In honor of my mother’s 78th birthday today, I’m penning a top ten that will cover my top ten favorite card games.

In my childhood household, playing a card or board game was always a single question away. “Wanna play…(insert game)?” had a “yes”-response batting average of nearly 1.000 throughout my entire life under my parents’ roof. Thanks to my mother – although she’ll vehemently deny it – my siblings and I learned to become the competitive warriors we are today over the incessant games we played together at the family dinner table. Having been taught a simple mathematics-based card game at the age of three, Mom continued to work with me through a slew of games until I developed strategy, logic and competitiveness (although she hadn’t planned on that last one, I don’t think). To this day, we still downright love to play games with and against one another. It’s a pure family tradition.

So, having played literally hundreds of different games throughout my life, I’m going to list out my top ten favorite card games of all time.

In order for a game to make it onto my list it has to meet the following criteria: first and foremost, it has to still make me excited to play it; the game has to employ strategy and/or challenge my brain; and lastly, the game has to be played with more than one player.

With that…here we go.

The famous Grandma Pat with her own personalized deck of playing cards, compliments of her four 'aces.'

9. Casino
I believe this was the very first card game that Mom ever taught me. Originally an Italian fishing card game that made it over to America in the 19th century, it gave me a head start on mathematics and even algebra. I can remember playing this game as early as three years old.

8. Hearts
I never learned to play hearts until David Codding taught me (and a couple others) back in 2006 during one of our now-defunct monthly poker nights. Having grown up playing Spades, I quickly picked this up and managed to shoot the moon. Fun stuff.

7. Speed
Speed didn’t enter my card playing repertoire until college, when I spent countless hours playing with buddies. Rarely does a card game involve dexterity…but this one definitely does as you race to get rid of your cards.

6. Texas Hold ‘Em
Of all the derivatives of poker, this one is easily my favorite. It’s easily become the most popular version of the game around the world – and for damn good reason.

5. Skip-Bo
Wait, how the hell can Skip-Bo involve strategy? Well, it didn’t until I added a rule that you had to get rid of all of your face-up discards as well. Talk about some intense scrutiny of which cards to play in the end game. Try it!

4. Spades
The most oft-played card game played during our family game night, Spades was a big hit with both Mom and Dad. I can remember playing Spades very early on and it helped hone my mind to think strategically. There’s nothing quite like going nil and making it. Bladow!

3. Crazy Eights
Wait, ANOTHER non-strategic game makes it on the list?!? Well, I added a new rule to it in which you play twelve rounds — Crazy 3s through Aces — with the overall winner being declared by who has won the most rounds. Easy enough for all ages to play, the “overall winner” portion is what made this go so endearing to me.

2. Canasta
More than any other game on this list, Canasta makes my heart pound to the point where it may fly out of my chest. Mom and I would play some of the most heated games of Canasta while I was growing up…and I’d have to employ my memory to keep her from getting a highly stacked deck. When one of us would inevitably pick it up, the other would give out a cry of defeat and walk out of the room while the other was left to bask in their glory. Looooooove Canasta.

1. Blackjack
If I won the lottery, you can bet your ass that I could be found at the local casino seated at the blackjack table. The only card game on this list that I made an extensive and serious study of, blackjack is my absolute favorite card game of all times. It’s put a smile on my face, money in my pocket and provided great story fodder for years and years. Long live blackjack!

One game that didn’t (couldn’t?) make the list was a game I invented in college in complete Wrong Thursday style called “Escape to Freedom”. Don’t ask.

And there you have it. What are your favorite card games?