Learn to play the Bridge card game with this useful collection of Bridge tutorials, FAQs, and educational information. Of course, these links only scratch the surface, and there are many Bridge Books that can teach you the depth and subtlety of this grand game.

Other good resources for learning to play bridge are Bridge Software and Electronic Bridge Games, which often includes educational material, and allow you to practice and improve your bridge skills.

Bridge Educational Links

• Bridge Doctor
  An easy-to-use Bridge learning system for beginners and improvers with Bridge games against the computer or live on the Internet. [ Requires subscription ]
• Bridge Today University
  Offers a complete selection of bridge courses covering all aspects of the game, for beginners, intermediates, or advanced players.
• Desktop Bridge Coach
  Desktop Bridge Coach is a standalone electronic device to provides expert bridge tips at the touch of a button, right on your desk (or anywhere you choose to place it). Learn Bridge at your own speed, with one push of a button!
• FifthChair.org
  The Fifth Chair Foundation is dedicated to fostering bridge education on the internet and attracting new players to a game that has challenged, intrigued and entertained people since the early 16th century.
• For Bridge Players: Bridge Basics
  Richard Pavlicek's 'For Bridge Players' web site offers this online Bridge textbook for beginners. Fundamentals of the game are explained in 12 progressive lessons, each followed by a quiz.
• HowStuffWorks: How to Play Bridge
  Contract Bridge took off as an international rage in the 1930s and is considered today by many to be the ultimate card game. Learn to play with these rules, tips, and guidelines.
• Learn To Play Bridge
  Even if you are a bridge novice or complete beginner, this step-by-step guide will make you into a competent player in just a matter of weeks. You'll have the skills you need to play with a bridge club, or go play at one of the many online bridge sites.

These bridge-related products help you to become a better bridge player, and make it fun and easy to learn this sophisticated game.

See also: Bridge Playing Cards, Bridge Score Pads, Bridge Gift Sets, and Bridge Tallies.

Bridge Products

• Excalibur Handheld LCD Bridge Game
  Play contract bridge with this handheld electronic game that features Standard American five-card bidding, it plays either rubber or duplicate bridge and uses contract scoring. It offers three difficulty levels, and players can review the last hand played, replay hands to practice bidding and strategy, or request hints from the computer for a bid suggestion or a card to play. Players can also watch the computer play all remaining cards in a game for instructional purposes. The easy-to-read, adjustable-contrast LCD provides a look at other hands on the "table" while buttons enable selection of both the suit and card values to be bid or played. Requires three AAA batteries.
  
• Game Mate Handheld Electronic Contract Bridge
  This handheld electronic game allows you to play three types of bridge: Contract, Rubber, or Duplicate. It automatically keeps score as you play, either solo or against three virtual computer opponents. Six bidding conventions hone your skills, including Short Club Opener, Pre-emptive Three Level Opener, Take Out Doubles, No Trump, Stayman Two Club Convention, and Blackwood Slam Convention. You can have cards dealt to you randomly for a tougher challenge or select the cards you'd like to practice bidding strategies. You can replay each hand, take back a bid, ask for hints, or look at other hands on the table. You can also connect up to three units together for live multi-player games, without the fuss of cards and score-keeping. Requires three AAA batteries.
  
• Bridge At A Glance
  This handy Bridge "cheat sheet" is a great aid to keep at your side while you're learning the game. This 32-page booklet works in conjunction with the "Bridge Basics" books by Audrey Grant, and contains suggested responses to many standard bids, in an easy-to-follow format. See also: Bridge Basics 1: An Introduction, Bridge Basics 2: Competitive Bidding, and Bridge Basics 3: Popular Conventions.
  
• Autobridge
  This solitaire Bridge game is intended as a learning and for practice aid for players of beginning to average level of play. It includes a black plastic 'board' with game cards and an instruction guide.
  

