Instructional book on the card game Spades

Master Spades details technique and strategy for the popular card game of Spades. Written by the leading authority on the game, this book instructs the serious player on winning techniques.

Card games offer loads of fun and one of the best socializing experiences out there. But picking up winning card strategies is a bit of a challenge, and though your buddies may think that picking up the rules of the game is easy, winning is a totally different story. With Card Games For Dummies, Second Edition, you’ll not only be able to play the hottest card games around, you can also apply game-winning strategies and tips to have fun and beat your opponents. Now updated, this hands-on guide shows you everything you need to know—the basics, the tricks, and the techniques—to become a master card player, with expanded coverage on poker as well as online gaming and tournaments. Soon you will have the card-playing power to: Pin down your opponents in Texas Hold’em Show off your power in Stud Poker Hit wisely in Blackjack Break hearts ruthlessly in Hearts Mix up the night with Gin and Rummy Build yourself a victory in Bridge Send them fishing in Go Fish This straightforward, no-nonsense guide features great ways to improve your game and have more fun, as well as a list of places to find out more about your favorite game. It also profiles different variations of each game, making you a player for all seasons!

When the cards are stacked against you, the Kings will even the odds. Ex-Special Forces soldier Anston "Ace" Sharpe is fighting a different battle these days-one involving the world of private security across the state of Florida. As part owner of Four Kings Security, Ace and his fellow Kings tackle everything from armed transport and investigations to cyber intelligence and executive protection. Cocky, fearless, and brash, Ace isn't afraid to take risks. After years of working alongside his father, Colton Connolly is ready to take the helm at Connolly Maritime, but his father's retirement is put on hold when Colton begins receiving death threats. If that isn't bad enough, his father signs a contract with Four Kings Security to provide Colton with round-the-clock protection, despite his adamant refusal. Colton's life has been turned upside down, the last thing he needs is a shadow, especially in the form of infuriating, sexy-as-sin Ace Sharpe, who seems to be on a mission to drive Colton mad. Sparks fly the moment Colton and Ace meet on a sultry night club dance floor. But getting involved with a client, even one as fiery and beautiful as Colton Connolly, is a line Ace is unwilling to cross. Colton might be attracted to Ace, but he'd been burned before. He might be willing to put his life in Ace's hands, but not his heart. As the Florida nights heat up, so does their passion, and Ace and Colton are faced with a difficult choice-take the plunge and risk it all, or play it safe and walk away? If Ace can keep a deadly threat from robbing Colton of a future....

A girl full of heart A thief touched by darkness A boy with a fiery temper An unwitting servant of evil The era of magic was once thought to be a myth, but after the Reemergence ushered forces both dark and light into the mundane world, it has since become a harsh reality. Now those affected by this strange power-a specialized group of Empowered called Jokers, known collectively as Cardplay-must protect their world from the darkness that threatens to consume it, all the while fighting for equality in a society clinging to normalcy. But the Reemergence was only the beginning. When another influx occurs on the seventh anniversary of that fateful event, an unfortunate encounter at ground zero lands Iori Ryone, a teenage boy in possession of a corrupt and legendary magic, in the care of recent Joker graduate Ellen Amelia Jane. From him, she learns the Reemergence may not have been the inevitable natural disaster it first seemed. Someone is trying to tear down the barrier that separates the magical realms from the mundane. The question is, can Cardplay stop them before it's too late? Bloody Spade is the first installment in an urban fantasy duology that follows a cat-eared thief and a spirited girl as they try to navigate his wild magic, her hotheaded brother, a sinister plot, and the feelings they're developing for each other.

