Lovetoplay_Cards

2008-03-08T22:10:00.000-08:00

Actually it comes from the game of Hearts.
PASS 3 CARDS.
This is done before bidding, of course.
Hand 1, pass 3 cards to the left.
Hand 2, pass 3 cards to the right.
Hand 3, pass 3 cards across (to your partner)
Hand 4, Hold em.

Start all over again.

Strategy:
If you have a strong hand, pass low
If you have a weak hand, pas high so you can bid nil

Try to pass a high spade to your opponent to discourage them from bidding nil.

When passing to partner, based on your hand, pass to complement one another.

If you are weak, assume partner is strong so pass high cards. Hopefully they will do the reverse. Doesn’t always work.

Enjoy!

I published this as a post, as Jim didn't send it to my Blogger account. Thanks for the info, Jim..I'll have to try this. Let me know if any of you have tried it!

2008-02-10T21:54:00.000-08:00

Another thing I enjoy doing when I can't play cards is Crossword puzzles. Where I work we have some "down" time where we can all just sit, relax and compete at crosswords. I've recently came across a site that I absolutely love. I go to this site and print the crosswords for the month and all of us work together on solving them. The site is called puzzlechoice.com, I've added it to my links so check it out. Its very printer friendly (which is half the reason I like it so much) You can also print the answers if you feel the need to "cheat" a bit! lol

2008-02-08T21:33:00.000-08:00

Games, games and more games....everybody loves games!

Well, we're approaching Spring up here and my BF is getting excited about his upcoming golf trip. He plays golf, I play cards. I'm adding his golf blog to my site so any of you who might also love the game of golf can check it out. You can find it under the "Links" tab or you can just CLICK HERE

Ok...enough with golf, how bout some card games?? Haven't played a lot of spades lately but I did sit down with a friend the other day and played a game of Crazy Eights. Pretty sure shes trying to pull the wool over my eyes with this game because I really don't remember it being Uno! She claims throwing the Jack of Spades means the other player has to draw four also says the Ace skips the other person and the Two is draw two. Please tell me this isn't acceptable behavior for Crazy Eights, cuz she kicks my ass every time we play!

2008-01-16T22:02:00.000-08:00

Hi there,
Wondering if you have ever heard of a variation of Spades called “Kentucky Swindler” ? I played in the ‘70’s with friends, none of whom can now remember how, except that Spades was the root game.
There was a wild card called the “Swindler”. It must have swindled you out of a trick by trumping your trump ? Anyway, was excited to read about you and your blog. If I’m lucky, maybe one of your readers was an old Swindler mate of mine and can refresh my memory.
Thank you again,
Paul

Hello Paul

No, I've never heard of the Kentucky Swindler variation and I have a very long list of them. Gotta tell ya, I haven't played a whole lot of spades lately, kinda got out of the game but I will post your request on my blog, hopefully somebody will know of it and post an answer for you.
Thank you for your email.

Best Regards,
Tracy

My bad, I've crossed over to the darkside and now I'm completely addicted to Texas Hold Em :-) If anyone can answer this gentleman, it would be greatly appreciated.....play on, card fans!

2006-08-06T20:22:00.000-07:00

WICKED

This game starts off a little confusing but once you get the hang of it, it is a lot like Suicide.

The person with the ace of spades bids regular spades (not the spades in your hand, but the amount you think you can take) and also tells his/her partner to go nil. The partner goes nil and then chooses a player from the opposite team to go nil also. The player left bids regular spades. So there is a player from each team that is bidding nil and there is a player from each team that is bidding regular spades. No double nils are allowed in this game.

Like I said, this game is a little confusing in the beginning but it is a lot of fun. The person who has the ace of spades needs to speak up right after the deal and tell their partner to go nil so that the bidding can start, otherwise everyone just sits there waiting for directions on how to bid.

The strategies are alot like those of suicide, try to make your nil, if you can't then try to set the other team. Good luck playing! And like always, send me any tips or strategies you have! Happy gaming! :-)

2006-08-01T19:36:00.000-07:00

LOW BALL

This was an interesting one! I had a hard time explaining to the others how to play, but once that was accomplished it really turned out to be a fun game!

Everyone bids like regular spades (you don't bid all your spades, just bid like you are playing the regular game of spades) then you have to play your lowest to highest card in each suit. It doesn't matter what suit leads (except spades of course) and if you don't have a card in the suit that is thrown, you can either spade it with your lowest spade or you can throw off with any other lowest card in another suit.
This makes nilling very challenging but I tried it last night just to see what happened. Well, what happened was I went set! lol But after talking about it with the people I was playing with, the reason why was because my partner was not watching that I was throwing off diamonds and she lead with one. Remember you are throwing lowest to highest cards and I had been throwing off my diamonds and the only card I had left in that suit was the ace, so I took the trick. So I really think a nil is possible, your partner just needs to pay very close attention to what you are throwing off.
Very fun and interesting game, I plan to play it some more and figure out some other strategies.

