Card Game Glossary
Card games borrow a lot of vocabulary, and the same word can mean different things from one game to the next. These 47 terms are the ones you will meet on QuickCardGames, explained in plain language and linked to the games where each one matters.
Use it to get ready for a game you have never played, or to settle an argument about what a word means. When you are ready, pick something from the easy card games or compare two games side by side on the comparison pages.
A
Attacker and defender
In Durak, the attacker leads a card and the defender must beat it with a higher card of the same suit or with a trump. If the defender cannot, they pick up every card on the table.
Comes up in: Durak
B
Bag
In Spades, a trick your team wins beyond its bid. Bags add a point each, but every ten you collect cost the team 100 points, so overbidding low is not free.
Comes up in: Spades
Bid
A promise about how many tricks you will win, made before the first card is led. Making the bid scores; missing it costs points or scores nothing, depending on the game.
Comes up in: Bid Whist, Oh Hell!, Spades
Blinds
Forced bets that two players post before the cards are dealt, so there is always something in the pot to play for. The blinds move round the table each hand.
Comes up in: Texas Hold'em
Bluff
Making a claim you know is false, such as saying face-down cards are Kings when they are not, in the hope that nobody challenges you.
Comes up in: Cheat, Texas Hold'em
Book
A complete set of four cards of the same rank. In Go Fish you collect books, and the player with the most books at the end wins.
Comes up in: Go Fish
Bower
In Euchre, the two highest cards in the game: the Jack of the trump suit (the right bower) and the other Jack of the same colour (the left bower).
Comes up in: Euchre
C
Canasta
A meld of seven or more cards of the same rank. A natural canasta, with no wild cards, is worth 500 points and a mixed one 300, and your side needs one before it can go out.
Comes up in: Canasta
Climbing game
A game where each play must beat the one before it, usually with the same number of cards of a higher rank, until everyone else passes and the last player to play starts afresh.
Comes up in: President
Community cards
Cards dealt face up in the middle of the table that every player can use. In Texas Hold'em you combine them with your two private cards to make the best five-card hand.
Comes up in: Texas Hold'em
Crib
In Cribbage, an extra hand built from cards that every player discards. It belongs to the dealer, who counts it after their own hand.
Comes up in: Cribbage
D
Deadwood
In Gin Rummy, the cards in your hand that are not part of any meld. Their point values are counted against you, and you can only knock when your deadwood is 10 or less.
Comes up in: Gin Rummy
Dealer
The player who shuffles and deals for the current hand. The job passes round the table, and in many games the dealer also acts last or has special duties, such as the Euchre dealer picking up the turned card.
Comes up in: Blackjack, Cribbage, Euchre, Gin Rummy, Texas Hold'em, Oh Hell!, Whist
Discard pile
The face-up pile where played and thrown-away cards go. In rummy games you can draw from it, and in shedding games its top card decides what you are allowed to play next.
Comes up in: Crazy Eights, Rainbow Rush, Gin Rummy, Rummy 500, Canasta
Double down
In Blackjack, doubling your bet in return for exactly one more card. It is strongest on a total of 10 or 11 against a weak dealer card.
Comes up in: Blackjack
F
Follow suit
Playing a card of the suit that was led, if you have one. Only when you cannot follow suit are you free to play anything else, including a trump.
Comes up in: Hearts, Spades, Euchre, Whist, Oh Hell!, Bid Whist, Bhabhi
Foundation
In solitaire, a pile that you build upward by suit from the Ace to the King. Getting every card onto the foundations is how most solitaire games are won.
Comes up in: Canfield, Forty Thieves, FreeCell, Klondike, Spider, Yukon
Free cell
In FreeCell, one of four spaces that can each hold a single card for as long as you need. The more free cells and empty columns you have, the longer a sequence you can move at once.
Comes up in: FreeCell
G
Gin
In Gin Rummy, a hand where every card belongs to a meld, leaving no deadwood. Going gin earns a bonus and your opponent cannot lay off cards on your melds.
Comes up in: Gin Rummy
H
Hand
Has two meanings: the cards you are holding, and one complete round of play from the deal to the scoring. Games are usually played over several hands.
Comes up in: Every game on the site.
Hit and stand
In Blackjack, to hit is to take another card and to stand is to stop and keep your total. You can hit as often as you like until you stand or go over 21.
Comes up in: Blackjack
K
Kitty
A few cards dealt face down to the side. In Bid Whist the highest bidder picks up the six-card kitty and then discards six cards before play begins.
Comes up in: Bid Whist
Knock
In Gin Rummy, to end the hand by laying down your melds when your deadwood is 10 points or less. Your opponent then gets a chance to lay off cards or undercut you.
Comes up in: Gin Rummy
L
Lay off
Adding a card to a meld that is already on the table, including your opponent's, so that it no longer counts against you in your hand.
Comes up in: Gin Rummy, Rummy 500
Lead
To play the first card of a trick. The suit of the card led is the suit everyone else has to follow if they can.
