Difference Between Sorting Card Games & Trick-taking Card Games

Aren’t you excited for the summer this year? With the lockdown restrictions having eased a little, things are slowly getting back to normal. Now we can commute to work, watch cricket matches live at the stadium, go on long vacations, and basically do all the things we did back in the pre-pandemic days. 

But you know the extreme summer heat of India, which makes it nearly impossible for anyone to step out and have fun. To avoid that, many of us turn to indulge in indoor activities like playing card games. They are one of the cheapest forms of entertainment that allow us to utilize our skills and enjoy healthy competition.

But did you know that certain card games belong to a particular genre or category? Yes, they do! On one side, we have sorting card games such as online rummy where cards need to be arranged into groups or combinations. On the other side, we have trick-taking games such as bridge where players take bids to score points.

How exactly do these games work? What is the basic difference between these two genres of card games? Read on as we explore them in detail below:

What is a sorting card game?

Sorting refers to arranging or grouping anything. And if we talk about card games, sorting will require you to arrange cards in a certain pattern or order.

For example, the basic objective of card games such as rummy is nothing but sorting or arranging cards. In rummy, players have to create sequences or sequences and sets using the cards in their hand. 

Rummy is regarded as the ultimate example of a sorting game. The origin of this game can be traced back to the Tang Dynasty of ancient China. The royals of the dynasty engaged in leaf games where they arranged them in certain combinations. Its gameplay is similar to that of the Chinese tile game mahjong. The latter requires a player to draw and discard tiles, instead of cards like in rummy, to create several different combinations 

Though extremely entertaining, a sorting or matching game also needs an immense amount of skills and strategies to win. For instance, rummy requires players to have good tactics, observation, planning, analysis, and adaptive strategies to improve their chances of winning the game.

What is a trick-taking card game? 

As the name suggests, a trick-taking game revolves around bidding or taking tricks that are evaluated to identify the winner of the deal or trick. The basic objective of these games is to win as many tricks as possible. One of the most popular examples of the game in this category is the bridge. 

In contract bridge, players play in pairs and each pair attempts to score points by bidding or by beating the opposing pair’s bid. The pair with the highest score wins the game.

Almost every trick-taking game follows the same mechanism. For instance, spar is another trick-taking game where players are required to win the last trick. 

If we look into the history of card games, the earliest ones were based on the trick-taking concept. They originated in ancient China and eventually spread throughout the west.

According to a few scholars, the earliest card games were played without trumps and were plain-trick games. In the early 15th century, trick-taking games were modified and developed into sophisticated card games. The oldest known trick-taking game was karnoffel, which is played using 48 cards.

Difference between sorting card games and trick-taking card games

As mentioned above, sorting card games are based on arranging cards in a certain order. On the other hand, trick-taking games are based on winning the maximum number of tricks. For better understanding, let us take a look at a game from each of these two categories: rummy and bridge.

Rummy is a skill game where players are required to arrange cards and make a valid declaration before their opponents. Bridge, on the other hand, is classified as a chance-based game where players try to score points by bidding on the opposing player’s bid. 

Although there may be slight similarities between other variations of these games, the primary difference remains the same. We hope that this blog post helps you identify and differentiate between these two genres of card games. 

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