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Card games in Canada

This page is part of the National and Regional Card Games Index of the Card Games Web Site.

Various forms of Euchre are popular across a wide area of Canada, as are Cribbage and 9-5-2. International games such as Hearts, Bridge and Asshole are also played.

Kaiser is also widely played, but is particularly popular in the Ukrainian and German communities of Saskatchewan, and is said to be of Ukrainian origin. In Nova Scotia they play Forty-Fives, a game of Irish origin, and Tarabish, which is a game of the Jass group.

200 (Deux Cents), also known as 10 or Bidder 10 is played mainly in New Brunswick and parts of Qeébec.

Hola is played by Ukrainian-Canadians in Western Canada. Durak and King Pedro are also played in this region.

In Nova Scotia, the jass game Tarabish is played. In South-East Saskatchewan, Mensch is played.

Literature is an advanced game of the Go-Fish type that is played in Toronto but seems to have originated Tamil Nadu, India.

N. M. Lundrigan tells me that in Newfoundland popular games are 120's, played with the regular 52-card deck [I think this is probably a version of 45's - JM], also 45's, scat, crib, rummy 500's, bridge, rummoli [similar to three in one], poker, nines [a Canadian plain-trick game for three players], queens [a rummy game in which the queen of spades has a high value], and hearts.

All the above games are played with the standard international pack, or with subsets or multiples of it.

In the French speaking part of Canada, Tarot is played (as in France) with 78 cards. With the standard pack they play

• Trou du cul (the French equivalent of Asshole)
• a version of 500 (also known as "Slam" or "500 slam")
• Dame de pique (a French version of Hearts)
• Cribbage, which is known in French as Cribble
• the unusual fishing game Mitaines.

Rook is played with a special pack of 57 cards in the Mennonite communities of Southern Ontario and Manitoba, as well as in parts of the USA.

The World Casino Directory includes a listing of Casinos in Canada.