rid of cards faster (the way I played, you must always put down the same number of cards as you declared). You can also always try to play a number card that is different from what you declared because you might not have any of that number. The catch is that if someone else calls you out as lying (I doubt it!), and successfully catches you, then you take all the cards that have collected in the middle stack. If you weren’t lying, then that person who called you out gets all the cards in the middle stack. First one to get rid of all of your cards wins. If you don’t like games with bluffing (lying?), then this game isn’t for you, but I have again many great memories of playing this as a kid.
3. Trio
- Trio. This is a game you can buy from Happy Camper games, and it does have really cool Dia de los Muertos art, but you can also just play this with a slightly pared down deck of cards, plus that way you can use the Lotus Card Shuffler because the version you buy has larger cards. You need three of each going from Ace up to to Queen (12), meaning you are taking out 16 cards from the 52 card deck. This game is like Go Fish mixed with memory, and I would go so far as to say this is a perfect family game, especially when you don’t have a long time to play. You play by shuffling and dealing a certain number of cards depending on player count so that there are an even number of cards for each player plus some face down in the middle arranged in a grid. In a four-player game, there are 8 in the middle and each player gets 7 cards in their hand. The first player begins trying to find out where certain cards are in order to get three sets of three of a kind to be declared the winner (although we usually finish out to play for second and third as well). They can ask another player to reveal their highest or lowest card, show their own lowest or highest, or flip over a card in the middle. You get to do this two times consecutively each turn, but if you found 2 of the same number card, then you get to go again to try to get your trio. If you do, then you keep it, but your turn is over. The main catch in the game is that no one can ever use/reveal cards in the middle of their hand, but must use only the lowest or highest, which would include whatever new card has become the highest or lowest after the first one is revealed. For example, if I asked for the highest from Jackson, who revealed a queen (12), and I happened to have 2 queens at the top of my hand, I could reveal them both consecutively because they would each be my highest card. This is just a perfect game because you have to pay attention on everyone’s turn to pick up extra information about where cards are. If someone did not get a trio, you put any revealed cards back into your hand where they were, but of course now everyone knows what you have, provided that they remember. That’s another great thing about this game—kids often have better memories than adults do, so it’s a great leveler.
Trick Takers
1. Spades
- Spades. As I move away from kids games, I am not going to try to explain all the rules of these more complex games, but simply click on the link for each game, and you can find everything you’d need. Trick taking games generally speaking involve dealing out a full deck of cards. On each turn, players play one of their cards, and in both games I am going to talk about, players must follow the suit of card that the first player led (if they have that suit left in their hand). Whoever played the highest of those cards (usually you play with 4 players, but it could be fewer in Hearts), wins the “trick” and keeps those cards. The exception is that in Spades, the spades suit is the trump suit, which means if it is played, it beats the cards of the other suits. Spades is a game I played an awful lot of in high school, and it is a partner trick taking game. Before you play any cards, players go around a make a bid of how many tricks they will win in that hand. The bidding and partner play really give this game something special, but I definitely prefer this to Bridge. There are other rules and lots of strategy to get into, but you at least get the gist of the game from what I described. We have actually been playing this as a family recently, and even Lily (8) has been enjoying it a lot.
2. Hearts
- Hearts. Another classic trick taker, but this one involves NOT trying to get tricks/points as opposed to in Spades you want to take tricks and get more points. Hearts also has no partner play and can be played with three players just fine, which means it is easier to get to the table than Spades is. Two things set Hearts apart: there is the fun of dumping your big cards on another player when you have set it up just right, and there is the possibility of forcing big points on others by shooting the moon, which means you take all the points.
Solo/Co-Op
1. Freecell
- Freecell. These final two games are great to play by yourself or can be played working on the same team against the game to try to win. Both are tricky, but very rewarding when you pull it off. Freecell is the best solitaire game I have ever played. Admittedly, I haven’t played that many, and I know some people love their Spider Solitaire or Klondike, but Freecell is excellent. It’s got the same basic idea as classic Solitaire, but this game you actually can win every time (without cheating). That does not mean you will win every time, but it at least gives you a chance. What makes this different from classic Solitaire are two things: you start out seeing all the cards that you need to sort set out in columns, but you can only access the bottom cards (or cards if you have them arranged in descending solitaire style order). You also have 4 cells open where you can move a card you need to get out of a spot, but the catch is that every free cell you have filled limits the amount of cards you could move from one column to another. The fact that this game was installed on Windows made it well known, but I definitely think it still holds up.
2. Regicide
- Regicide. This is definitely the newest game on my list, and it is also the hardest. In fact, I’ve never beaten it, although I have come close. You can play this game solo (I find it more challenging this way) or co-operatively with other players (when you play that way, you do each have separate hands, but you are still playing against the game rather than against each other). I am not going to try to explain the rules in any detail, but basically you are playing out cards from your hand to “fight” against the face cards. Each suit has a special power, and probably the hardest part of this game is not running out of cards in your hand. If you are up for a real challenge with just a deck of cards, this is the game for you.
Alright, that does it. All of these games are awesome. And all of these games are easier and more fun to play with a Lotus Card Shuffler, so please do check out their website and consider adding this to a Christmas gift list, especially for families with kid gamers or for older relatives who love card games but might have a harder time shuffling as they get older. And if you want to gift someone an amazing deck of cards (both of which I have tested on the Lotus, and they work perfectly) I would highly recommend whichever deck from theory11 you are most into (I have Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, and Artisan) as well as some Copag plastic cards that you will use forever and don’t have to worry about getting wet.
What are your favorite card games to play with a standard deck of cards? Who do you play card games with?