2006-07-23T21:35:00.000-07:00

7-UP

We played this game tonight and it is a lot of fun! Simple rules: Each team's total bid must equal 7.

So if I bid 3, my partner has to bid 4 so that it equals 7. If my partner bids 2, then I have to bid 5 so that the bid equals 7....so on. The total bid will be 14, which means one team will go set each hand. You would think this would be a quick game, but its not. We played 5 hands tonight and the score was 1-3! So it isn't posted in the rules to have a hand limit, but I hightly recommend it!

The strategies for this game are pretty simple: first of all, you want to take as many tricks as you can so you are not the team to go set. Secondly, if you are bidding before your partner, try to bid as many tricks as you think you can take and if your bidding low, remember that your partner has to make up the 7 bid so try and help him/her out.

You can bid nil or double nil if you are the first partner to bid. Remember the total bid between both partners has to be 7 so if your partner bids 3 you cannot bid nil, but if you bid first and think you will not take any then you can bid nil BUT then you are setting your partner up to make a 7 bid.

After playing this for a while tonight I finally bid nil when I was the first to bid. My partner had to bid 7 and she made it because the other team had to bid 7 also so they were all trying really hard not to go set.

This game is a lot of fun and how the cards fall really has a lot to do with it. Good luck playing and let me know if you have anymore strategies to this game!

2006-07-18T20:58:00.000-07:00

ABBREVIATIONS/SLANG & GAME TERMS

I've noticed a lot of questions lately when I'm in the game rooms playing cards, where people are asking what all the jibberish is that we gamers type! So here is a list of what is being typed and what it actually means:

LOL = Laughing Out Loud
LMAO = Laughing My A** Off
ROTF = Rolling On The Floor
TDF = Too Dang Funny
TY = Thank You
TYVM = Thank You Very Much
YW = Your Welcome
OIC = Oh, I See
BRB = Be Right Back
BBIAB = Be Back In A Bit
GLA = Good Luck All
GLN = Good Luck Nil
GLDN = Good Luck Double Nil
GLP = Good Luck Partner
NN = Nice Nil
NNP = Nice Nil Partner
NTA = Nice Try All
NNU2 = Nice Nil You Two
GGA = Good Game All
OMG = Oh My God
GJP = Good Job Partner
GN = Good Night

Also, some other game room terminology:

Nil = take no tricks, bid zero
Double Nil = bid zero before even looking at your cards
Tricks = the cards that you think you can win with
Bags = the amount you overbid
Set = not taking the tricks you bid

Plus or Host = person in the game room that is monitoring what players are saying in the lobby
Redline = putting someone in the lobby on ignore so you don't see anything else they say
Gag = what happens when you say something offensive in the lobby, the Plus or Host will "gag you" so you can't type for a certain amount of time
Guests = people that are playing but have not made an account at the gaming site
Quitter = person that sits down to play then quits mid-game...grrrr!!

Did I forget anything???? lol

2006-07-18T20:36:00.000-07:00

8 CRAZY

We played this game last night. I'm not real sure I figured out any strategies though and well, actually I'm not real sure I even liked this game! lol But anyways, in case you do or are interested in trying it, here are the rules:

For every 8 that you get dealt you have to bid 3, if you don't get dealt any 8's then you have to nil. So if you get dealt 2 eights your bid will be 6, 3 eights your bid will be 9 so on and so fourth..The highest total bid will be 12 so there is a lot of setting in this game, scores are low and the game doesn't normally last too long.

Kind of a strange game, but if you've got other opinions on it I'd love to hear them!

2006-07-15T16:34:00.000-07:00

69

We played this game last night. It was pretty confusing at first but after we caught on it was a lot of fun!

The person with the 6 of spades calls the suit to bid, the person with the 9 of spades has to nil. Let me try and explain further....... so the person with the 6 of spades will call the suit to bid, this means everyone except the person with the 9 of spades will have to bid the amount of cards they have in their hand of the suit that was called. For example if I call clubs as the suit to bid that means everyone (except the 9 of spades holder) will bid the exact amount of clubs in their hand. From there you just play the game out like regular spades, the suit that is called is NOT trump, spades still are, the suit was called simply for bidding.

After playing this last night I quickly realized that when it is your turn to call the suit to bid, call the suit that you have the least of. This will make your bid small and hopefully obtainable and make the opponets bids big and hopefully unobtainable!

Good luck and let me know if you have any further input for this game!

