Card Games Books

Over the shoulder format, simialr to the Reese books like Play these hands with me.
Good collection of hands, good thought and visualization thought. Some hands might not have been analyszed perfectly. Challenging.

Excellent read for intermediate / advanced palyers.

If you like card games were you get to [upset] people ..., form little groups to [upset] people ... even MORE, and just have a plan old good time...this is the game for you. In this card game (Battle Cattle) you are cows and other players try to defeat you. The last player or "COW" standing wins. If you buy this I assure you your money was well spent. If you do buy this I advise you to play with three or more players just because it's longer and a lot more fun. And another great Steve Jackson card game to check out is Car Wars:The Card Game. It's just like Battle Cattle, but your cars instead. You can also combine Car Wars and Battle Cattle to have cows trampling over cars. There are so many Steve Jackson card games that are great. You should check out Munchkin, Star Munchkin and Munchkin 2: Unnatural Axe. They are RPG card games where you kill monsters, level up, steal the treasure and [upset] everybody so much they will never play it with you again, let alone talk with you. All three of those kinda make fun of D&D because they cards are just so funny. Well this is a review on Battle Cattle so I'll shut up now. FINAL NOTE: Battle Cattle kicks ... and also buy Car Wars and combine them.

I bought this adorable book for my 2 year old. Its of course very sweet and has pullout "valentines" that Raggedy Ann has made for all of her friends...some of which are stories, riddles, and even a board game to play (candy hearts and not included). Although its a bit above a 2-yr old's level, my daughter still enjoyed the story and thought that pulling out all of the valentines out was a blast. Raggedy Ann fans (big or small) will certainly not be dissapointed.

My 7 yr old is a Pokemon fanatic. When I saw this book in a magazine, I went to a bookstore to get it. Since they were out of stock, I ordered it on Amazon. My son was thrilled to get it and add it to his Pokemon collection. He often refers back to it when he watches the show or gets new collector cards.

More than anything, Frank Stewart challenges you to think. The examples he gives are designed to topple the very paradigms, or "natural plays", that burden our development as bridge players. Many times, after working through a problem, I've thought, "Wow! I never thought of that!". It really opens your eyes. If you're an intermediate player, who wants to improve your game, this book is for you!

I'd like to think I left the "beginner" stage some time ago, consequently I haven't paid much attention to this book since I purchased it several months ago. However in researching the topic of dominated hands I remembered that Jacob's book had a good discussion of the topic - indeed it was reading this section in a bookstore that convinced me to buy the book though I had no intention of immediate use. Thus it was that I retrieved it from the shelf and sat down to read that section. One thing led to another and now, several hours later, I find that this book has some of the clearest explanations of important topics that I've found anywhere.

If you are a new player the first half of the book introduces you to the fundamentals. If you are an experienced player you'll think you already know this stuff, and probably you do. Even then you'll find some of it, especially the chapter titled "How Hands Develop" to be worth a careful read.

The second half of the book presents nothing new, nothing you can't find in Sklansky, Miller, et. al. Then why am I writing a positive review - simply because Jacobs writes so clearly and succinctly that this is a great place for a beginner to ... well, to begin. More experienced players may find themselves wondering why nobody else ever said it so well.

In short readable sections Jacobs thoroughly explains concepts such as outs, hand odds, pot odds, implied odds, position, domination, aggression, playing various types of hands from various positions, etc. Many beginners clearly have trouble believing the importance of position as an excursion into poker sites on the Internet will attest. In less than two pages Jacobs' description of "The Game of 100" should convince anyone of the importance of position.

If you are a beginner I'd recommend this book over just about anything else on my bookshelf (over 100 poker titles). After you've read it you'll be ready for the hardcore - and hard to read due to writing style - books by Sklansky et. al. More importantly, you'll be ready for the limit tables.

I had always wanted to learn some card games but often when I ask someone else to teach me, they aren't very good at explaining the directions. Or, I might sit down with a friend to play a game we both know, only to find out we've learned different and conflicting rules for it.

This book will end the confusion. The instructions are pretty easy to follow (you may have to read through them more than once -- that's why I rate the book with a 9 -- that and the fact that at the end their plans to build a house of cards will WRECK your cards permanently), and the pack of cards included might end up convincing you to make up your OWN card game!

In fact, I made up one of my own after reading about these card games (sorry if others have made up similar games). Here is how to play:

You will need two or more people and a normal pack of cards. Pass out 5 (or more as you get better and want to be more challenged) cards to each person. Put the rest of the cards in a pile face-down on the table.

The purpose of the game is to get all five (or more as you get better) cards of one suit...any suit, your choice...don't tell anyone what suit you are going for. Now, going around in a circle you can do one of two things...
1) Ask someone else (anyone) if they have the card you are looking for (suit) (and if they don't, you go fish). If they DO have it -- you give them one of YOUR cards, they give you that card.
2) Go fishing without asking, and discard one card after you go fishing...face up next to the face down pile.
3) Take the TOP card in the face-up pile that is formed from discarding.

The first person with all cards in one suit wins.

You can only have 5 cards at a time (or however many you began with.)

Well, read through the instructions again and I hope you get how to play. And after trying this book, maybe you will be motivated to make up a game of your own, too!

The hands in this book are fresh, entertaining and, best of all, educational for anyone who wants to improve.

During a recent game of bridge on Yahoo, my partner stammered that he had a Yarborough (p 56). Ah, I thought: he has no card higher than a nine and he is well-read! He has read Kilpatrick's Bestiary of Bridge. I scurried to dig through my summer stash of reading material to find this wonderful and amusing commentary on the nature of beasts and the best of bridge. I find bridge players to be introspective and certainly those of us who love the game will find our personality somewhere within the forty short descriptions of beastie bridgers. I am wavering between the Yakkity Yak (p88, not yet married to the Yakkity Yak, as suggested by Kilpatrick) and the Little Old Lady (p39) who's aura of vulnerability is fleeting and whose game is kin to a deadly lion kill. Readers of this short and amusing essay will leave the games early to find themselves and their favorite conventions addressed. Bridgers..welcome to Kilpatrick's "animal kingdom" analogy of your games and of those with whom you partner!

This book is loaded with useful information for the slightly above average player but probably has to much jargon for the beginner.
You may not care for all the mnemonics i.e the momory "keys" but quite a few are very useful. Mnemonics are not always used by the author, sometimes only a catchy phase provides the memory aid.
In structuree - the situation is introduced in the heading. Usually a very condensed "condition" is presented. Next comes a tool and/or a memory aid to handle it. Each situation is quickly dealt with. Quite a few pages present more than one idea.
Obviously the problem or tool is not always fully explained, you may have to go to other sources for that. However, the tools just keep coming and coming. It's also a nice introduction to a few advanced concepts.
The best investment in a bride book that I ever made. A geat learning tool. It even has a table of contents and an index (far above many bridge books).