Looking for a card game beginning with S? Here are 35 of them — from Spades and Splendor to Skull and Sushi Go! — with player counts, play times and a quick summary of how each one works.
Quick answer
There are 35 card games in this list that start with S. The best known are Spades, Splendor, Skull and Sushi Go!. Scroll for the full list, or use the filters to narrow it down.
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The card game from Star Wars, published with real rules in 2021. Build a hand as close to plus or minus 23 as you can, shift cards around with the shift tokens, and hope nobody calls your bluff before the reveal.
Rules & background (opens in a new tab)A hidden-role game about dwarves digging for gold. Most players want the tunnel finished, but the saboteurs want it broken — and the only evidence is the cards people play. Everyone is a suspect by the second round.
Rules & background (opens in a new tab)A Canasta-family rummy game with sequences added. Build melds, including runs of seven cards, and go out before your opponents; the samba — a seven-card run — is the move everyone at the table is chasing.
Rules & background (opens in a new tab)The card-game version of Puerto Rico. Choose a role each turn, build buildings and produce goods, and use the same cards as both money and buildings — that double duty is the whole tension of the design.
Rules & background (opens in a new tab)A Bavarian partnership game played in two teams of two. Call a partner by naming a card, then win tricks with trumps and aces; the bidding and the calling are as much a part of the game as the cards.
Rules & background (opens in a new tab)Austria's two-player trick-taking classic, played with a 20-card deck. Win tricks to score points and marry the king and queen of trumps for a bonus; the first to 66 points takes the deal.
Rules & background (opens in a new tab)A two-player tug of war over nine boundary stones. Play cards into three-card formations to claim stones, and bluff about which stones you can still win. Small numbers, sharp decisions.
Rules & background (opens in a new tab)An Italian fishing game played with a 40-card deck. Capture cards from the table by matching rank, and scoop the board clean for a scopa and a bonus point. Simple rules, sharp counting.
Rules & background (opens in a new tab)Scopa's team version, played with ten cards each. Partners sit opposite and combine their captures; the counting is deeper and the swings are bigger. The favourite of serious Scopa players.
Rules & background (opens in a new tab)A ladder-climbing game with a twist: you cannot reorder your hand. Play sets and runs from the cards as dealt, or scout cards from the table to improve your hand — the best hand is often the one you did not want.
Rules & background (opens in a new tab)A word game that fits in a tin. Start with a four-letter word and change one letter at a time as fast as you can; the first player to use all their cards wins. Loud, fast and surprisingly competitive.
Rules & background (opens in a new tab)A delicate set-collection game about folding paper. Collect pairs and mermaid cards for points, then decide whether to stop the round or push for one more turn — and give everyone else a chance to catch up.
Rules & background (opens in a new tab)A social deduction game set in 1930s Germany. Liberals and fascists fight over policy cards while a hidden Hitler tries to get elected chancellor. The accusations get loud fast.
Rules & background (opens in a new tab)A board game played with a deck of cards. Play a card, place a chip on the matching board space, and build five in a row; the corners are wild and the one-eyed jacks remove an opponent's chip.
Rules & background (opens in a new tab)A pattern-spotting game with no turns. Find three cards where every feature is either all the same or all different; the deck has no duplicate cards, and even the daily puzzle is genuinely hard.
Rules & background (opens in a new tab)A Wisconsin favourite with German roots. Pick a partner by calling an ace, then take tricks with trump (all four queens and jacks) and count points; schneider and schwarz bonuses decide the close games.
Rules & background (opens in a new tab)A fast German two-hander played with a 24-card deck. Win tricks to score points and race to 66 before your opponent; the last trick is worth extra, and the endgame is where games are won.
Rules & background (opens in a new tab)Germany's national card game and one of the deepest three-player games ever designed. Bid for the right to play alone against the other two, then try to take 61 of the 120 points.
Rules & background (opens in a new tab)A sequencing game dressed as a race. Build piles from 1 to 12 using cards from your stockpile, and be the first to clear it. Easy to teach, quietly cutthroat.
Rules & background (opens in a new tab)A pure bluffing game of flowers and skulls. Place cards face down, then bid on how many you can flip without hitting a skull. One wrong flip and you lose a card — two and you are out.