2006-07-12T20:07:00.000-07:00

CRAWL- PART II

Ok, finally got a chance to play this game last night. Two words....What fun!! We played the original version (everyone bids 3 then plays their cards lowest to highest in all suits) and it was a blast! There's not a whole lot of thinking involved as you have really no choice on what to throw unless your leading. One thing I caught on to quick is that when you are leader and you have only the Ace and King of one suit, throw those first because your almost guaranteed those 2 tricks.
Also, one question I brought up last night: Do you have to throw a spade if your partner has the trick and you don't have any of that suit? The answer is no, you can throw off.
The two games I played last night were also on hand limits...when I first started everyone asked if we were playing 3 or 5 hands..I was a little confused by this but soon learned why. This game could take forever because you don't score too often. We played 5 hand games last night and our scores were 3-126 and 65-67 after 5 hands. Ummm....the first game we were the 3 so yes, we lost (boo!), the second game we had the 67 so we did win one (yeah us!) lol Definetley a fun game, I highly recommend it!

2006-07-11T16:57:00.000-07:00

CRAWL

In reply to your post....here are the rules to the game Crawl or as some call it 3 Hand Crawl. I have never played this game but it does sound fun! There is an original version and a revised version, here is the original version:

Everyone bids 3 and then plays their lowest to highest card in all suits.

Revised version:

Everyone bids 3 and then plays their highest to lowest cards in all suits.

Sounds like a lot of fun, I'll definetley be trying it out soon! I'll add more to this post once I've tried it.

2006-06-28T21:26:00.000-07:00

KISS OF DEATH

Well I think we've found a new place to play now. Been going into www.gamingpeak.com and playing there the past couple of days and it has turned out to be a pretty good site. They are still working on accomodating all of us ex-msn'ers, but so far so good.

Anyways, played this game the other night. Pretty easy rules.....Every player has to bid 4 then you play like normal spades. Of course with 4 players bidding 4 that means the total bid is 16 and someone and normally more then just one person is going to go set. I've only played this once but I think the strategy is if you know you are going to go set, bag the opposite team like crazy. That drops their score back and keeps the game going. If you have any tips on this game please send them along!

2006-06-26T17:32:00.000-07:00

little more about me......

We just got back from a trip to the Big Apple! Here is an evening picture of the streets in New York City. This was taken in central Manhatten. Great place to visit, I highly recommend it!

2006-06-26T17:25:00.000-07:00

MSN SPADES ROOMS ARE GONE

Well, I used to love to play spades in the msn game rooms but now they have done away with them the way they were and it is virtually impossible to play the spades variant games. I've been checking out a few other sites to play and thought I'd pass them along to you... www.gamingpeak.com , www.pogo.com , www.zoo-games.com all seem to be pretty nice places. I also tried www.wgcenter.com but I can't seem to even get a game done before I get booted there. If anyone knows of any other good places to play our spades games, please let me know!

2006-06-17T17:42:00.000-07:00

EVIL or DIRTY SPADES?

Ok, I went into to MSN games last night and played this game....first there was a little confusion about the name of the game, I called it Evil and other people told me that Evil is played different and what we were playing was called Dirty Spades...I'm still not sure, people must call it two different names? Anyhoooo....this is so much fun!

The person who gets dealt the Ace of Spades has to tell his/her partner to nil. Then that person (who just nilled) gets to pick one person on the opposite team to nil. The other two people have to bid the amount of spades they have in their hand. So you will have two people nilling and two people bidding their spades. Play goes as normal.

This game really is a ton of fun and I played it with a bunch of my friends at MSN and we just had a riot! When we first started playing we were a little confused ....well, ok we were a lot confused but that is just us! lol My partner was "S" and we were playing against "F" and "K" well F had the ace of spades and told her p to go nil, so K went nil and then told me to nil...well I got confused, thought I could tell someone to go nil so I told F to go nil cuz she had the ace of spades...now she has played this game before and I really thought she was keeping us on track BUT...she decided to listen to me and she went nil also! It was too funny!
Definetly try this game out, you'll love it!

2006-06-15T20:28:00.000-07:00

DOUBLE NIL

This is a pretty easy and painfull suicide variant. lol Every player has to bid Double Nil. This means nobody gets to look at their cards, you have to bid Double Nil. Obviously at least one person, most times two people will go set but the strategy is after everyone bids and you see your hand you should be able to tell whether you have a chance at the Double Nil or not. If you don't really have a chance, then you want to try and cover your partners Double Nil and hopefully help him/her make it. This game goes relatively quick because, of course, someone will always go set. We play this quite often and quite often we all go set! lol It is a lot of fun and a very quick game.

2006-06-15T20:24:00.000-07:00

Little more about me.....

This is a picture of the lake at the Concord Metroparks in Concord, Ohio. Winters are tough here in Northeastern Ohio but we really get a great show during the Fall.

