Remember back in the day when life was boring? When you couldn’t choose anything in the world to watch whenever you wanted or download a new app every day of the week? Back when we had to make our own fun? Amazingly enough, I kind of miss those days. I love technology as much as the next mom, but I’m also realizing our kids are missing out on some of the simple things we used to do to have fun, like playing card games. We’ve learned a few new cards games recently and my kids love them! So today I’m going to teach you how to play one of our favorites: California Speed.
How to Play California Speed
The rules are very simple and the game goes fast, and it’s so much fun! You need one deck of cards and it’s a two player game. If you have more people than that, you can set up a couple of pairs playing at once, or rotate people in and out as needed (since each game only takes a few minutes). This post has both written rules and a video (at the end) that walks you through the game. Enjoy!
California Speed Rules
Shuffle a deck of cards. Deal all the cards out between two players, so each player ends up with half the deck. The object of the game is to get rid of all your cards. Whoever does so first wins the game.
To begin, each player lays out four cards, face up, in front of themselves. Look at all eight cards to see if there are any matches (two fours, two Queens, etc. – color and suit don’t matter). If you can see cards that match, immediately cover each of them with a card from your hand. Now that there are new cards down, continue to look for new matches, and continue to cover any cards that match with new cards from your hand. You should be maintaining 8 piles as you play.
Both players are trying to cover matches at the same time; whoever is faster will be able to play more cards. When all 8 piles are topped with cards that DO NOT match each other, each player picks up the four piles directly in front of him or her and adds them to the bottom of the stack in their hand. Continue playing until one player’s cards are gone.
Tips
- If there are three cards that match, you (and your opponent) may cover all three.
- If you cover a card with another card that matches it (say, you are covering a 2 and you play another 2 on top of it), you can consider that a match and cover it again with a new card.
- It’s a good idea to play as much as possible on the cards in front of your opponent, so he or she will have more cards to pick up when there are no more matches. However, you also want to play on the cards in front of you in order to prevent your opponent playing on them. So basically, cover any matches you see as quickly as you can!
MacKenzie says
Played this with my math teacher lol
Sandra D. says
Where’s the video?
Autumn says
The video is at the end of the post under a heading that says “California Speed Step by Step Video.”
Arlene says
We tried this game yesterday and loved it! But we frequently have more than 2 people who want to play so we tried it with 3 people. Each person only had 3 piles, which is still more to keep track of than 4 cards for 2 people, so it was not easy. The advantage is that with 3 people, the game really goes FAST! LOVED IT! thanks!
Trisha says
Oh my gosh I forget all about this game!!! I used to play it all the time with my grandparents growing up. Thank you for this post!!