Card Games for Two: Nine to Play Together Online, Free

The best card games for two people that you can play right now, free, in a browser: Gin Rummy and Trash are made for exactly two, Crazy 8s and Rummy play well head to head, and Hearts, Spades and Euchre work for two because computer players fill the other seats. Yatzy and Mexican Train round it out if you want dice or dominoes instead of cards.

Every one of them runs on a phone, tablet or computer, with no download and no account. One of you starts a table, the other joins with a code, and you are playing.

The nine games at a glance

Gin Rummy: the classic for two

Gin Rummy is the card game most people picture when they think of two players at a kitchen table. Each of you holds ten cards, draws one and throws one away every turn, and quietly turns a loose hand into sets and runs. Nothing is shown until someone knocks: when the cards you would keep add up to 10 points or less, you can end the hand, and the lower count scores the difference. Wait for a hand with no loose cards at all and it is gin, worth a 25-point bonus. The decision every hand comes down to is when to knock, which is why the same two people can play it for fifty years. The Gin Rummy rules cover knocking, layoffs and the undercut.

If you would rather lay your melds on the table as you go, Rummy is the family original: the first one out of cards wins the round, and at a table any seat you do not fill is played by the computer. Gin Rummy vs Rummy sets the two side by side.

Trash: the quick one for two

Trash, also called Garbage, is a race. Each of you has ten face-down cards in two rows, one slot for each rank from Ace to Ten. You draw, and if the card fits one of your slots you put it there face up and pick up the face-down card that was in that slot; if that one fits too, you keep going. Jacks are wild, Queens and Kings are dead. The first to turn every slot face up wins the round, and plays the next one with one slot fewer, so the leader always has the shorter road but never a safe one. You choose how long the match is before the first deal, from a single round to nine.

It is the easiest game here to teach, which makes it the one to start a new player on. Read the Trash rules if you want the details.

Crazy 8s: quick rounds, plenty of swings

Match the top card by suit or rank, play an 8 to change the suit, and be the first to empty your hand. With the default rules a 2 makes the next player draw two and a Queen skips them, so a round can turn on a single card. At two, the game is fast and personal: every card you hold back is one your opponent has to answer. Add one or two computer players if you want a fuller table. The Crazy 8s guide covers the action cards and scoring.

Hearts, Spades and Euchre: trick-taking for two

These are four-player games, and they stay four-player games here. When the two of you sit down, the empty seats are taken by the Card & Puzzle regulars, named computer players who are always marked, so you never mistake one for a person.

• Hearts is everyone for themselves: avoid hearts and the queen of spades, or take all of them and shoot the moon.
• Spades is about the bid: say how many tricks you will take, then take them, without collecting too many bags.
• Euchre is the quickest of the three. Partner up, and a hand is over in a couple of minutes.

If trick-taking is new to you, start with Hearts. It has the fewest rules to learn and the most to discover. There is more on all three in trick-taking card games.

Yatzy and Mexican Train: when you want something other than cards

Yatzy is the dice game with the thirteen-box score sheet. Against the computer you play it like any other game. With a friend you play it by taking turns: each of you rolls whenever you like, over a day or a week, and the game tells you when it is your turn. It is the best pick for two people who are never free at the same time.

Mexican Train is the dominoes game played at family tables. For two players you can face one computer player, or pass one device back and forth at the same table. If you would rather use real tiles, there is a free printable domino set.

Same room or far apart?

• Sitting together, one device: Mexican Train’s pass-and-play.
• Sitting together, two devices: any of the card games. Start a table on one phone and join it from the other.
• In different homes: the same tables work across any distance. Send the link in your usual chat, and keep a call open on the side. More on that in playing cards with family far away.

Only one of you free right now?

Every game here also plays against the computer, so either of you can practise alone. You can also both play the same daily deal: every day each game gets one deal that everyone plays, and you can compare scores on the daily leaderboards afterwards.

With a real deck of cards

Gin Rummy, Rummy, Trash and Crazy Eights are all classic two-player games with an ordinary 52-card deck, and our guides explain the rules the same way the online versions play them: Gin Rummy, Rummy, Trash and Crazy 8s. For more ideas when there are more than two of you, see card games to play with friends online.