Comes up in: Hearts, Spades, Euchre, Whist, Oh Hell!, Bid Whist, Bhabhi, President
M
Meld
A valid group of cards laid on the table: either a set of one rank or a run in one suit. To meld is to lay one down, and cards left unmelded usually count against you.
Comes up in: Canasta, Gin Rummy, Rummy 500
N
Nil
In Spades, a bid to win no tricks at all. It pays 100 points if you succeed and costs 100 if you take even one trick.
Comes up in: Spades
P
Pair
Two cards of the same rank. Pairs are removed in Old Maid, matched in Memory, and scored in Cribbage and poker.
Comes up in: Old Maid, Memory, Cribbage, Texas Hold'em, Blackjack, Hazari, President
Partnership
Fixed teams of two, usually with partners sitting opposite one another. Your tricks and points are added together, so you win or lose as a team.
Comes up in: Spades, Euchre, Whist, Bid Whist, Canasta
Pegging
Scoring in Cribbage by moving pegs along the board. Points come during the play, for reaching 15 or 31, pairs and runs, and then in the show, for the hands and the crib.
Comes up in: Cribbage
Position
Where you sit in the order of play relative to the dealer. In poker, acting later lets you see what others do first, which is a real advantage.
Comes up in: Texas Hold'em
Pot
The chips that every player has bet in a poker hand. The player with the best hand at the showdown, or the last one left, takes it.
Comes up in: Texas Hold'em
R
Rank
The value of a card, independent of its suit: Ace, 2 to 10, Jack, Queen and King. Which rank is highest depends on the game, and the Ace can be high, low or both.
Comes up in: Every game on the site.
Run
Three or more cards in a row, such as 5-6-7. In the rummy games a run has to be in a single suit, and in Spider a run of one suit from King to Ace is removed from the table.
Comes up in: Gin Rummy, Rummy 500, Cribbage, Hazari, Klondike, Spider
S
Set
Three or four cards of the same rank in different suits, such as three Kings. In the rummy games it is one of the two kinds of meld, alongside a run.
Comes up in: Gin Rummy, Rummy 500, Canasta
Shedding game
A game where the aim is to be the first to get rid of every card in your hand. Crazy Eights, President and Cheat are all shedding games.
Comes up in: Bhabhi, Cheat, Crazy Eights, Durak, President, Rainbow Rush
Shooting the moon
In Hearts, taking every heart and the Queen of Spades in one hand. The player who manages it scores nothing and everyone else takes 26 points.
Comes up in: Hearts
Stock
The face-down pile you draw from. In solitaire you turn stock cards onto the waste when you run out of moves, and in rummy and shedding games it is where you draw each turn.
Comes up in: Canasta, Canfield, Crazy Eights, Durak, Forty Thieves, Gin Rummy, Golf, Klondike, Pyramid, Rummy 500, Snap, Spider, Tri-Peaks, Yukon
Suit
One of the four groups in a deck: spades, hearts, diamonds and clubs. Spades and clubs are black, hearts and diamonds are red, and many games depend on matching them.
Comes up in: Every game on the site.
T
Tableau
The main playing area of a solitaire game, usually columns of cards that you build on and move between. Klondike, Yukon and Canfield all have a tableau.
Comes up in: Klondike, Yukon, Canfield, FreeCell, Forty Thieves, Spider
Thulla
In Bhabhi, a card you throw when you cannot follow suit. It ends the trick on the spot and the player with the highest card of the led suit picks up everything.
Comes up in: Bhabhi
Trick
One round of a trick-taking game, in which each player plays one card and the highest card (or highest trump) wins all of them. Most of these games are won by how many tricks you take, or avoid.
Comes up in: Bhabhi, Bid Whist, Euchre, Hazari, Hearts, Oh Hell!, President, Spades, Whist
Trump
A suit that outranks all the others for the hand. A trump card beats any card of a non-trump suit, so holding trumps is usually the key to winning tricks.
Comes up in: Bid Whist, Durak, Euchre, Oh Hell!, Spades, Whist
U
Undercut
In Gin Rummy, when you knock but your opponent's deadwood turns out to be equal to or lower than yours. They score a bonus instead of you.
Comes up in: Gin Rummy
V
Void
Having no cards at all in a suit. A void lets you discard or trump when that suit is led, and tracking who is void is a big part of trick-taking strategy.
Comes up in: Hearts, Spades, Euchre, Whist, Oh Hell!, Bid Whist, Bhabhi
W
Waste pile
In solitaire, the pile that cards from the stock are turned onto. Usually only the top waste card can be played.
Comes up in: Klondike, Golf, Tri-Peaks, Pyramid, Forty Thieves, Canfield
Wild card
A card that can stand in for any other, or that lets you choose what comes next. Eights in Crazy Eights, twos and jokers in Canasta and the Wild cards in Rainbow Rush all work this way.
Comes up in: Canasta, Crazy Eights, Rainbow Rush