Product Description

This fascinating dictionary tells you how to play almost any card game popular in the Western world. Besides classics like Bridge and Poker, it also includes famous historical games, popular folk games, and even Tarot games. With hundreds of games to explore and enjoy, David Parlett's book will be invaluable to anyone planning a card evening with friends. Now in a fully revised and updated second edition, its broad coverage includes all the popular and classic games: Bridge, Canasta, Hearts, Poker, Rummy, and Whist. Popular family and party games such as Newmarket, Oh Hell!, and Old Maid also appear, alongside a host of unusual and intriguingly-titled games, for example, Cucumber, Go Boom, I Doubt It, Phat, Spinado, Spite and Malice, and many more. A new layout, with historical information in boxes, and fun graphics to show number of players/packs at a glance make the games even easier to learn and play, while web links added in the text and a Useful Web site section in appendix offer futher added value. Written by the UK's leading card game expert, this is truly indispensable for anyone with a yen for cards.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #200274 in Books
• Published on: 2004-10-14
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 441 pages

About the Author
David Parlett is an internationally renowned inventor, writer, and researcher in the field of games. Among his games is Hare and Tortoise, which has been published in ten languages and won three Game of the Year awards. His game books include A History of Card Games (OUP), Card Games and Card Games for One (both Teach Yourself books, 1994), Know the Game (Black, 1996), and The Guinness Book of Word Games (Guinness, 1995). He also
advises on card-playing sequences in film and television and acts as a consultant to playing card and computer companies. He is a South Londoner by birth, domicile, and inclination.

Customer Reviews

The card playing bible
I have bought many books over the years that proclaim to be an authority on cards or falsely proclaim to be a "complete" reference. This book fulfils both requirements in a well organised, well written volume. Apart from the well known classics such as Rummy, Bridge, Hearts, Spades and Poker, more obscure (in this country at least) but enjoyable games -- the German game of Skat for example -- are clearly depicted for all to enjoy. I have found this book thorough in its explanation of the rules so that the mechanics of any particular game are detailed carefully and articulately, with the aid of examples where required.

I would highly recommend this as a gift to any card player.

difficult to understand!
I've never given a bad review in my life, but i feel that i should let other customers who are thinking of buying this book know what i have experienced. To put it simply, there's a lot of spelling mistakes in it. This makes it very hard to follow the instructions. Different words are used to describe the same thing throughout instructions, which adds to the confusion. It's not
"clear advice" as it states on the front of the book. It's a shame because it looked like a nicely presented book with plenty of neat diagrams etc, but if the instructions on how to play the games are a mess, then whats the point!
For me to figure out these games i'm going to have to go through the instructions very carefully and decode them. The only reason i gave it two stars is because i might get some use from it.

A good compact reference to card games
I have recently bought this book and I must say that there are enough games covered in enough depth that it is very easy to start playing some of the games if you have a reasonable familiarity with card games. Of course others in the book are more complicated and more unfamiliar to me and would require lots more effort and study.

Contrary to the opinions of the other review I found very few if any spelling errors - and I usually find spelling mistakes very easily and get very annoyed with them.

Yes, at times, the author does use different words to refer to the same concept. This is in my view inevitable as many games have not just a set of rules but a culture associated with them.

Whilst this may not be the best and most authoritative card game book possible (the author refers out to a third party website for some of the games; and there are more authoritative books on tarot games for example) it covers a large number of games and nearly all of the descriptions are reasonably clear. Personally I wouldn't have minded if the patience games were ditched from this book in order to make room for more multi-player games (or more detail on some of the games) however of all the books on card games in my library this is the one I would least like to lose and the one I turn to first.