The best card games for two players
Most card games are built for a table. These six are good with exactly two, and two of them are among the best two-player games there are.
Two-player card games are their own problem. Games built around a full table lose the thing that makes them work: with two people there is no passing, no alliances, no reading the table, and any card that targets "another player" only has one place to go.
So the games that succeed at two tend to be ones where the interest comes from hidden information and timing rather than from the crowd. Sorted by how well they hold up.
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Gin Rummy
Start here
The only game on this list designed for two rather than merely tolerating it, and it shows. Every card you take from the discard pile tells your opponent what you are collecting, so the whole game is a slow negotiation over information. Nothing is diluted by the player count because the player count *is* two.
- Players
- 2 players
- Time
- 15–30 min
- You need
- Standard 52-card deck
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Cribbage
The one to learn if you will play it often
The deepest game here by a distance, and built for exactly two. Every discard is a real decision because two of your six cards go into a hand your opponent may end up scoring. The only pick on this list that wants a board — though pen and paper, or the tracker on its page, does the job.
- Players
- 2 players
- Time
- 20–30 min
- You need
- Standard 52-card deck
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Rummy 500
The forgiving alternative to Gin
At two players you each get thirteen cards and the discard pile grows deep, which is exactly where this game is interesting — you can reach down into it for a card you can use. Looser and more forgiving than Gin Rummy, and a better first rummy if neither of you has played one.
- Players
- 2–8 players
- Time
- 30–45 min
- You need
- Standard 52-card deck, or two shuffled together with five or more players
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Golf
Best if you want something lighter
Works well at two because the layout in front of you is the entire game — there is nothing another player could have been doing that you are missing. Nine short rounds also means a bad hand never costs you the evening.
- Players
- 2–4 players
- Time
- 20–30 min
- You need
- Standard 52-card deck
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Cambio
Good, with one caveat
The memory and the sticking still work perfectly with two. The caveat is the power cards: spying and blind-switching only have one possible target, so the guesswork of choosing a victim disappears. Still fun, slightly flatter.
- Players
- 2–6 players
- Time
- 10–20 min
- You need
- Standard 52-card deck, including the two jokers
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Crazy Eights
Fine, and fast
Deal seven each instead of five and it becomes a denial game — you are watching which suit your opponent keeps drawing for and refusing to play it. Shallower than the others here, but it takes ten minutes and needs no explanation.
- Players
- 2–8 players
- Time
- 10–20 min
- You need
- Standard 52-card deck
Also works, but did not make the list
These fit two players — they are just not where we would start.
- Egyptian Ratscrew 2–6 players · 15–30 min
- Kings in the Corner 2–4 players · 15–25 min
Pick by how much you want to invest. Gin Rummy you can learn in five minutes and it stays interesting for years. Cribbage takes a couple of hands before the scoring clicks, and then outlasts everything else here — it is still played competitively four hundred years on.
Last reviewed . Every game here has full rules, a printable cheat sheet and a scorekeeper.