A real-time card game is a card game

Card game

A card game is any game using playing cards as the primary device with which the game is played, be they traditional or game-specific. Countless card games exist, including families of related games...

 in which all players may act simultaneously (that is, in real-time).

The card game Set

SET (game)

Set is a real-time card game designed by Marsha Falco in 1974 and published by Set Enterprises in 1991. The deck consists of 81 cards varying in four features: number ; symbol ; shading ; and color...

 has a real-time element; in Set, the players are racing to identify patterns in the cards on the table. The concept was also used by James Ernest

James Ernest

James Ernest is an American game designer and juggler. He is best known as the owner and lead designer of Cheapass Games. Prior to founding Cheapass, he worked as a juggler at various venues, including Camlann Medieval Village, and as a freelancer with Wizards of the Coast. He also worked for...

 in his game Falling

Falling (game)

Falling is a real-time card game from James Ernest in which all players are falling from the sky for no apparent reason. The object of the game is to hit the ground last...

, and was later expanded in the games Brawl and Fightball

Fightball

Fightball is a real-time card game designed by James Ernest and Mike Selinker and published by Cheapass Games in 2002. Fightball is the third real-time card game published by Cheapass Games, following the success of Falling and Brawl....

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There are also real-time card games that use a standard deck of 52 playing cards. A large number of real-time card games are in the Slapjack

Slapjack

Slapjack, also known as Slaps, is a simple standard-deck card game, generally played among children. It can often be a child's first introduction to playing cards.The game is related to Egyptian Ratscrew and is also sometimes known as Heart Attack...

 family: players take turns playing cards and then race to "slap" a jack or face card when it is turned up. In this family are Spit

Spit (card game)

Spit, also referred to as Slam or Speed, is a game of the shedding family of card games for two players. The game is played until all of someone's cards are gone; at which time, the game has finished.-Gameplay:...

, Egyptian Ratscrew

Egyptian Ratscrew

Egyptian Ratscrew is a card game of the matching family of games, reminiscent of Slapjack and Beggar-My-Neighbour, but more complex.The game appears to be a combination of Beggar-My-Neighbour, mentioned by Charles Dickens in his Great...

, and Nertz

Nertz

Nertz is a fast-paced, real-time, multiplayer card game involving multiple decks of playing cards. It is often described as a combination of the card games Speed and Solitaire....

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Another group of real-time card games are related to Spoons

Spoons

Spoons, also known as Pig and Tongue, is a fast-paced game of matching and bluffing family of card games of the Crazy Eights group, closely related to Craits played with an ordinary pack of playing cards and several ordinary kitchen spoons or various other objects...

, in which players exchange cards asynchronously until one or more players have a certain hand; then the first player to perform a certain action wins. In this family are the 52-card game Pig and Parker Brothers

Parker Brothers

Parker Brothers is a toy and game manufacturer and brand. Since 1883, the company has published more than 1,800 games; among their best known products are Monopoly, Cluedo , Sorry, Risk, Trivial Pursuit, Ouija, Aggravation, and Probe...

' Chicago Commodities Exchange-themed Pit

Pit (game)

Pit is a fast-paced card game for three to eight players, designed to simulate open outcry bidding for commodities. The game was developed for Parker Brothers and first sold in 1904...

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