The first card game I remember learning is a game called 99. It is played with a group of people with multiple decks of cards. On their turn, each person pitches a card in the middle and announces what the new total is, as they draw a new card. This continues until the total is 99. At that point, only wild cards will help. Throughout this process, I learned how to add and subtract before I went to kindergarten. I suppose the best part was that everyone was together and playing as a group. The family didn't fight when playing cards. Cards were serious business.
As I grew up, I learned to play many card games for one, two or several players. I was fascinated by cards because it seemed so impossible to be able to play so many different games with the same deck of cards. Whenever my grandpa would teach me a new game, I would play him until I could beat him. Then I felt like I understood how to play the game. Being competition for my grandpa meant I was a good card player.
When I went away to college, I found out my roommate also liked playing cards. The only difference was that she liked one card game in particular. She liked to play canasta. This is a very old game and it took me a very long time before I could even get close to winning against her. She would tell me what cards I had in my hand by the way I held them. That frustrated me, so I changed how I organized my hand. She would tell me what cards I had in my hand by what I discarded. This also frustrated me, so I changed that strategy as well. She was a very good teacher without knowing it. She taught me strategies that helped me win with all of those games I lost to her. I eventually taught this game to others and to this day, it is still my favorite card game.
In today's world, the only time I have to play games, is usually in the middle of the night, after I have finished my work. This is not always the best time to find people who want to play cards, so I have turned to playing games online. I can play canasta real time at the Yahoo! games site. It always amazes me that there are thousands of people logged on to play this game at any time I am there. I had no idea there were so many people who enjoyed the game. I have also found that I am not as good of a player as I once thought I was, since I lose about as much as I win on this web site. However, I still enjoy playing, whether I win or lose, so it doesn't really matter what my rating is at any one time.
Here is the web site for Yahoo! Games. Anyone can sign up for an account for free.
Page last updated 02/04/07