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I always carry a pack of cards with me. Since I was a kid, I've loved the social aspect of playing cards, and the almost meditative quality of a solitary game. I also love that many people I meet have their own card games that they've picked up from somewhere or someone, and that these games are largely all ancient in their origins (the few that I've been able to find documented sometimes trace back to the 16th century), despite mostly still culturally continued through word of mouth.
There is an uninterrupted line of teaching that each card game internalizes, between its original conception, possibly generations ago in socially and culturally very different times, and its arrival here, in this capsule's log, in the early 21st century.
Playing these games is engaging with human history.
Anyway.
This is my own little archive of games as they were explained to me, and with the names as they were given to me. Mileage may differ.
Concepts that are repeated in different games:
A trick is a round where the highest card of the same suit is the winning card. Each player plays one card, and the trick is said to be "scored" or "won" by the player with winning card. Tricks are played sequentially in (usually counter- or clockwise) order, face up, one player after another, so that the last player may see all of the previous players cards before they play theirs. The last player is granted this advantage, whereas the first player may often choose the suit of the trick, and thereby has an advantage of choice. If a player cannot follow the first player's suit, they may play any card of any suit, often with the consequence that they are forfeiting the chance to score the trick.
Tricks that are won are scored, and rarely included back into the players hand. The cards constituting the round are instead placed in front of the player as a tally of their score.
Used to resolve ties. The deck is placed face down on the center of the table, and each player, in any order, lift ("cut") some number of cards in a stack off of the deck, keeping the bottom card concealed (even to themselves). After each player has a small stack, all players simultaneously reveal the bottom card of their stack, and the card with the highest face value wins (ace can be high or low, but must be agreed upon before the reveal). Ties in cutting the deck are resolved by cutting the deck again with all tying players, iteratively finding a winner.
These games are all played with the standard 52 card french deck.
Each player is dealt seven cards. The top card of the remaining cards is turned over, and the suit of this card is the "trump suit" for that round. Starting from the player left of the dealer, the players compete to win tricks, with the winner of each trick being the first player in the next.
If a player cannot follow suit, they may play a card of the trump suit. The highest card of the trump suit always wins the trick, irrespective of the original suit of the trick. Players may only play the trump suit if they cannot follow the *original suit*. Common strategies are therefore to get rid of a suit from your hand as fast as possible, to maximize the probability of being able to play trump cards.
After all seven cards have been played, the player with the most tricks scored wins that round (if there is a tie, cut the deck).
The cards are gathered, and placed at the bottom of the deck. The deck is never shuffled during the course of the game.
If, during any round, a player does not score a single trick, they are "knocked out" of the game, and do not participate in subsequent rounds of the game.
After this, six cards are dealt to the remaining players, and the winner of the previous round may, after seeing their cards, pick both the trump suit (which they announce to the other players), and start the round by playing the first card of the first trick.
The rounds continue, each time with one less card. All ties in determining the winner are determined by cutting the deck.
If not all players have been knocked out by the time only a single card is being dealt (at which stage there can only be a maximum of two players), the two cards are dealt face down on the table; the card of the winner of the previous round (always having been determined by cutting the deck) reveals first, followed by the second player. The suit of the first player is always the trump suit.