Guessing Games
This is a collection of invented games contributed by readers of pagat.com which are based on guessing the identity of an unknown card or cards. On this page you will find the rules of some very simple games where the guesser has essentially no information about the unknown card.
On other pages you can find more elaborate games in which the players can gather some evidence about the unknown cards before making their guess.
There are also a few traditional card games in which the primary objective is to remember, deduce or guess the locations of cards:
Water Sharks
Contributed by Ashleigh Welko and Emily Furillo
Each player is dealt ten cards from the deck. Five of them are placed face down in a row in front of the player, while the other cards are held in the hand. The players look at the cards in their hands.
The players then place each card face up under a card in the row and either slightly above or below, depending on whether they think that the card is higher or lower then the card in the row. For example, if there was a queen in your hand, it would be wise to guess that that card was higher than the one lying face down over it. In this game, aces are the lowest card and kings are the highest.
Whoever gets the most correct guesses wins. In case of a tie, each player is dealt four cards, two for their hand and two in a row. If the tie is still not broken the players go down to two cards. This is repeated until a winner is decided.
Guess That Card
Contributed by Nick Harrison ; Big Al and Mank Kris helped to invent the game.
The top card of the deck is taken and placed face down in the centre of the table. Each player then draws a card from the fanned out deck and doesn't show it to any opponent. Betting then commences in a poker style manner, until the bet has been called. The identity of the mystery card is then revealed and the player with the card closest in the deck wins.
If the cards are equally close, the card that is lower than the hidden card beats the one that is higher. For example if the hidden card is a nine, then eight beats ten, which beats seven, which beats jack, and so on. Aces are always high.
In the event of a tie, the player with the correct colour of card is the winner - so if the mystery card is 
2, 
3 beats 
3. If in the unlikely event of both players having the same colour card, e.g. mystery card is 2, players possess 
2 and 2, the winner is decided through a game of Rock, Paper, Scissors best of 3.
Lucky-o
A solitaire game, contributed by Justin Huneke
Lucky-o is a solitaire game I created on one boring test day at school. It is played with a 52 card deck + 2 jokers. It is a 1 player game, hence the word solitaire. It is simply a game of how lucky you really are.
Shuffle the deck and place it face down. Say a suit then draw the top card off the face down pile. If it is the suit you called, place it in one pile face up. If it is not the suit you called, place it in a second pile face down.
If you really feel lucky, name a card value and draw from the deck. If you guessed right, take that card and the top card of the face down pile and place them in the face up pile.
Never announce a joker because when they come up, they automatically get turned in the face up pile.
Do this until all cards are gone from the deck. The game then ends. Count your face up cards.
Here is a chart. The higher the number of cards face up in the face up pile determines how lucky you are:
| 2-10 cards: | Mr. O’Luckless |
|---|---|
| 10-20 cards: | Mr. O’QuiteLucky |
| 20-30 cards: | Mr. O’Lucky |
| 30-40 cards: | Mr. O’BoveLucky |
| 40-51 cards: | Mr. O’Lucky-o |
| All cards in the face up pile: | Mr. O’Cheater |
Yeah that’s right. If you have all cards in the face up pile, you cheated! You can only fool others, but you can never fool yourself!
Feeling Lucky? Then play Lucky-o! It’s a jolly o’ good lucky time!
Enjoy!
Blackwidowstar
Contributed by Joseph Smith
This game for one player requires a lot of time and patience. It is supposed to help you become more patient.
Required for Game Play: 52 Card Standard Deck
Object of The Game: Guess which suit will have the highest card on the last draw (you must guess it right to win).
Gameplay:
First you take the two (2) of every suit out of the deck and lay them on a flat surface (like a table) face-up beside each other (spread them out so that they don't get crammed up). Then shuffle the remaining 48-card deck, place it face down, and guess which suit will have the highest card on the last draw.
Next you draw cards from the top of the deck, one at a time, and place each card on the pile started by the two of the matching suit. You keep doing this until you run out of cards in the face down deck.
Now look at the cards on top of the four piles. If you guessed right which would be highest, then you win. If two (or more) piles have equal highest cards on top, remove those top cards. Repeat if necessary until there is a single winning pile with the highest card on top.
It is good to practice this "Art of Patience" at least one, two or three times a day.
Right or Wrong
Contributed by William Malloy
This game is for one player [using a standard 52-card pack].
First take four cards and deal them face down in a row. Then take another four cards and deal them face up on top of the first four. Finally deal four more cards face down on top of the face up cards. [You now have four stacks of three cards, each of which should be overlapped so that you can see the rank of the face up card.]
Now pick one of the face down cards, that is either below or above a face up card.
- If you pick the card above and it is higher than the face up card you score one point; if it is lower you lose a point.
- If you pick the card below and it is lower than the face up card you score one point; if it is higher you lose a point.
- If the card you pick is equal to the face up card you neither win nor lose, unless both are aces, in which case you can win by counting one as high and the other as low (see below).
Then gather up all the cards, shuffle, deal again and repeat the process. The game goes on until you have scored 20 points, at which point you win.
When comparing cards, Aces count as 1 or 14 (your choice), kings 13, queens 12, jacks 11, 2-10 face value.
Color Game
Contributed by Npomfrey53 who writes: "I work in a elderly home in the activities department. They love this card game."
This very simple game uses a standard 52-card deck (no Jokers) and works well for 4 players or more, plus a non-playing dealer. The dealer Shuffles the cards, holds them face down, goes to each player in turn and asks them whether the top card of the deck is black or red. If they guess the right color, they are given the card to keep, but if they are wrong the dealer moves the card to the bottom of the deck face up. This continues until all the cards have been guessed, rightly or wrongly. The player who has most cards (because they made most correct guesses) is the winner.
With a number of players other than 4 it is fair to give each player an equal number of guesses, to there will be a few face down cards left in the deck, for example 2 cards left over after 5 players have had 10 guesses each.
Note. A player who keeps track of how many cards of each color have so far appeared can get an advantage by always guessing the color of which more cards remain.