Card Games
Classic card games with English built in, played with the Alexandria deck: amphorae, drachmae, tridents and swords, with Greek court cards. You can also choose the Mamluk deck, the ancestor of our playing cards, or the standard English deck.
← Back to Table GamesHeis!
Gods, monsters, creatures and heroes: match the colour or the number, change direction, miss a turn, pick up two or four, and shout “Heis!”
Play →Grammar Rummy
Rummy with word cards: collect the families of English words (go · went · gone · going, good · better · best · well) and throw away the trap cards like goed and gooder before they cost you points.
Play →Crazy Eights
Match the suit or the number; the eights are wild. A quick game to learn the cards and their English names.
Play →Durak
The favourite card game of Russia. Attack, defend with higher cards and trumps, and don’t be the last with cards in your hand: the durak, the fool.
Play →Gin Rummy
Make sets and runs, keep your deadwood low, then knock, or go gin. The game shows your melds in gold.
Play →Hearts
Pass three cards, follow suit, avoid the hearts and the queen of spades (the Basilissa of Swords!), or shoot the moon.
Play →Spades
Bid your tricks with your partner; spades are always trumps. Make your bid, watch your bags, and dare to bid nil.
Play →Euchre
Order up trumps, play the right and left bowers, and win three tricks, or all five for a march. Don’t get euchred!
Play →Texas Hold’em
Two cards in your hand, five on the table, and a pile of drachmae (play money only). Fold, call or raise, and learn to say “a full house, queens full of sevens”.
Play →Cribbage
Make fifteens, pairs and runs, peg your way round an Alexandrian board, and count your hand aloud in English: “Fifteen two, fifteen four, and a pair is six.”
Play →Canasta
The great card game from Uruguay (canasta means “basket”): two packs and four jokers, wild twos, red threes, and canastas of seven cards. For two players, or four in partnerships.
Play →Bridge
The great partnership game: count your points, bid with your partner (the scribe suggests a call and explains it in English), play the dummy, and make your contract. Real duplicate scoring over four deals.
Play →Every game can be played on one screen, in class or on phones: each player sees their own cards on their phone.