A teenage girl goes searching for her mother in the City of Sin in this YA fantasy from the New York Times–bestselling coauthor of All of Us Villains. Welcome to New Reynes, the so-called City of Sin, where casino families reign, gangs infest the streets . . . and secrets hide in every shadow. It’s no place for a properly raised young lady. But when her mother goes missing, Enne Salta leaves her finishing school—and her reputation—behind. Following her mother’s trail, she finds herself in the city where no one survives uncorrupted. Frightened and alone, Enne’s only clue leads her to Levi Glaiyser—a street lord and con man in desperate need of the compensation Enne offers. Their search sends this unlikely duo through glamorous casinos, illicit cabarets, and into the clutches of a ruthless Mafia donna. But as Levi’s enemies close in on them, a deadly secret from Enne’s past comes to light and she must surrender herself to the City of Sin —to a vicious game of execution . . . Where the players never win.

Mutual aid is the radical act of caring for each other while working to change the world. Around the globe, people are faced with a spiralling succession of crises, from the Covid-19 pandemic and climate change-induced fires, floods, and storms to the ongoing horrors of mass incarceration, racist policing, brutal immigration enforcement, endemic gender violence, and severe wealth inequality. As governments fail to respond to—or actively engineer—each crisis, ordinary people are finding bold and innovative ways to share resources and support the vulnerable. Survival work, when done alongside social movement demands for transformative change, is called mutual aid. This book is about mutual aid: why it is so important, what it looks like, and how to do it. It provides a grassroots theory of mutual aid, describes how mutual aid is a crucial part of powerful movements for social justice, and offers concrete tools for organizing, such as how to work in groups, how to foster a collective decision-making process, how to prevent and address conflict, and how to deal with burnout. Writing for those new to activism as well as those who have been in social movements for a long time, Dean Spade draws on years of organizing to offer a radical vision of community mobilization, social transformation, compassionate activism, and solidarity.

“Proficiency in whist implies capacity for success in all these more important undertakings where mind struggles against mind.” —Edgar Allan Poe, “The Murders in the Rue Morgue” “Ha, ha, fool, ya lost! Rise and fly, %@#*!” —Uncle Ralph after running a Boston, Jones family reunion, 2002 Here’s a rollicking celebration and guide to bid whist, the official game of family reunions, cookouts, backyard barbecues, and house parties. In Rise and Fly, veteran journalists Greg Morrison and Yanick Rice Lamb explore the deeper secrets of the game, including: • strategies for beating the stuffing out of your opponents • hints for successful trash-talking • the official rules and exotic variations to keep things interesting • tips for organizing tournaments • resources for taking your game to the next level • a whole slew of recipes for whist-worthy snacks Full of history, lore, and the personal recollections of celebrities and regular folks alike, this is the first all-in-one book of bid whist, a treasure for anyone who’s ever pulled up to the table and been dealt in.

“YOU’RE AT MY MERCY NOW, AMORE.” Sorry, bella. You got dealt the losing hand. Witness to a crime, you’re my prisoner now. I didn’t mean for things to happen this way, But tying you to my bed and making you scream is an unexpected pleasure. A privilege, really. And even if I did trust you, now that I’ve had a taste, I’m not sure I’d let you go... Jack of Spades is a stand-alone romance in the interconnected Vegas Underground series. No cliffhangers, no cheating.

"Windsor Armstrong is a polished, Harvard-educated African American professor of Russian literature. Her son, Pushkin X, is an exceedingly famous pro football player, an achievement that impresses his mother not at all. Even more distressing, however, her beloved son has just become engaged to a gorgeous white Russian emigre who also happens to be a lap dancer." "For Windsor this predicament is no laughing matter. Determined to get to the bottom of it, she embarks on a journey into her own rich past to her Motown childhood, where the Temptations danced across the stage and love came disguised as a sharply dressed gangster; to Harvard, where she endured the humiliation of being an unwed black teen mother; to St. Petersburg, where the verses of the brilliant Russian poet Alexander Pushkin, great-grandson of an African slave, moved through her head as she made love to her own white Russian. The urge to protect her son has been Windsor's only goal, but as she draws ever closer to the secret that has cast a shadow over her life, the identity of her son's father, she discovers that the half-lies she has fed her boy don't add up to the beauty of the truth."--BOOK JACKET.