The card tables, by the numbers

There's a particular sound to an afternoon around here: the soft riffle of a deck being shuffled, somewhere a partner being scolded for a bid. Card play is one of the most dependable things on our whole calendar, so we did the obvious thing - we counted. Across the couple of months of events we're tracking right now, here's who's dealing the most.

Bridge still rules the room

No surprise at the top: Bridge, with 291 sessions on the calendar, is the most-played named card game in the community. And it isn't one thing - it's a whole little kingdom. Duplicate bridge for the serious, rubber bridge for the sociable, "friendly" bridge for the brave, and a steady stream of lessons for everyone still learning which way the bidding goes. If there's a game that defines the card room, this is it.

The Samba surprise

Right on Bridge's heels, with 195 sessions, is Samba - and no, we mean the card game, a fast-melding cousin of Canasta, not the dance with the same name. (Our software has had to learn this the hard way; the two get mixed up constantly.) One group settles the argument right in its own listing: it calls itself "Samba, Queens, Jacks." Those are playing cards, friends. The dance can keep the name on weekends.

The dependable middle

After the two front-runners come the games that quietly hold the community together. Pinochle logs 130 sessions and Euchre 106 - the honest, no-nonsense classics you'll find running in a rec center most days of the week, in flavors from "basic" to "competitive" to "advanced bid."

The devoted few

Then there's the long tail - smaller, fiercely loyal tables. Cribbage (42), Canasta (23), and Hand & Foot (12) don't fill the calendar, but the folks who play them tend to play them every single week. These are the games you join for the people as much as the cards.

And the busiest table isn't a game at all

Here's the twist. The single largest card category on the calendar isn't Bridge or Samba or any one game - it's the plain old "Cards" table, with 485 sessions. That's the open and mixed play: "Cards - Open," "The Card Players," and a grab-bag of everything else - Pitch, Setback, Tonk, Phase 10. More people, it turns out, just want to sit down and deal something than commit to any single game. There's a lesson in there somewhere.

A word about the imposters

A few tables crash the card party every day without technically belonging to it. Mahjong is the big one - 468 sessions, nearly out-dealing every card game except the open table - but it's played with tiles, not cards. Bunco (123) is dice. Rummikub (34) and Dominoes (29) are tiles again. We love them all; we're just keeping the books honest.

Pull up a chair

Add it all up - named games and open tables together - and the community sits down to cards close to 1,300 times across the calendar (nearly 800 of those at a specific game, the rest at open tables). Whether you're a duplicate-bridge devotee, a Samba melder, or someone who just wants to be dealt in, there's a seat waiting. Tap Cards on the home page and find your table.