by Kim Park

Created on: August 07, 2008   Last Updated: May 24, 2012

There are two basic types of two-player card games: skill based and speed based. I love both but find that I play the skill ones more with my partner and the speed ones with my friends. It's harder to have a conversation and catch-up on your day when you're trying to play cards as fast as possible.

This is of course one other category, the luck based game, such as War, another popular two-player game, but I prefer either skill or speed based games as I will be highlighting here.

My favourite two-player, skill based card games would have to be Cribbage and Uno, although there are many others.

Cribbage is a game appropriate for any age and any time. It is an easy game to play but can take time to really learn and develop strategies. A game can last for as long as your want because you can either play until one of you wins the first game or best 2 of 3 or, as some boards give you the option, until one person wins 7 times. To learn how to play cribbage (in case you don't already know) please read my article How to Play Cribbage: http://www.helium.com/knowledge/146903-how-to-play-c ribbage

Playing Uno with two people is just like playing with a crowd except that all the "Skip a Turn", "Change Direction" and "Pick-up Two" cards act as a "Go Again" type card because they skip the other player's turn, meaning you go again. Another great thing about Uno is it can last as long as you like because you can either play until a certain number of hands has been won or you can keep score and play until 500 or more.

My favourite speed based card games for two people to play would have to be Double Solitaire and Spit.

Double solitaire is pretty much what it sounds like; you play solitaire but double it. For this game you will need two decks of cards, one for each player. Each player will shuffle and deal out their cards as they would a normal game of solitaire. The only difference with Double Solitaire and normal solitaire is that the aces are shared. This means it doesn't matter if Player 1 puts up an ace, Player 2 can then put up their two. This makes the game almost impossible to put up all your cards and normally the game ends when both players get stuck and cannot not make another move. In this case, the player that put up the most cards would win.

Spit is the most intense two-player game I know. Before you start playing this game make sure you have lots of time because it has the tendency to keep you playing late into the night. You'll only need one deck of cards for this game

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