2006-06-14T20:16:00.000-07:00

TEXAS HOLD'EM

Ok, I know this is not a spades variant but I've been getting a lot of questions from people on how to play this game as well. I currently play this at www.pokerstars.com and I absolutely LOVE this game! We play a lot here in our garage too, invite a bunch of friends over and just play Hold'em all night! Here are the rules for playing:

Regular poker hand ranks apply to this game. For example a flush beats a straight, a straight beats three of a kind and so on.
A typical Hold'em game is as follows and is basically broken down into 5 categories. First of all the Big Blind and the Small Blind is posted:

Big Blind- The person sitting left to the dealer always posts the big blind-There are 2 anties in Hold'em and the Big Blind is the larger of the 2.
Small Blind- The person sitting left of the Big Blind posts the Small Blind which is half the amount of the Big Blind. Then it goes on to the other players and they either put the Big Blind amount in our they fold, when it comes back to the person who has the Small Blind they can either add the other half of the anty in or they can fold.

Blinds can be any amount you choose. Normally it goes in double amounts, so for example if you set the Big Blind at $2 then the Small Blind will be $1 and typically you will raise the Blinds every hour or so. So next hour the blinds will be Big Blind $4, Small Blind $2.

Each person is then dealt one card, then a second card, both cards being face down. After everyone gets their 2 cards (also known as pocket or hole cards) betting starts with the person left of the Small Blind then the players can raise, call or fold.

The Flop- This is the first 3 cards the dealer will turn over in the middle of the table. These are community cards that each player can use along with the cards in their hand to create the best possible hand. Once again, betting occurs and goes around the table to each player.

The Turn- After betting is done, the dealer will flip over another communtiy card (community card just means that every player can use these cards) This is now the fourth card in the middle of the table. Betting begins again and goes around the table.

The River- The dealer will flip over the fifth and last community card and betting begins for the last time.

The Showdown- The remaining players show their cards in order from the person who bet first. The best 5 cards wins. Although you will have 7 cards (2 in your hand, 5 on the table) it is still the best 5 cards wins the pot.

If you have any questions or would just like to leave a message, please send me a comment and I'll be happy to reply or post your message on this blog! Good luck playing!

2006-06-13T22:27:00.000-07:00

PRESSURE

Ok, we tried this game tonight, I've yet to figure out what the strategy is but we sure had a lot of fun trying! This is a spades variant where you have to bid the number of spades in your hand, and you have to throw spades if you are out of the suit that is thrown, even if it is your partners trick! Please comment if you have played this game and you know the strategy to it...we are dying to know!

2006-06-12T19:09:00.000-07:00

SUICIDE

This game is pretty simple to explain but adds a twist to bidding, so if your up for a "thinking" game you'll like this variation!
The only difference between classic spades and Suicide is that one person on each team must bid nil. So if you start the bid, first of all look and see if you have the ace of spades, if you do, you know you will not be able to make a nil bid BUT remember if you bid then your partner has to bid nil and you will want to make sure you can cover their nil. So, typical rule of thumb, if you have the ace of spades but no other cards to cover your partner, go ahead and nil so that your partner can hopefully make his/her bid. Yes, your nil will be set but it is better if you go set then both of you going set. Remember the opposing team has to bid like this too....like I said, there is a little bit of strategy in this game! Also, antoher trick.....if you bid nil and have the ace of spades try to bring it out as soon as you can so your partner knows you are set, this way you can decide to either try and set their bid or their nil.
I know this sounds a little confusing, but go try it out, I think you will like it. Let me know if you have any questions! :-)

2006-06-11T19:07:00.000-07:00

little more about me....

This is a picture of the sun setting over Lake Erie. It was taken in Geneva, Ohio; about 10 miles away from where I grew up (Ashtabula, Ohio).

2006-06-11T18:50:00.000-07:00

WHIZ

This is the first variation to spades that I played and by far my most favorite! All players have to bid the exact amount of spades in their hand or they can bid nil. So if no player bids nil the total bid will always equal 13 and is very helpful because you will know exactly how many spades everyone has. If you have low spades or the bids are high, you can bid nil (this is common in Whiz). The rest of the game proceeds as normal.
Currently I play this game at www.zone.msn.com They have a lot of different tables but mostly this game is played in the "Suicide" rooms and the "Mirrors" rooms. Just click on the link above then select Card & Board, Spades, Play with others, then go to either a Suicide room or a Mirrors room and try it out! I've never played in a Mirrors room, have been in there but seems like a pretty harsh room, so I prefer the Suicide rooms. The rooms are called Suicide and Mirrors because those are both variant games of spades also. I will be listing directions for play of Suicide and Mirrors soon, so stop back often and send me any comments you have!