CARD GAME GUIDES

Which M card games can you play with a standard deck?

Memory, Mau Mau, Montana and Monte Carlo can use one standard pack. For three people, Mizerka uses all 52 cards while Basic Manni removes the twos. Machiavelli and several M solitaire games need two packs. Mus uses a 40-card Spanish deck, so check the deck as well as the player count.

Start with one ordinary pack

Memory

Players: Two or more around a table.
Cards: 52 cards, laid face down.
Goal: Collect matching ranks and remember their positions.

See a two-player Memory setup

Mau Mau

Players: Two or more under the chosen rules.
Cards: One pack; deal and special cards vary by table.
Goal: Empty your hand by matching suit or rank.

Read about Mau Mau rules

Montana

Players: One.
Cards: Start with 52 and remove the aces to make gaps.
Goal: Put each suit in order from 2 to king.

Play Montana

Monte Carlo

Players: One.
Cards: One pack, with a face-up grid and stock.
Goal: Remove touching equal ranks, close gaps and refill.

Play Monte Carlo

Three players: Manni or Mizerka?

Basic Manni uses 48 cards after removing the four twos. Each player gets 12 cards and the spare hand holds 12. Other Manni variants retain all 52, so choose the version before dealing.

Mizerka uses all 52: three 13-card hands and a 13-card reserve. Its contracts change whether you want to take tricks or avoid them. The full rules explain the exchange and quotas.

Games that need two packs

Machiavelli uses two 52-card packs without jokers in the Pagat rules and supports two to five people. Players make sets and runs, and may rearrange the table as long as every card ends in a valid combination.

For one player, Miss Milligan, Mrs. Mop, Mount Olympus and Matrimony use two packs. Their layouts and moves differ: two packs are the equipment, not a shared rule set.

Reduced and dedicated decks

Mus is a four-player partnership game played with a 40-card Spanish deck. Check its ranks and scoring before substituting an Anglo-American pack.

Mow, Monopoly Deal, Munchkin and Magic: The Gathering use their own printed cards. For those games, use the corresponding deck and rules.

A four-card arithmetic challenge

Make 24 asks you to use four dealt cards, arithmetic operations and brackets to reach 24. The listed version values ace as 1, jack as 11, queen as 12 and king as 13.

For example, cards valued 2, 3, 4 and 6 can make (6 + 4 − 2) × 3 = 24, using every card exactly once.

Try Make 24

More games for an ordinary pack

Beyond M names, try Gin Rummy for two people, Hearts for a trick-taking game, or Freecell for solo play. Their browser editions and rules are in the full game list.

Rules and official sources (10)