Looking for family card games? Try this fun one called Play or Pay. Printable instructions included below.
We’re back with another card game to try out with your family. So far, we have shared: Knock, Ripple , Chase the Ace, Bluff and Nerts. This easy card game doesn’t involve keeping score. It’s quick and fun, a perfect activity to do indoors. It’s also a great way to use up extra Easter or leftover candy! Check out How to Play Mexican Train and Tenzi too..
Want more ideas for what to do indoors with preschoolers? Kids? Teens?
To start, you will need:
- 2+ players
- 1 regular decks of cards – if playing with more people you’ll need to add another deck of cards.
- Candy or anything you want to use for tokens (optional)
The object of the game is to go out first.
HOW TO DEAL
The dealer will deal the entire deck, one at a time, face down. One player may have an extra card depending on how may players there are. All the cards are dealt and there is no stockpile for this game.
**Variation: have the person who has less cards, add a candy/token to the middle to even things out.
HOW TO PLAY
- Start with the person to the left of the dealer, each person must play a card if possible: they either start a row of a suit or they add on to a row.
Note: There will only be 4 piles with the 4 suits. - All cards played remain face up on the table, arranged in four rows of the four suits.
- The first player may play any card (you do not have to start with A or 2).
- The sequence in the suit must be built up until all thirteen cards are played, and the sequence in the suit is continuous.
For example: J, Q, K, A, 2, etc. or 3,4,5,6,7,8… - The turn to play rotates to the left and if a person is unable to play in turn, they put one candy/token (whatever you want to use) in the pot (middle).
- Play continues until one person goes out (plays his/her last card). S/he wins the candy/token in the middle.
If you’d rather not play with candy or tokens, you could just keep a simple tally of who wins the round.
I created a printable version of these rules so that you can download and refer to:
Download this set of game rules. For personal use only.
Best Card Games
Over the years we’ve received several fun family games. Here are some of our newer favorites:
- Cover Your Assets: a Christmas gift, this game is so much fun! It’s easy to play for people of all ages. We’re huge fans of all of Grandpa Beck’s games.
- Skull King: chalk another one up to Grandpa Beck – this one is a little more confusing, takes some getting used to.
- Taco Cat Goat Cheese Pizza : this is a recent one that I got during a flash sale. I kept seeing people talk about it and thought it was worth a try. It’s fun, simple and good for kids of all ages.
We played and had a blast! What happens if someone runs out of candy during the game?
Yay! So happy to hear this. Good q- You can either play that the person is out or just keep refilling candy. ;) Kind of depends on how long you want it to last.