Auto-Bridge Games on eBay

Subtitled "A New and Complete Treatise on the Game, in All Its Varieties; Including the Whole of Anthony Pasquin's Scientific Work on Five-Card Cribbage", the book was compiled by George Walker and published in London in 1837.

   

Here is Mr. Walker's preface to the book:

As a game of cards for two persons only, Cribbage is universally popular, and both Piquet and Ecarte must give place to its pretensions. There exists, indeed, no similar species of amusement, in which the rival powers of chance and skill are so happily blended; -- and, while the influence of fortune is perpetually recognized as a source of pleasing excitement, there remains sufficient room for the exercise of the intellectual faculties, to insure their final attainment of success. In Cribbage, as in other games, the ignorant go on, playing at random, and trusting solely to what they term "their luck;" -- while those who are better informed, do not disdain to acquire the art of guiding that "luck" towards their own side of the board. During the run of a few consecutive games, skill may be compelled to yield to the power of adverse cards; but in a longer series of play, its influence will most certainly predominate.

There has never hitherto appeared but one really scientific Treatise on Cribbage; that one being the work of the well know Anthony Pasquin. At the time of first publication, his book attained considerable celebrity, and was acknowledged as the most complete system of practical theory extant on the subject. It has long been out of print, and copies have be-come extremely scarce. Perhaps the strongest proofs of the public demand for the reproduction of some such volume, are now afforded in the numerous innocent questions addressed weekly to the Editor of Bell's Life In London; requesting information and instruction on the most simple rudiments of the game.

In the compilation of the following pages, the whole of Pasquin's work has been embodied, with such additions as the writer thought necessary to the formation of "The Cribbage-Player's Text-Book." The calculations have been revised, -- the rudiments of the game explained for the improvement of beginners -- and his own share of original matter being proportionably small, the Author is the more confidently entitled to pronounce his opinion as to the merits of the new edition, here presented, of "Anthony Pasquin's Treatise On Five-Card Cribbage."

This seminal work on the game of Cribbage contains rules, strategy tips, variations, and even techniques for detecting and thwarting cheaters.

The book contains 11 chapters:

1. Of what the game of Cribbage consists
2. For what you mark at Cribbage
3. The Laws of Cribbage; with cases of illustration
4. On counting at Cribbage
5. On laying out for the Crib; including the best methods of discarding, both for your own and your adversary's Crib, in nearly eight hundred cases of hands at Five Card Cribbage
6. General directions for playing the game of Five-Card Cribbage scientifically; including remarks on Betting, with statements of the different odds at various points of the score; Curious problem at Five-Card Cribbage
7. On Six-Card Cribbage.
8. On Three-Handed Cribbage
9. On Four-Handed Cribbage; Curious problem at Four-Handed Cribbage
10. On various disputed points at Cribbage
11. On Cheating or False Play

The entire content of the book is available from Archive.org, in a number of formats, including PDF, EPUB, Kindle, Daisy, and Full Text (unfortunately, the OCR is really poor). The book may also be read interactively: read online.

The EPUB and Kindle versions of the book may be downloaded for free to your favorite ebook reader (such as the Amazon Kindle

Thanks to Archive.org and Google Books for bringing us this important historical Cribbage text!

Fluffy Bunny Tea Party is a card game about ruthlessly polite bunnies stuffing their best friends with delicious desserts. Plays with 2-8 players, in about 30 minutes.

In the course of the game, you will play cards to push tasty treats in front of the other bunnies, sip tea, hop and frolic around, and, above all, be sure to mess with your friends while remaining on your best behavior at all times. Impolite bunnies had better watch out!

Most of all, it's a great opportunity to sit down with a handful of friends, talk in ridiculous bunny voices, and be as mean as you can to each other while acting as nicely as possible. The game is quick and fun, and doesn't require anything but the willingness to have a good time. Sounds like a deal, right?