Rules & background (opens in a new tab)A reaction game built on one card. Deal the deck out, flip cards into the middle, and slap the pile the moment a jack appears. Slap anything else and you hand over a card instead.
Rules & background (opens in a new tab)A charming kids' card game about waking queens. Play number cards to draw, kings to steal queens and potions to put them back to sleep; the first to five queens — or 50 points — wins.
Rules & background (opens in a new tab)Take two factions — pirates plus dinosaurs, say — shuffle them into one deck, and fight for bases. The fun is in the absurd combinations and the take-that that follows.
Rules & background (opens in a new tab)A pitch game with a word deck. Combine two cards into a product — 'mood diaper', 'ghost pants' — and sell it to the customer; the table votes for the pitch that actually works.
Rules & background (opens in a new tab)The first card game most children learn. Flip cards onto a pile and shout 'Snap!' when two match; the fastest hand takes the pile. Loud, fast and slightly violent.
Rules & background (opens in a new tab)The patience game everyone knows as Solitaire. Deal seven columns and build four suits up from ace to king, flipping through the stock when you get stuck. No opponent, no timer — just you and the odds.
Rules & background (opens in a new tab)The partnership trick-taking game of choice in much of the English-speaking world. Bid the number of tricks you will take, then try to make it; spades are always trump and cannot be led until they are broken.
Rules & background (opens in a new tab)A two-player race to empty your hand. Build piles up and down from the centre cards as fast as you can, and refill your hand from your stock. There are no turns — just speed.
Rules & background (opens in a new tab)A bluffing shedding game with a wasabi kick. Play cards face down and claim a rank — anyone can call you a liar. The penalty cards stack up fast, and so does the shouting.
Rules & background (opens in a new tab)A gem-trading engine builder. Take tokens, buy development cards, and build an engine that keeps paying out; the first player to 15 prestige points triggers the endgame.
Rules & background (opens in a new tab)A chaotic matching game with spoons in the middle. Pass cards until someone has four of a kind, then grab a spoon — and everyone else scrambles. The last person without one loses a life.
Rules & background (opens in a new tab)A matching game with 55 cards and exactly one shared symbol between any two. Race to spot the match and call it out; five mini-games, one deck, endless shouting.
Rules & background (opens in a new tab)A social deduction game of one spy and a location. Everyone gets the same place except the spy; ask questions, spot the liar, or bluff your way through as the spy.
Rules & background (opens in a new tab)A two-player deck builder in a small box. Buy ships and bases from the trade row, then attack your opponent's authority; the combos between factions are the whole game.
Rules & background (opens in a new tab)A sushi-themed drafting game. Pick one card from your hand, pass the rest, and collect sets — dumplings, nigiri, maki rolls — while the pudding at the end punishes greed.
Rules & background (opens in a new tab)No games match that search. Try a game name, a mechanic like “trick-taking”, or clear the filters.
We count a game if it is played primarily with cards and its common English name begins with S. That covers three very different families: traditional games with regional rule sets rather than a single publisher, modern hobby card games sold with a rulebook, and family and party games where the deck is the whole game.
We leave out board games that happen to contain cards, tile games, and video games — with rare exceptions for digital card games that play exactly like their tabletop equivalent. Expansions are listed under their base game rather than as separate entries.
This list covers 35 card games whose common English name begins with S. The true number depends on how you count — regional variants alone would push it much higher — so we only list games with a published rule set and a name in real use.
By sheer ubiquity, Spades — it is the default partnership game on campuses, in barracks and at family tables across the English-speaking world. Commercially, Splendor is the biggest seller in this list.
Codenames for a group that likes words, Secret Hitler for a group that likes arguing, Spyfall for a group that likes improvising, and Skull for a group that likes lying to each other.
Skat, Schafkopf and Sheepshead are the deep ones — all three reward card counting and partnership signalling, and all three have regional rule sets that regulars will argue about.
Yes. Solitaire — properly Klondike — is a one-player card game, which is why it does not appear in most “games for two” lists but does belong in a list of card games.
For exactly two players, start with Schnapsen, Schotten Totten, Sixty-Six, Speed and Star Realms. All of them are designed for two, so there are no house rules to negotiate before the first hand.
Scrabble Slam, Skip-Bo, Slapjack and Sleeping Queens are the lightest entries in this list — short rules, quick rounds and easy to teach to a child who can read numbers and suits.