Teach Yourself Card Games is a concise introduction to the most common card games played in the Anglo-Saxon world. The book is not an encyclopedia, so it does not attempt to present every significant game or every significant variant. The book introduces a select handful of games of different types, and explains their rules (usually just one version without mentioning too many variants) and basic strategies in a clear and unambiguous manner. In particular, the strategy sections are more extensive than usual in general card game books.

If the book is not extensive with respect to different games, it is extensive with respect to different types of games. In the book there are, among others, plain-trick games, bid-trick games, point-trick games, plain rummy, meld-scoring rummy, banking games, vying games, shedding games, and even one game of the asshole /dalmuti group.

The book even attempts to feature Bridge. Of course, it cannot be done properly in 20 pages or so, but card game book writers usually make this attempt. Parlett's attempt is one of the better ones. When he explains bidding, he does not just give a list of bids or their meanings, but rather tries to explain general goals behing bidding, which makes the text more compeherensible than usual.