Card games for two players: Gin Rummy, Cribbage and more

What makes a good two-player card game

Most famous card games, such as Bridge, Hearts, Spades and Euchre, were built for four. With two, the deal stops working. The games that last for two people were designed for two from the start.

In a true two-player game every card you can't see is in one of two places: your opponent's hand or the pack. That makes these games personal. You watch what the other player picks up and throws away, and they watch you. A good game for two also moves quickly and keeps both players in it until the end.

Gin Rummy and Cribbage tick every box, which is why they are the two that Yuzool's Card Games plays for two.

Gin Rummy

Gin Rummy is the classic rummy game for two. Each player has ten cards and tries to arrange them into sets (three or four of the same rank, such as three sevens) and runs (three or more in a row in one suit, such as the 4, 5 and 6 of hearts). The cards that don't fit are your deadwood, and the lower it is the better.

How a game goes

1. Deal ten cards each. The next card is turned face up to start the discard pile, and the rest is the stock.
2. On your turn, take the top discard or the top card of the stock, then throw one card away.
3. Knock when your deadwood after discarding adds up to 10 or less. Court cards count 10, aces 1 and the rest their number. Lay your hand down; the other player lays theirs down and may add loose cards to your melds.
4. Score the difference between the two deadwood counts. With no deadwood at all you have gin: 25 points plus the other player's deadwood. If the other player ends with the same or less deadwood than you, that is an undercut, and they score the difference plus 25.
5. Deal again until someone reaches 100.

Why it suits two

Every discard is information. When the other player picks up the 8 of clubs you know they are collecting eights or clubs, so you stop throwing them. The knock gives the game its tension: knock early with 9 points and you may catch them holding a hand full of court cards, wait for gin and they may knock first.

How long it takes

A hand lasts a few minutes. A game to 100 usually takes 10 to 15 minutes on Yuzool, where the cards are shuffled and counted for you.

What to try first

• Throw away lone high cards early. An unmatched King is 10 points against you.
• Keep cards with two chances, such as 7♠ 7♦ 8♦, which any of four cards can finish.
• Knock as soon as you can in your first games. Waiting for gin is a habit for later.

On Yuzool your hand sorts itself into melds with the deadwood shown as you play, the game asks when a discard would let you knock, and a coach explains your first game a step at a time. The full rules are in How to play Gin Rummy.

Cribbage

Cribbage has been played in pubs and kitchens for nearly four hundred years. You score points for combinations of cards (fifteens, pairs and runs) and mark them by moving pegs along a board. The first to 121 wins.

How a game goes

1. Deal six cards each. Each player throws two face down into the crib, an extra hand that belongs to the dealer.
2. Turn up the starter. It counts as a fifth card for both hands and the crib. If it is a Jack, the dealer pegs 2.
3. The play. Take turns laying cards and calling the running total, which can't pass 31. Peg 2 for making exactly 15 or 31, 2 for a pair, and points for runs. If you can't play you say "go" and the other player pegs 1.
4. The show. Each player counts their four cards with the starter: 2 for every combination that adds up to 15, 2 for every pair, a point a card for runs, plus flushes and "one for his nob". Then the dealer counts the crib.
5. Deal changes sides every hand, and the game ends the moment someone reaches 121, even mid-hand.

Why it suits two

The crib makes every deal a small duel. When you deal, you throw good cards to the crib because it's yours; when the other player deals, you throw cards that won't help them. The play is a game of nerve over the count: leave the total at 21 and any ten-card gives your opponent 31.

How long it takes

A game to 121 takes 10 to 20 minutes on Yuzool, which counts every hand for you and lists each fifteen, pair and run. At a table, counting aloud, it takes a little longer.

What to try first

• Keep your fives. Sixteen cards in the pack count ten, so a five makes fifteen more often than any other card.
• Throw a pair or a five to your own crib, and wide, unhelpful cards (a King and a nine) to theirs.
• Lead a four or lower in the play, so your opponent can't make fifteen.

Yuzool draws the peg board and counts for you by default; when you know the scoring, Options lets you count your own hands, with muggins (points you miss go to the other player) if you dare. The full rules are in How to play Cribbage.

Gin Rummy or Cribbage: which to learn first

If you have never played either, start with Gin Rummy. The rules fit on a postcard and you will be thinking about tactics by the second hand. Move on to Cribbage when you want more to chew on: its scoring takes longer to learn, but that is exactly what makes it rewarding.

Playing on your own, and the four-player games

Card Games on Yuzool is you against house players: there is no way yet for two people to play each other, though play with friends is planned. In Gin Rummy and Cribbage you face one computer player at Easy (Dot), Medium (Nell) or Hard (Ada). Every house player is given only what a person in that seat could see, never your hand; the Hard players are stronger because they count the cards and think further ahead.

The other three games are four-player games, so on Yuzool the other three seats are house players and one person can play them alone:

• Hearts: four players, each for themselves. Avoid hearts and the Queen of spades, or take them all and shoot the moon.
• Spades: four players in two partnerships, bidding the tricks you will take. You sit opposite a house partner.
• Euchre: four players in two partnerships with a short pack, trumps and bowers. A game to 10 takes 5 to 10 minutes.

Two-player versions of these exist, with changed deals, but they play quite differently from the real thing. All five games are free against the Easy and Medium players, with no ads and no account. Card Games Pro, a one-time $1.99 upgrade, adds the Hard players, rule options (such as Oklahoma gin, or Cribbage's short game to 61), full statistics and extra card backs and tables.

Other classic card games for two

These are all fine games for two people with a pack of cards. Yuzool doesn't have any of them; they are here so you know where to look next.

• Spite and Malice. A race between two players, each with a pile of cards to get rid of. You play onto shared piles that are built up from ace to Queen, with Kings wild, and can park cards on your own discard piles to use later. It is usually played with two packs.
• Speed. No turns at all: both players play at once, slapping cards onto two piles in the middle, one rank above or below the top card. The first to empty their hand wins.
• Casino. A fishing game. Four cards lie face up on the table and you capture them with a card from your hand by matching a rank or making a sum. Points go to the most cards, the most spades, the aces, the 10 of diamonds ("big casino") and the 2 of spades ("little casino").
• Bezique. A 19th-century trick-taking game with a 64-card pack (two packs with the twos to sixes taken out). You score mostly by declaring melds, such as a King and Queen of one suit, or the Queen of spades with the Jack of diamonds, which is the bezique itself.
• Piquet. One of the oldest card games for two, with a 32-card pack. Each hand starts with declarations of your longest suit, best sequence and sets, then twelve tricks are played.
• German Whist. Whist for two. You play thirteen tricks for the cards in the stock (the winner of each trick takes the face-up top card), then thirteen more with the hands you built. A good way to learn trick-taking.
• Crazy Eights. A simple shedding game for two or more: match the suit or rank of the top card, and eights are wild. Good with children.

If you like playing alone too, Yuzool's Solitaire has Klondike, Spider, FreeCell and Mahjong solitaire, all free.