hello! this is my first post, I hope it is a worthy contribution to the WetFish ecosystem🫧

I am quite fond of card games, and I was recently reflecting on how I have learned basically all the card games I know through other people teaching me at different points in my life, and how sweet I think it is that one forms a beautiful little connection with those whom they teach/learn/practice card games (especially since it's a skill that is purely for fun and entertainment rather than having any sort of "productive"/instrumental value).

anyway I may make a more artistic perzine about it at some point, but I wanted to share all the card games I currently know and my preliminary reflections and ratings of them; PLEASE teach me others if you know any good ones :))
     *🩷 = my favorites

- Go Fish (ofc) — learned from my mom as a kid; 5/10 middle-of-the-road, gets kinda boring
- Solitaire — learned on my own from my 2nd gen iPod nano; 8/10 for up to 30 minutes, but 5.5/10 after that
- Crazy Eights — also taught to me by my mom as a kid while simultaneously people-watching in New York City; 6/10 haven't played it since, but I remember liking it
- Bullshit — when I was in 9th grade, a bunch of seniors (who I'm now realizing were definitely all high if they weren't mormon) wanted to play while we were on break at marching band camp; 3/10 I'm really bad at lying
- President — learned from this kid, Aidan, in my 10th grade chemistry class who always wore specialty newsboy caps + collared shirts and worshipped the debate teacher; I think he also tried to teach my table group the game Mao, but it didn't catch on; 7/10 fun with a big group, 5/10 with a smaller group
🩷Nertz (also called Pounce/Puntz/Peanuts in different regions) — taught to me by my dad on St. Patrick's Day 2019; requires that every player have their own individually distinguishable deck of cards; 10/10 with the right players! cards will be bent, tables pounded, relationships placed in jeopardy, I never rarely lose
🩷Gin Rummy — learned from WikiHow and a YouTube video with an ex-partner last year; 9/10 it's been my go-to card game to teach people since then
- King's Corner — a friend in Boulder taught me on the crustiest dining room table I have ever seen last winter; 6/10 it's so nefarious that one person can win the whole game in the first round if they have a good hand
- War — taught to me by a 13-year old looking to get out of doing the stuff I was supposed to be mentoring him on; 4/10 kinda boring but fine
🩷Egyptian Rat Slap — a girl my bandmate was dating for a bit over the summer taught me on the asphalt outside D3, and I think we accidentally missed another band's whole set because the game went for so long :P ; 8/10 with the right people, it can get going fast
- Trash — a friend I went camping with taught me in exchange for me teaching her gin rummy; 6/10 for the first 10 minutes, 5/10 after that
- Pinochle — learned from one of my oldest friends when she got super into it over her winter break; the only game in this list that needs a specialty deck, my friend spent like $60 Frankensteining her own out of regular decks and refused to let the deck get dirty or bent because it was such an investment lol; 5/10 mostly because it's pretty complicated and I didn't get familiar with all the rules before my friend had to fly back across the country for school smh
- Speed — taught to me by another friend's exuberantly drunk coworker at a NYE party; didn't really like her all that much, but the game is very fun! 7/10

• Fishmé tipped Shades for this post