According to an interview with the game's creator, Marc Majcher ('Fluffy' card game makes being nice deceptive):

The game, which consists of a deck of 106 customized Fluffy Bunny Tea Party cards and intended for two to six players, revolves around players giving each other cards that represent desserts while using "ridiculous bunny voices." Kindness between players is required at all times and rude people are penalized. On the surface, at least, "constant politeness" seems like an easy rule to follow -- everyone loves dessert, right? However, considering the fact that the player with the least desserts at the end of the game wins, players sometimes find it difficult to be nice when a dessert is given to them.

"It's a game where you play as fluffy bunnies at a tea party and you are very polite to each other and you try to wind up with the least amount of points," Majcher said, who programs Facebook games for a living. "And screw everyone else over."

The idea for the game came about after Majcher's aunt complained to him that modern gaming is all "violence and killing things and taking stuff." Recognizing a challenge, he decided to create a game that addressed his aunt's concerns. He started planning, doodling ideas in a notebook during meetings and eventually decided on the core idea for the game -- trying to have the lowest number of points while being polite in the process.

The game, with delightful artwork by Halyn Erickson, has been fully funded as a Kickstarter project.

The following video introduces the game:

The game includes 68 action cards, 30 dessert cards, and 8 bunny cards with corresponding teacups. 500 decks of customized game cards will be printed, and the game can be yours for a $20 pledge on Kickstarter.

Fluffy Bunny Tea Party also has a Facebook so that you can keep up with news about the game.

Recently, the High Court in the nation of India ruled that Rummy is not gambling:

The 13-card games like Rummy is a game of skill, and not gambling or game of chance, the Madras High Court has held, adding that police should not disturb club members and guests playing the game.

Justice S Rajeswaran, relying on a Supreme Court order of 1968 vintage, said: "The game of Rummy is mainly and predominantly a game of skill."

Justice Rajeswaran, in his order, referred to an apex court ruling delivered in 1968 stating: "The game of rummy is not a game entirely of chance like the 'three-card' game. The 'three-card' game, which goes under different names such as 'flush', 'brag', etc is a game of pure chance. Rummy, on the other hand, requires certain amount of skill because the fall of the card has to be memorized and the building up of Rummy requires considerable skill in holding and discarding cards."

United States courts have long held that rummy games are not gambling (see Is Rummy A Game Of Luck Or A Game Of Skill?): "In 1964 a Las Vegas-based Gin Rummy tournament was promoted by mailing flyers to players. The post office objected on the grounds that it was illegal to promote a 'game of chance' (a lottery) through postal services. This case ended up in court. After listening to the testimony of experts that included statisticians and several prominent players, the US District Court of Las Vegas on February 23, 1965, ruled that Gin Rummy is indeed a game of skill."

It's good to see yet another nation make this common-sense distinction between skill games and gambling games!

Amen! If you think any of the rummy variants are games of chance, you haven't played enough of them to understand the skill and strategy involved. "Predominantly a game of skill" indeed!

In our opinion, the best place to play Rummy online is probably RummyRoyal, which allows players from all over the world to compete in exciting multiplayer games of Gin Rummy, Canasta, Oklahoma, Kaluki, Tile Rummy, and many more rummy variations.

• Bicycle Guardians Playing Cards
  Designed in conjunction with the minds behind Theory11, the Bicycle Guardians Playing Cards are perfect for everyday play, card collectors, and as a tool in your magician's arsenal. The single deck of 52 playing cards features a regular index and the cards are built for enhanced flexibility and strength.

• Bicycle Tragic Royalty Playing Cards
  This is a deck of poker size playing cards that glow under black light. The backs feature the classic Bicycle design in black, red, and gray. The fronts are also black, red, and gray, and the face cards are all unique and distinctly morbid caricatures of royalty.

• Bicycle Eco Edition Playing Cards
  The Bicycle Eco Edition Playing Cards feature sustainable forest paper materials as well as vegetable based inks, and starch based laminating glue. Feel good about playing your games, knowing that the product is recyclable!

