why I love card games

I am not going to lie: this is a pretty straightforward post about why I love card games.

1. Nature. My grandfather was super great at all kinds of card games, and my mom and her sisters (and all of my cousins in turn) inherited not only these skills, but also a great appreciation for the games. At family gatherings, Spades, 7 Up, more Hearts, and Michigan Rummy are all staple games. We take them pretty seriously, though at the end the winner as well as the losers all get to eat dessert so there's not much at stake aside from bragging rights.
2. Nurture. I was raised to play card games, especially late at night and most especially in the summer. I was never super into Go Fish past the age of like eight, but my family played Hearts hundreds of times. Since my dad went to bed at normal times, it worked out pretty well for my mom and siblings and I (pass to the left, pass to the right, pass across, keep). We also played Euchre and Rummy 500 as we developed more strategical skills.
3. I love winning. Specifically, I love winning games that aren't just based on luck. Card games are a good balance of luck (the deal) and strategy, because sometimes it's nice to blame losing on the cards you were dealt (which is sometimes completely legitimate and sometimes because you made the wrong call re:your spades/hearts, but nbd).
4. They are universal. Ok, maybe if I went to Neptune I would not find it easy to play a card game there, but for the most part you can play with anyone and everyone should be able to agree on common rules (see BS or ERS for all kinds of crazy variations that make no sense unless you've always played with marriage sandwiches). It's just a great way to spend time with friends and family and strangers, too!
5. Convenience and multiple possibilities all in one box! It is so easy to store and transport cards, especially when you consider traveling and dorms and picnics and everything. And even then you're not locked into one game or even a family of games...there are probably a thousand games you can play with one deck of cards (ok, some of them may require multiple decks).
6. Collectible cards. There are so many cool decks of cards you can get. Some of them teach you things, like famous writers or inventors (yes we have these decks) and some of them are just commemorative, like the APO deck. I personally have like five decks of Coca-Cola cards because I am super into commercialism...but actually they have really good graphic designers. Anyway, different decks make all kinds of games more fun. I really like a deck my family has of Looney Tunes characters, just because they're so cute and have individual pictures for each face of the card.

That all said, if I lose a card game to you, you'd better have a way to get my mind off of it real fast or else I'm going to be a grump. I may or may not have a grudge against both of the people I played Hearts with last night.