About this puzzle
A large print crossword about the card table: shuffling the deck, the ace and the joker, hearts and spades, and the games families played for hours, from solitaire to bridge, rummy and canasta. Easy clues for anyone who has ever been dealt a hand. Keeping score at the card table? Our printable score sheets cover canasta, rummy, gin rummy and bridge.
The 11×13 grid prints with squares about .66 inches wide; its 12 answers run from 3 to 9 letters. How our large print crosswords are laid out.
Did you know?
- On most American playing cards, the king of hearts is the only king without a mustache.
- Canasta was invented in Uruguay in the late 1930s and became a nationwide craze in the United States around 1950.
- Contract bridge took its modern form in 1925, when Harold Vanderbilt worked out its scoring on a cruise.
Talk about it
- Which card game did your family play most, and who always won?
- Did you have a regular card night with friends or neighbors? What was served?
- Who taught you to shuffle, and can you still do the fancy bridge shuffle?
- What did you play for: pennies, matchsticks or just bragging rights?
Activity tip
Keep a real deck of cards on the table. As each answer is filled in, hold up the matching card or suit. Finish with a quick game everyone knows, such as crazy eights or go fish.
Questions
Do I need to know how to play bridge or canasta?
No. Each game is described in a few plain words, and the other answers, like deck, ace and shuffle, are familiar to anyone who has played cards.