• AquaLivin Waterproof Playing Cards
  These poker-sized playing cards are perfect for playing card games while enjoying a pool or spa. They can be played and shuffled in water without damage or sticking together. The cards are 100% waterproof and made of durable PVC material. Includes a plastic carrying/storage case.

• 'The Dog Artlist' Playing Cards
  If you love dogs, this is the set of playing cards for you! Features 54 different breeds, large and small -- your favorite breed is sure to be included. We proudly craft each deck using custom paper and coatings, so you can trust Bicycle performance hand after hand. 100% Plastic Playing Cards with great feel.

• United States Playing Cards 1001781 Double-Pack Poker Cards
  They're a classic pair--and a staple in any game lover's collection. Open the outer storage box to reveal two boxed 54-card decks, one red-backed and one blue-backed, sealed in plastic. Each card boasts a finish designed to allow easy dealing and comfortable gripping. As always, the Victorian design with bike-riding cherubs graces the back of each playing card, and the set is guaranteed against manufacturer's defects.

• Hoyle Super Jumbo Playing Cards (2pk)
  This is a double deck of Hoyle bridge-sized plastic-coated, Nevada-finished playing cards with super jumbo index print and featuring red and blue classic designs on the card backs. These cards are easy to shuffle and deal, and are durable yet inexpensive. A great gift for card players of all ages!

• KEM Arrow Black and Gold Poker Size Standard Index Playing Cards
  KEM plastic playing cards contain no vinyl, which is the raw material used by all other playing card manufacturers for their "plastic" playing cards. KEM cards can handle the wear and tear like no other brand of card in the industry. KEM's high performance cards will last longer, shuffle better, and deal in such a manner that you will never want to play with anything else again.

• Harry Potter Good vs Evil Double Deck Playing Cards
  Harry Potter Muggles Fans will delight with this collectible double deck of playing cards in colorful storage tin. There are 30 unique images of the good and evil characters taken from the Harry Potter movies in each deck. (Individual Images appear on no more than two cards in each deck.) Cards may be used to play all your favorite games. Includes 52 playing cards and 3 jokers in each of the two decks. Cards are stored in a richly illustrated tin with snap-on, snap-off cover.

• Copag Poker Size Regular Index 1546 Playing Cards (Black Gold Setup)
  These two regulation-size poker decks each measure 2.5-by-3.5-inches (W x H), and are made of practically indestructible PVC plastic material for years of use. Completely washable via a quick wipe with a damp cloth, the cards won't soil over time, and come complete with a hard plastic storage and carrying case. Made from PVC plastic, an ultra high performing material, COPAG cards can handle the normal wear and tear of game play for remarkable periods of time. These high performance cards will last longer, shuffle better, and provide such a premium feel, you may never want to play with anything else again.

Details courtesy of Amazon, based on sales numbers on their e-commerce web site, and reflect the buying behavior of millions of people.

Do you have a favorite game that you think should be on this list? Comment!

Disclosure: The House of Cards is a member of the Amazon Associate program. You can help support our web site by purchasing card games and other products through our affiliate links, or directly at Amazon.com.

• Card game draws out your attitudes about money
  Syble Solomon, who gives lectures on the psychology of money, came up with a creative way to get people to open up about their finances. She's created Money Habitudes, a deck of cards that individuals, couples and groups can use to explore how certain attitudes support or sabotage their financial lives. (Note: Games and books in the Money Habitudes series include: Money Habitudes, Money Habitudes II, Money Habitudes: A Guide for Professionals Working with Money Related Issues, Money Habitudes for Couples, and Money Habitudes for Teens)
  
• 'World Of Warcraft' Is Getting a Deck Building Game
  The game supports up to four players and includes 425 cards. It'll be out in spring 2012 and should retail for $45.00. Sounds like a good buy for anyone looking to chill with World of Warcraft guildies IRL or anyone with a hankerin' to build some decks, booster pack-free.
  
