Fun Family Card Games

If you have young children in the group, "Go Fish" is one of the best family card games to introduce to your kids. Playing card games together as a family is a great way to have fun and have a learning experience at the same time. 

Go Fish Card Games
Each player is dealt five cards. The remaining cards are placed (face down) in a pile to use as draw cards.

Each player arranges, either literally or mentally, his or her hand according to groups of numbers.

The first player to the left of the dealer starts by asking one of the other participants if he or she has a specific card. For example, the player may say, "John, do you have any 2's?" However, the player asking must already have at least one two in his or her hand before asking for that number. If John has at least one two, he must then turn over his 2's to the player. The player is then able to ask another participant for 2's or another number from John.

If John doesn't have any 2's, he tells the player "go fish" and the player takes a card from the draw pile. If the player draws the card for which the player was looking (in this case a 2), the player can have another turn. Otherwise, the next player to the left gets to go fishing.

Whenever a player gets four of a kind, or a "book," the player must show the four cards to the other participants and then places them together (face down) on the table.

A game can end in two ways. First, if a player runs out of cards, that player wins.  However, if the game runs until there is no more draw cards left, the person with the most books wins.

This game works best with three to six players.

Go Fish has several variations. One variation is to consider books to be pairs instead of four of a kind. Another variation is to ask for a specific card, such as the two of diamonds. For a faster game, the player can ask all of the participants for 2's instead of just one individual.

Have fun fishing for numbers!