The exasperating thing about the Greek card game "Biriba" is that there are so m any options for

making points that your strategy is constantly changing. I was b affled while watching the old Greeks on my island play this game. They'd study t he table of each other's cards the way chess masters study the board. Now that I 'm an experienced player, I understand why: Biriba is a challenging, maddening g ames. 1))))))))))))))) Similar in style to "Canasta", the object of Biriba is to make as many biribas as possible, which earn each player points. Biribas contain 7 ca rds, only 1 of which can be a wild card. Natural biribas, those with no wild car ds, earn more points. There are some complex rules to the game, and scoring take s a while to master, but if you love a good mental workout, you'll get hooked on this game. During the first few turns in the hand, each player builds his strategy. But sin ce cards can be melded in two ways - either in sequence, or by face value - this strategy changes depending on the cards each person discards. Biriba is played with 2 decks, including jokers. Dealer shuffles and the opponen t cuts the deck. The dealer deals 11 cards to each player. The opponent also dea ls 2 hands of 11 cards each and sets them aside. These are "paketos" (packages") . Once the deal is complete, the dealer turns over the top card in the remaining deck. This card is what bridge players call "trump". Make a biriba of this suit and/or denomination and you earn double points! The hand begins to get interesting when one player has melded all his cards. Onc e he's emptied his hand by melding completely, in series consisting of at least 2 natural cards and 1 wild card, he can pick up his "paketo". The opponent now h as a choice: He can either meld as much as possible (he need not meld everything , as the first player must), in the hopes of picking up his paketo and continuin g the game; or he can hold onto everything until he feels it's worthwhile to mel d. Of course this keeps the other player in the dark as to which cards he's hold ing. It also assures that he loses only 200 points if the other player goes out on him. But it delays the picking up of his paketo. The hand ends when one player goes out on the other. To go out, you must have pi cked up your paketo. You also must meld all your cards, make at least 1 biriba, and you must discard. This hopefully leaves the opponent with a wealth of points in his hand that are then deducted from his score. The game ends when one playe r reaches 3,500 points or when one player shoots the other, whichever comes firs t.

Are you looking for looking for a game that you can your special someone can pla y together? Perhaps your just looking for a card game you and your friend can pl ay? Well I have some news for you, there are a number of very good two player ca rd games out there. With card games, the number of things you can play is almost endless, you can ev en create your own games if you wish to do so. I think that you will find that p laying two player card games are much more fun then playing alone or verses a co mputer. Why? Simply because it's somewhat peaceful to beat your best friend in y our favorite two player card game.

2)))))))If you enjoy putting shame on the face of your friends after beating the m in a card game, or your just looking for the best two player card games, I thi

nk you may have come to the right place. Here are some simple games for two play ers that you might find enjoyable. Crazy Eights This game might take awhile for me to explain, but it is very good. In this game we start off by shuffling the deck, if you have two players you deal out seven cards each. The remaining cards are laid face down just like in beggar-your-neig hbor, the top card is placed to the side face up to form the discard pile. Starting with the player that wasn't the dealer, take turns playing a "legal" ca rd, in this game that can mean a few different things. The following moves are w hat is considered a legal card move. *If the card on top of the pile is not 8 then you can play any card that match's the rank of suit of the previous card. *Any 8 card can be placed on all other cards, the player placing that card must nominate a suit to be played right after that. *If an 8 card is on top of the pile, you can play any card of the suit nominated by the player that played the first 8. Of course the first player to get rid of all their cards wins, while the other p layer receives penalty points for every card they still have, 50 for eights, 10 for a picture c ard, other card's give a penalty of their face value. Beggar-Your-Neighbor This is a easy game to learn, its called Begger-Your-Neighbor, even though its a bit more for children, adults may find it fun as well. It can be played alone o r with two people, I recommend playing with a friend of course. First of all, yo u shuffle the deck, then divided between you and your friend. Then both you and your friend draw a card, placing it onto the table overlapping the player whose turn was before them. This continues till one of the player dr aws a high card such as a ace, king, queen, or a jack. The player that didn't dr aw the high card has to stack lower cards on top of the high one. *Four for Ace *Three for King *Two for Queen *One for Jack After this is completed the player who drew the high card in the first place get s the pile, the only way for you or your friend to stop this is to draw a high c ard also, the person left with no cards left at the end of the game loses.

3)))))))))))) First, deal out the entire deck between the two players so you eac h have half. The players should be seated across from each other with a fair amo unt of space between them, but not so much that they can't each reach the middle of the space, similar to Double Solitaire. Next, deal out the cards as if you were playing solitaire, but with only 5 piles rather than the usual 7. Each player should place their remaining cards in the space between them, off to their right side, making their extra cards pile. Now, look over the cards you just dealt for any doubles. In Spit, you can combi

ne any doubles onto one column. So, for example, if I had 3 Kings face-up I coul d combine them onto one pile (keeping them face-up) and flipping the now showing face down cards, similar to moving cards in solitaire. Once both players have combined their doubles and placed their piles in the midd le the game is ready to start. Each player then turns the top card on their midd le pile over, placing it down in the middle. Then, each player should try and ma ke runs on these newly flipped cards with what is dealt in front of them. This i s similar to Tri-Peaks Solitaire. Remember that runs can go up or down (such as 2, 3, 4, 3, 2) and that a King can be played on an Ace, for example: Q, K, A, 2, A, K. You want to place as many of your cards on the middle piles as you possibly can while the other player is doing the same. The game gets tricky when both players have similar cards so you are both trying to place cards on the same pile. A go od strategy here is to try and use both your hands to place cards, this takes so me practice, but if you get good at it you will be lightning fast. If there are no moves available for either player, they must both flip a new car d from the top of their pile of extra cards piles in the middle, at the same tim e. With the new cards flipped, both players can begin making runs again. If both piles are completely flipped without any moves being made (which is pretty impo ssible) both middle piles should be shuffled and placed face down and then play continues as before. When a player gets down to 5 cards or less they have the option of picking up eir cards and holding them in their hand. This can be beneficial because your ponent won't know what cards you have left to play. It's usually also quicker play a card from your hand to the middle pile than it is to first pick it up f the table than put it on the pile. A round is over when one player runs th op to of

4)))))))))))))))) out of cards should try and hit the smaller r slaps the smaller pile first er must take the other pile as

in front of them. When this happens both players of the two face-up piles and yell "SPIT!". Whoeve takes that pile as their cards and the other play theirs.

Eventually one player will have so little cards that they cannot deal out their five piles fully, when this happens it could be the end of the game. That player without any extra cards doesn't put a flipping pile in the middle, instead only the other players flips theirs and there is a blank space left. Both players no w want to be the first one to hit that blank space. If the person with no extra cards gets rid of their dealt cards and hits that space then they win, because t hey have no cards left. If the other player hits it than the game continues. Just a warning, this game can go on for a VERY long time, but it never gets bor ing. It can easily be made more difficult by playing with only one hand, maybe e ven the less dominate hand. Also, if you wish to stop playing for the moment but want to still finish the game later, just keep each players set of cards separa te and it's easily re-visited.