• CPU Wars Is the Geekiest Card Game Ever
  Just like many other card games out there, CPU Wars is a battle for the cards with the most points, or in this case, the CPU with the highet specs. This is also known as a Trump card--a card that outranks all the other cards being played. The game is "lots of fun, it has a bit of strategy and can be played during a break or over a coffee."
  
• Monarch Playing Cards
  Beautiful photos of a deck of Monarch Playing Cards: "Monarch Playing Cards express elegance, clarity, and pride. We didn't want to settle with adequate or even greatness - we wanted perfection, with an uncompromising eye for quality and durability. These playing cards, and the tuck case, are fit for a king. The back design is truly a masterpiece."
  
• Counting on cribbage: Volunteers help Stillwater fourth-graders practice math by playing cards
  Instead of flashcards and worksheets, volunteers are armed with cribbage boards, decks of playing cards and lots of patience. Since 2003, about two dozen volunteers from the Bayport Senior Center have been teaching the students how to play cribbage. The kids are sharpening their addition and factoring skills, as well as learning how to strategize. But they're also building new friendships.
  
• Tween creates Mermaid Beach card game
  When Emily Ehlers and her family took a year-long boating trip on the Atlantic a few years back, expert sea legs and nautical memories weren't the only things that the middle schooler took away from the adventure. While seafaring, she developed a card game, Mermaid Beach, as a pastime for her and her two brothers, Jake and Drew - and in a rare development, a game manufacturer bought the idea and put it on the market.
  

To keep up on the latest card game and playing card news, follow The House of Cards on Facebook and Twitter, or subscribe to our free RSS feed.

• Scrabble Slam Cards
  This is the fast-paced word game where anything can happen. Scrabble Slam is a high-speed four-letter word game. Race against each other to change the existing word and get rid of your cards. Game could become fame and fame could become fate -- you never know where it will go with Scrabble Slam.
  
• Spot It
  Put your visual perception skills to the test with Spot It, a fun, fast-paced, and simple card game that everyone aged 7 years and up can enjoy. In a group of two to eight players, you'll draw cards and match symbols, like light bulbs, snowmen, or puppies, but with one catch--only one matching symbol exists between any two cards. The first person to spot the matching symbol and call it out wins.
  
• Apples to Apples Party Box
  Apples to Apples is the wild, award-winning card game that provides instant fun for 4 to 10 players. Open the box, deal the cards, and you're ready to play! Select the card from your hand that you think is best described by a card played by the judge. If the judge picks your card, you win that round. Everyone gets a chance to be the judge.
  
• Uno Card Game
  America's number one card game, UNO offers hours of fun. It's easy to learn, always unpredictable, and never dull. It can be played with 2 to 10 players, individually, or in teams. And it can even be educational, teaching younger kids number recognition.
  
• Sleeping Queens
  The Pancake Queen, The Ladybug Queen and ten of their closest friends have fallen under under a sleeping spell and it's your job to wake them up. Use strategy, quick thinking and a little luck to wake these napping nobles from their royal slumbers. Play a knight to steal a queen or take a chance on a juggling jester. But watch out or wicked potions and dastardly dragon! The player who wakes the most queens wins.
  
• Forbidden Island
  Dare to discover Forbidden Island! Join a team of fearless adventurers on a do-or-die mission to capture four sacred treasures from the ruins of this perilous paradise. Your team will have to work together and make some pulse-pounding maneuvers, as the island will sink beneath every step! Race to collect the treasures and make a triumphant escape before you are swallowed into the watery abyss.
  
• Quiddler
  The challenge of Quiddler is to arrange your entire hand into everyday words. In this fast-paced game, draw and discard in turn. Try to use those high point letters, but don't get caught with them uncombined. A bonus is given for the most words in each round (so little words can help you win), as well as for the longest word. Quiddler is a delightful challenge for both rookies and word game lovers.
  
