Card Game Glossary

The words card players use without explaining them: what a trick is, when you can ruff, what makes a run pure and why deadwood matters. Each entry links to the games on APE9 where the term comes up, so you can see it in action.

General terms

Deal: Handing out cards to the players at the start of a hand. On APE9 every deal is shuffled with a seeded random number generator, so a deal can be replayed exactly to verify a score.
Hand: Both the cards a player holds and one complete round of play, from the deal until the cards are collected again.
Suit: One of the four groups of a standard deck: spades, hearts, diamonds and clubs. Hearts and diamonds are red, spades and clubs black.
Rank: The value of a card within its suit, from Ace through 2 to King. Some games treat the Ace as high, others as low, and some allow both.
Wild card: A card that can stand in for another card. Twos and jokers are wild in Canasta, eights in Crazy Eights, and Indian Rummy and Marriage choose their wild cards from a cut card. Seen in: Canasta, Crazy Eights, Indian Rummy, Marriage.
Joker: An extra card outside the four suits. Canasta and Indian Rummy use printed jokers as wild cards, and Bid Whist uses two jokers as the highest trumps. Seen in: Canasta, Indian Rummy, Bid Whist.
Stock: The face-down pile of undealt cards that players draw from during the game. Seen in: Klondike, Gin Rummy, Crazy Eights.
Discard pile: The face-up pile where players throw unwanted cards. In many rummy games taking from it is a key decision. Seen in: Gin Rummy, Rummy 500, Canasta.
Shedding game: A game where the goal is to get rid of all your cards first, such as Crazy Eights, Durak or President. Seen in: Crazy Eights, Durak, President, Rainbow Rush.

Trick-taking

Trick: One round in which each player plays a single card; the highest card wins all of them. Trick-taking games are scored on the tricks you win, or the points inside them. Seen in: Whist, Spades, Hearts.
Lead: To play the first card of a trick. Everyone else must usually follow the suit that was led. Seen in: Whist, Hearts.
Follow suit: To play a card of the same suit as the card that was led. In almost every trick-taking game you must follow suit if you can. Seen in: Whist, Spades, Callbreak.
Trump: A suit that beats every other suit. Spades are always trump in Spades and Callbreak; in Whist the last card dealt decides it, and in Euchre and Bid Whist players choose it. Seen in: Spades, Callbreak, Whist, Euchre.
Void: Having no cards of a suit. Being void lets you trump (or discard) when that suit is led, so players often try to void a short suit early. Seen in: Hearts, Spades, Callbreak.
Ruff: To play a trump on a trick when you cannot follow suit. In Callbreak you must ruff with a spade when you are void in the suit led. Seen in: Callbreak, Spades.
Bid: A declaration of how many tricks (or points) you expect to win. Spades, Callbreak, Oh Hell and Bid Whist all start with bidding. Seen in: Spades, Callbreak, Oh Hell!, Bid Whist.
Nil: A Spades bid of zero tricks. It wins 100 points if you take no tricks and loses 100 if you take any. Seen in: Spades.
Bags: Overtricks in Spades: tricks won beyond your side's bid. Each scores one point, but every ten bags costs 100 points. Seen in: Spades.
Shooting the moon: Taking all 26 penalty points in Hearts. Instead of scoring them yourself, every other player gets 26. Seen in: Hearts.
Bower: The two highest trumps in Euchre: the Jack of the trump suit (right bower) and the other Jack of the same colour (left bower). Seen in: Euchre.
Euchre (euchred): When the side that chose trump in Euchre fails to win at least three tricks. The defenders score 2 points. Seen in: Euchre.
Kitty: Extra cards dealt face down to the middle. In Bid Whist the winning bidder takes the six-card kitty and then discards six. Seen in: Bid Whist.
Uptown and Downtown: Bid Whist contracts that set the card order: Uptown plays Ace high, Downtown makes the low cards strongest. Seen in: Bid Whist.

Rummy

Meld: A group of cards that scores or counts as matched: usually a set or a run. In some games melds are laid on the table, in others they stay in your hand. Seen in: Gin Rummy, Rummy 500, Canasta.
Set: Three or four cards of the same rank, such as three Sevens. Seen in: Gin Rummy, Rummy 500, Indian Rummy.
Run (sequence): Three or more cards of the same suit in order, such as 4-5-6 of hearts. Seen in: Gin Rummy, Rummy 500, Indian Rummy.
Pure sequence: A run made without any joker or wild card. Indian Rummy needs at least one to show, and Marriage needs three to open. Seen in: Indian Rummy, Marriage.
Deadwood: Cards in your hand that are not part of any meld. In Gin Rummy you knock when your deadwood totals 10 or less. Seen in: Gin Rummy, Indian Rummy.
Knock: To end a Gin Rummy hand when your deadwood is 10 points or less. The opponent may then lay off cards on your melds. Seen in: Gin Rummy.
Gin: Ending a Gin Rummy hand with no deadwood at all. It scores a 25-point bonus and the opponent cannot lay off. Seen in: Gin Rummy.
Undercut: When the opponent of the player who knocked in Gin Rummy has equal or less deadwood. They score a bonus instead of the knocker. Seen in: Gin Rummy.
Lay off: Adding a card from your hand to a meld already on the table, either your own or another player's. Seen in: Gin Rummy, Rummy 500.
Canasta: A meld of seven or more cards of one rank in the game of the same name: 500 points if natural, 300 if it contains wild cards. Seen in: Canasta.
Tiplu and Maal: In Marriage the Tiplu is the wild card set by the cut. Together with related cards (Poplu, Jhiplu and Alter) it forms the Maal, which scores and acts as wild once you have opened. Seen in: Marriage.

Solitaire

Tableau: The main layout of columns in a solitaire game, where most of the moves happen. Seen in: Klondike, FreeCell, Spider.
Foundation: The piles where cards are built up by suit, usually from Ace to King. Filling all of them wins the game. Seen in: Klondike, FreeCell.
Waste: The face-up pile that stock cards are turned onto. Its top card is available to play. Seen in: Klondike, Pyramid, Tri-Peaks.
Free cell: One of four spaces in FreeCell that can each hold a single card while you rearrange the tableau. Seen in: FreeCell.
Draw 1 and draw 3: Klondike options for how many stock cards are turned at once. Draw 3 only lets you play the top card, which makes it harder. Seen in: Klondike.

Casino and scoring games

Community cards: Cards dealt face up in the middle in Texas Hold'em that every player combines with their own two hole cards. Seen in: Texas Hold'em.
Blinds: Forced bets in Texas Hold'em posted before the cards are dealt (10 and 20 chips on APE9), so every pot is worth fighting for. They move round the table with the dealer button. Seen in: Texas Hold'em.
Blackjack (natural): An Ace and a ten-valued card as your first two cards, worth 21. It pays 3 to 2. Seen in: Blackjack.
Crib: The extra hand in Cribbage built from the cards each player discards. It is scored for the dealer. Seen in: Cribbage.
Fifteen: In Cribbage, any combination of cards that adds up to 15 scores 2 points, during play and when counting hands. Seen in: Cribbage.
Book: Four cards of the same rank in Go Fish. The player with the most books at the end wins. Seen in: Go Fish.

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