Free card games, properly explained

Thirty classic games you can play immediately in a browser — and, next to each one, a written guide good enough to actually learn the game from.

Most places that host free card games treat the rules as an afterthought: a bulleted list, four lines long, assuming you already know how to play. That has always seemed backwards. The games on this site are old — Cribbage is nearly four centuries old, Backgammon considerably older — and they are interesting partly because of how they work and where they came from. So every game here gets a real page: the complete rules written so a beginner can learn from them, the tactics that separate a decent player from a bad one, the regional variants worth knowing, and an honest account of the game’s history.

The games themselves are free, run in the browser, and need no account, no download and no plugin. They work on a phone. There is no sign-up wall, no timer counting down to a paywall, and nothing to install.

The collection leans towards the classics rather than novelties: the seven patience games worth playing, the five great trick-taking games, the rummy family, a handful of two-player games, the board games everyone half-knows, and three solo puzzles. If you know what you want, the categories below will get you there. If you don’t, start with FreeCell — nearly every deal is winnable, which makes it the best introduction to thinking properly about a card game.

Browse by family

Seven categories, thirty games. Each category page explains what actually defines that family of games and which one to learn first.