• Five Crowns
  Five Crowns is a fast paced ingenious rummy-like card game. Its double deck contains five suits (the stars are new), but it has no aces or twos. This unique deck gives you many more options for arranging your hand into sets and sequences. The challenge is to see them make the right combinations, be the first to go out, then watch the others scramble as they get one last chance to cut their losses.
  
• Rat-A-Tat-Cat
  A game of suspense, strategy, and anticipation. As children play Rat-a-tat Cat, they develop a sense of timing and an understanding of basic, but essential, mathematical concepts. They learn ways to remember their cards and strategies to figure out what cards other players might have. They also begin to develop an intuitive sense of probability. Rat-a-tat Cat requires skill, strategy, and awareness, challenging both young children and adults.
  
• Dutch Blitz
  Dutch Blitz is a friendly family game where players try to compose sets of cards out of the deck in such a way as to get rid of their Blitz pile as soon as possible. This game was created by a German immigrant from Pennsylvania Dutch country, and this game is very popular with the Pennsylvania Dutch and Amish community even today. This is a simple game that is easy to learn, and fun for everyone!
  

Details courtesy of Amazon, based on sales numbers on their e-commerce web site, and reflect the buying behavior of millions of people.

Do you have a favorite game that you think should be on this list? Comment!

Disclosure: The House of Cards is a member of the Amazon Associate program. You can help support our web site by purchasing card games and other products through our affiliate links, or directly at Amazon.com.

Here are a few of the great deals to be found at retailers affiliated with The House of Cards:

Amazon

Amazon may not be the first online retailer you think of for card games, but it turns out that they have an awesome selection of best-selling games (many offered with Free Shipping!)video games, toys, and the incredibly popular new Kindle, which is not only an awesome e-reader, but is an increasingly-capable gaming device.

Shop for card games at Amazon

AreYouGame

AreYouGame is a great place to find familiar and obscure card games, board games, party games, dice games, electronic games, family games, kids games, trivia games, word games, and much more. It is the largest game and puzzle store on the planet!

Shop for card games at AreYouGame

Uncles Games

Uncles Games offers a huge assortment of games, puzzles, books, and gaming accessories. They're offering free shipping on all orders over $10 on Cyber Monday only!

Shop for card games at Uncles Games

Note: With the proposed "online sales tax" bill wending its way through the U.S. congress, this may be the last year that you can purchase goods online without being forced to pay a sales tax. So stock up while you have the chance!

Rook is a commercial card game that has been around since 1906, in various incarnations. According to the publisher, "It's much easier to play than Bridge, more fun than Pinochle, and more varied than Hearts. Rook is played with a deck of 56 numerical cards and the unique Rook bird card."

I'm not quite sure how old this deck is. There is no date on the cards or the box. The last copyright date on the instruction booklet is 1968, so this deck is probably from the late 1960s or early 1970s. It was published by Parker Brothers in Salem, MA, and marked "Made in U.S.A.".

This is the set -- box, 1 decks of cards, instructions.

This is a close-up of the front of the box.

A detailed look at the "Rook" card.

The full deck of Rook cards -- Red, Yellow, Black and Green, numbered 1-14.

It is in very good condition, and complete with all 57 cards and an instruction booklet that provides rules for Rook and a number of variations, including:

• The Regular Game
• For Two Players
• Club
• Tennessee for Two
• Over The Top
• 3-Handed Partnership Display
• Partnership for 4
• Dixie
• One-High Partnership
• Kentucky Discard
• 600
• Short Pack: 600
• Display
• Boston
• The Bird Picture Card
• Solitaire
• Tuxedo
• I Doubt It
• Panjandrum
• Donkey
• Golden "10"
• Match
• Clock Pastime

If you're interested in seeing other vintage Rook cards, visit Coit Morrison's Rook Card Collection, which contains over 100 Rook decks, going back to the early 1900s.

For more modern renditions of this classic game, check out our Rook page, or search for your own vintage deck at eBay.