Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

How you play Spades is how you play life

pudding.cool

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

71–80 of 127 posts

Re: How you play Spades is how you play life

#71

Post by jkhdigital »

LynxInLA wrote: post #23
zdw wrote: post #5

I (as a white American) didn't know about this history, and have played Spades as a family game for as long as I can remember. Some interesting variations - we usually played with no Jokers, no bag, but with a negative score rule when not meeting bid. Also, a card selection mechanic if 2 players are playing - the players would alternating picking cards from from the deck, decide whether they wanted it, then keep it a…

I (also white American) play the same rules and was taught them by my grandfather. He said he learned the game in the Navy during WWII, but I'm not sure if that timeline lines up.

Can confirm that I played a lot of spades during the boring parts of my ~5 year Navy enlistment.

Re: How you play Spades is how you play life

#73

Post by wyager »

vikingerik wrote: post #62
wyager wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Isn’t Texas hold em poker, I would guess the most popular card game, the same way?

Not exactly. You might think you have some control over your hand in hold 'em, but it's an illusion. You get two private cards and five community cards. You can pick any five of the seven to use at the showdown. It feels like you get choice with the five-of-seven, but you don't really. There's always one strictly superior set (or trivial equivalencies), and that will be automatically chosen in any serious context ("c…

I think you're agreeing with me. Holdem doesn't let you change your hand.

Re: How you play Spades is how you play life

#74

Post by wyager »

__s wrote: post #36
wyager wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Isn’t Texas hold em poker, I would guess the most popular card game, the same way?

No, you're dealt 2 cards, not 13. You eventually draw 5 to 3 cards from the community cards

I mean in the sense that you can't change your hand.

Re: How you play Spades is how you play life

#75

Post by taneq »

spullara wrote: post #25
ALittleLight wrote: post #24

There was a line in there that reminded me a bit of a thing you might write in a school essay - "When playing Spades, you’re dealt a hand and have no control over the cards you get—unless you’re cheating." I'm having trouble thinking of a card game where you do get control over the cards you're dealt. Maybe there is one? I'm reminded of a time in high school where for some reason I had to write an essay connecting Ma…

In games like Magic: The Gathering you do get to decide what possible cards you can be dealt.

If you can't afford M:TG you could try building a gaming PC. You get to pick your graphics card, sound card etc. ;)

Re: How you play Spades is how you play life

#76

Post by taneq »

qsort wrote: post #63
dagw wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And richer players have access better to cards that poorer payers can never hope to be dealt.

You do have a point, but this trope is overstated in a way that doesn't reflect reality IMO. At a competitive level the playing field is completely level. You have to assume players have access to all the cards, otherwise games like it make zero sense. Sure, it's an expensive game, but so are many other games and sports. It's an accessibility issue, not a balance issue: it's not like you can buy your way to victory.…

> It's an accessibility issue, not a balance issue: it's not like you can buy your way to victory.

It's only 'not a balance issue' because you consider access to all of the cards to be table stakes.

Re: How you play Spades is how you play life

#77

Post by dctoedt »

zdw wrote: post #67
LynxInLA wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I (also white American) play the same rules and was taught them by my grandfather. He said he learned the game in the Navy during WWII, but I'm not sure if that timeline lines up.

I don't know the lineage past my parents, but my grandparents did play a lot of cards (I learned Canasta from my grandmother), and my grandfather was in the Navy in WWII, so it's definitely possible.

> I learned Canasta from my grandmother

Same here, sort of: My grandmother lived several states away but would visit for several weeks during summers — and I'd have to re-learn Canasta and Hearts every visit. Right now I have not a clue how either game is played.

Re: How you play Spades is how you play life

#78

Post by prepend »

I find it funny when people assume that something that is common within their subgroup is unique to their subgroup.

I liked that this article called out spades’ role in African American culture. But the game isn’t unique to US African American culture. So it’s interesting how it’s presented as unique or special to a particular culture or subgroup.

It would be like if I grew up in Iowa and everyone played spades, and I didn’t read the Wikipedia article or research the history of spades and thought it was a unique Iowan cultural experience. Instead of a common game places across many cultures and locations.

Re: How you play Spades is how you play life

#79

Post by baud147258 »

ALittleLight wrote: post #24

There was a line in there that reminded me a bit of a thing you might write in a school essay - "When playing Spades, you’re dealt a hand and have no control over the cards you get—unless you’re cheating." I'm having trouble thinking of a card game where you do get control over the cards you're dealt. Maybe there is one? I'm reminded of a time in high school where for some reason I had to write an essay connecting Ma…

> I'm having trouble thinking of a card game where you do get control over the cards you're dealt. Maybe there is one?

For French tarot, when dealing the cards, three are set aside and one player get them, then choose three cards from his hand to set aside (so that all players get the same number of cards)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_Tarot#Rules

Re: How you play Spades is how you play life

#80

Post by thr0wawayaway »

This might sound really inflammatory, but it's a genuine question that I just haven't ever heard anyone give an answer to. Can someone explain this?

> "African-Americans were dealt a hell of a hand when we were forcibly brought to the American colonies as enslaved laborers."

When I look at the median (and bottom-quartile) African-American vs. African, the former seem to live vastly better lives in almost every conceivable dimension, and I don't know a single one of the former who wishes that they were still living in Africa now. So, why is this a "hell of a hand"?

Post reply on HN