The standard 52 deck of cards is incredibly flexible. You can play, quite literally, hundreds of games with it – Alone, in a pair, a triplet, or in four. However, not all card games are created equal. Some favour a head to head experience, some can only be played in three. Today we are going to look at some of the best 4 player card games that are designed to be specifically for four people. A common theme of 4 player games is a two versus two team based approach, so we will include some games of that nature, but also some stand-alone card games where it is best player wins!
Table of Contents
- 4 Player Card Games with Teams
- 4 Player Card Games with 1 Deck for Solo play
- 4 Player Italian Card Games
- Summing up 4 Player Card Games
4 Player Card Games with Teams
Contract Bridge
Bridge is the quintessential four player card game and a must-know if you are looking for any sort of team based game. While it only requires one deck of cards, typically a second set is shuffled by the partner of the dealer ready for the next round – it is very much a carousel of card playing.
Bridge is an incredibly tactical game based around bidding to determine the Trump Suit. The suits rank in the following order when bidding: Spades>Hearts>Diamonds>Clubs. This means that if someone bid 1 Club, it could be challenged by 1 Spade, but the reverse, 1 Spade, would have to be challenged by 2 Clubs.
When a player Bids they are claiming they will complete six tricks, plus the number they are bidding. For example, a player that bids 3 Heart is betting they will complete nine tricks. Bids can be raised and re-raised according to the suit’s strength – bidding no Trump is also an option, but should be done only when you have very strong hands. After this, the game plays in a typical trick taking manner with the player who won the last trick playing first on the next hand and so forth.
At the end of the round points are given to the winners if they completed their bid or to the losers if the bidders did not win. Scoring is incredibly complicated with many rules, bonuses and penalties, a good place to check them out is here.
Whist
In the 18th and 19th centuries Whist was by far the most popular game in English-Speaking nations until it was succeeded by Bridge which we have just discussed. The game plays quite similarity to Bridge – its nature as a trick taking game, however its far simpler and this is partly why Bridge overtook it in popularity. Instead of bidding for the trump, the last card the dealer deals is flipped face up to determine suit. Then as the first hand plays, the dealer puts this card back into their hand. There is obviously a slight disadvantage to the dealer as the whole table now knows one card in his hand.
Points are given for every trick taken after 6, for example, 7 tricks would net you 1 point. The game is first to 5 and can be incredibly quick or a marathon depending on how the first few hands go.
Euchre
There are a few different variations on deck sizes when it comes to Euchre, but typically you will be playing with 24 cards, the Ace as high through to the 9 of each suit.
Players are dealt 5 cards each with four left to the side. The side deck’s top card is turned over to reveal a card. The player to the left of the dealer can either call this new card as the trump or pass; if the whole table passes back to the first caller they can pick any trump.
If the first player does choose to pick the face up trump card, the dealer must pick that card up and discard one card from their hand faced down.
It is an interesting game because the card rank of the trumps changes with each new round. If the trump is Spades, for example, the Jack of Spades becomes the highest ranked card (not the ace) the same coloured off suit Jack, the Jack of Clubs then becomes the second highest ranked card.
The game is split into Attackers and Defenders. The team that called the trump are called the defenders. Defenders essentially get double the points that attackers get for the same number of tricks taken.
| Attackers | Defenders | |
| 3/4 Tricks | 1 Point | 2 Points |
| 5 Tricks | 2 Points | 4 Points |
The first team to score 10 points wins!
4 Player Card Games with 1 Deck for Solo play
Hearts
You might recognise Hearts as for a time, since 2008, it came pre-installed on Microsoft windows PCs. It differs from a lot of games on this list because rather than trying to take tricks you are actually trying to avoid them.
The aim of this game is to finish the round with the least number of points as possible. Points are gained for winning tricks with the Queen of Spades and any hearts – they are scored by the following points:
| Suit | Card | Points |
| Spades | Queen | 50 |
| Heart | Ace | 15 |
| Heart | King | 10 |
| Heart | Queen | 10 |
| Heart | Jack | 10 |
| Heart | 10 | 10 |
| Heart | 9 | 5 |
| Heart | 8 | 5 |
| Heart | 7 | 5 |
| Heart | 6 | 5 |
| Heart | 5 | 5 |
| Heart | 4 | 5 |
| Heart | 3 | 5 |
| Heart | 2 | 5 |
Therefore, in any given trick you are trying to use your lowest ranked card of that suit to avoid winning the suit.
Some variations, like Black Lady, allow you to pass three cards to your opponents at the beginning of games. On the first round to the left; on the second, to the right, and on the third across the table.
4 Player Rummy
Now, some of you may be surprised, but yes, it is possible to play 4 player Rummy. It is one of those games that does not really have a maximum number of players. It plays similarly to a 2 player game, but in a 4 player game of Rummy, players can have a maximum of 7 cards in their hands instead of 10.
Each turn players must draw from the deck and discard in the attempt to be left with any combination of 3 or 4 of a kind or 3 or 4 in sequence of the same suit.
4 Player Italian Card Games
We actually wrote an article dedicated to Italian Card Games that you can find here – Notable card games here include Machiavelli, Buracco, Briscola and Scopone. It does not make sense for us to repeat the same stuff twice in this article, so please feel free to check it out it you are interested.
Summing up 4 Player Card Games
4 Player Card Games are good fun when you have the right numbers. A couple of games on this list can also be played with fewer than 4 players – Bridge, for example, can be played in three, but it is better experience when played with the correct numbers. At the end of the day, why try to play 4 player card games if you do not have four players? We hope you have learnt something today, we appreciate sometimes it is hard to understand through words alone, so we advise checking out some video resources too – good luck card gaming!
