Playing Cards Making Memories
Baby it's cold outside. This winter has been a tough one and shows no sign of letting up anytime soon. We have used quite the number of calamity days or snow days. The kids have been off of school and looking for something to do to entertain themselves. I thought this would be a good time to blog about a cheap, easy, fun way to keep the family occupied to cure a case of cabin fever. We love to play cards as a family. I think it is great way to bond with the kids and make memories. We laugh together, talk about anything and everything and the kids really love it.
I told you this would be a cheap way to cure cabin fever it costs the price of a deck of cards.
We like to play all kind of card games, Uno, Skip Bo, Bolgona (the kids friendly name for Bull Sh*t), Gin Rummy, Rummy (yes there is a difference), Go Fish. However there is a card game that is a family tradition.
We call it Blitz. My great-grandparents played this at their house with my Grandmother and her siblings and all of their spouses. My grandparents played it with us on Christmas. Now my Mom plays it with me and my siblings, our spouses and kids. My great-grandparents played for pennies and nickles. My grandparents played with quarters and now we play for dollars or nothing. Over the years the stakes of the game have changed but the rules of the game have stayed the same.
Here are the rules to play Blitz.
Blitz
You use a regular 52 card deck of cards. There needs to be at least 2 players. The more players the more fun you will have. Now here is the goal of the game to reach 31 points in the same suit. If you get 31 of the same suit you call out blitz. It doesn't happen very often but when it does it is really exciting.
Aces are valued at 11 points
King, Queen, Jack are all 10 points each.
The rest of the deck is taken at its face value.
Each player should start off with 4 quarters or chips in front of them. This is a way of keeping track how many "lives" you have left in the game.
Each player is dealt 3 cards. Don't show anyone else your cards. After each player has 3 cards the dealer then should lift the next card face up and next to the pile of the remaining deck. The person to the dealers left goes first and continue with the next person to the left of that player. Remember to rotate dealers to the left with each hand dealt.
The person going first needs to decide what suit they are going to collect. An example if you had this hand you would collect hearts.
If you had this hand you would collect spades even though there are 2 diamond cards. The reason is because the spades card is a higher value card than the combination of the 2 hearts cards. If the person before you tosses out an ace of diamonds you would change to collecting diamonds because you have a higher number than the 10 of spades.
The person to the dealers left goes first and decides to take from the deck or the top card and then discards. The next player to that players left must decide to take from the deck or the last card discarded. You can only take the top card not one previously discarded by a player a few picks before. Example:
You could only us take the 2 not the 10 underneath it.
If you pick up the card off of the pile you can not discard it. However if you pick up from the deck you can discard it.
If you have 21 or more of the same suit you can KNOCK. This means that you actually knock on the table when it is your turn next. You have to knock before you take a card and once you knock you can NOT take a card. What happens then is everyone else around the table has one last turn to get their cards as high as possible before everyone turns their cards over and shares what they were collecting and how high their number is. If you knock when you get 21 if the game has gone around the table a few times you may get eliminated yourself because it could be the lowest number. The person with the lowest number puts a quarter into the center. Once you loss all of your quarters you have 1 free ride. Meaning you can ride free and win the entire game as long as your not the one with the lowest number when someone knocks. You are eliminated from the game once you run out of quarters/life and you lost while riding free.
What happens when someone calls BLITZ? Everyone but that person losses a quarter/life. When can you call Blitz? As soon you are dealt it or if you pick up a card that gives you Blitz. However if you get 31 after someone has knocked you can't call Blitz nor will everyone lose a life.
The last person who has a quarter or hasn't lost while riding free is the winner.
The more people you have the longer the game will go on.
I promise you will laugh and have a great time with your family.
Your kids will remember this much more than playing a video game while you are off doing something else.
Our kids love playing cards with us.
I hope you have a great time playing with your kids. I hope this is something you can do as a family to stay busy during those cold days. I also hope your family has as much as mine does playing this game, it is family tradition that has brought us so many great memories.
What card games do you play as a family?
Thanks for stopping by.
Mrs. Fife
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