3-5-8

3-5-8, also known as Sergeant Major for its popularity among members of Britain's Royal Air Force, is a trick taking card game for 3 players, using a standard 52 card deck. 3-5-8 may be played as a gambling game, or not, and there are many variations with names like "8-5-3" and "9-5-2" played throughout the world.

Preliminaries

3 players use a 52-card deck. The object is to win as many tricks as possible, ultimately 12 in a single deal to win the game.

The first deal and exchange

Draw cards to determine the first dealer and deal 16 cards to each player, the 4 remaining cards are placed on the table to form a kitty. Dealer names a suit as trump and discards 4 cards from his or her hand before replacing them with the kitty.

Play

Eldest hand leads any card to the first trick and play moves clockwise with each player following suit, or playing any card if unable to follow suit. Each trick is won by the highest trump, or by the highest card of the suit led if no trump card was played to the trick. The winner of each trick leads to the next.

Targets and Scoring

Each player has a minimum number of tricks called a target. Targets are determined by each player's seat for that hand as follows:
* Eldest hand: 5
* Middle hand: 3
* Dealer: 8After all 16 tricks have been played, scores and targets are compared and players who won more tricks than their target are UP by the number of excess tricks, while players who fell short of their target are DOWN by a number of tricks. (If players are gambling, up players receive one stake per excess trick won, paid by down player who will have lost by the same number of tricks).

ubsequent deals and exchanges

Deal – and targets – are passed to the left and the new dealer deals the cards out as before, only now there is an exchange of cards before dealer names trump:
* Each player who was up on the previous hand gives one unwanted card per overtrick to a player who was down, and that player must return the highest card or cards that they hold of the same suit or suits. Players receiving cards in suits that they do not have, simply return those cards to the issuer instead of making an exchange.
* If two players were up, the player with the higher target for the hand about to be played trades first.
* After this exchange is complete, dealer names trumps, discards four cards and takes the kitty as before.
* If the dealer was down in the previous round and gave away the highest card of a suit, but then picks up one or more higher cards of that same suit, these high cards must be shown privately to players who traded cards in that suit. Play and scoring continues as above.

Ending the game

When a player wins 12 or more tricks in one hand, he or she wins the game.

Variations

Optional 5-3-8 rules

Any of the following rules may be incorporated in a normal game of 5-3-8:
* Dealer picks up the kitty and then discards instead of discarding before picking up.
* Game goes on until someone takes all sixteen tricks making for an extremely long (and often abandoned) game.

ergeant Major Alternate

Played as previous with 3-5-8 hands and a 4 card pot but with the exception that no cards are swapped should a player be down a set at the end of each round. Instead a score is kepted so if you are on a 3 hand and win 6 sets then you have scored +3, if you are on a 5 hand and get 4 then you have scored -1; in this way a running total is kept.

* 8 Hand must win a minimum of 8 sets
* 5 Hand must win a minimum of 5 sets
* 3 Hand must win a minimum of 3 sets

Anything over your minimum is a plus score and everything under your minimum is a minus score; 1 point per set.

However, there is an additional change in that you can only make one call of each type. The calls that the 8 hand can make are Hearts, Clubs, Diamonds, Spades, No Trumps (NT) and Miz (To lose each hand).

No Trumps, like the name suggests, the highest card wins providing it follows suite as the first card laid. So if 5 of Hearts is laid first followed by King of Clubs and then 10 of Hearts, the 10 of Hearts wins.

In a Miz call, the aim is to lose all your hands in this round and the amount you must win is now the maximum you can win without losing points.

Changes to positions for a Miz:

* 8 Hand can win a maximum of 3 sets
* 5 Hand can win a maximum of 5 sets
* 3 Hand can win a maximum of 8 sets

If you win under your maximum then this is a plus score and over is a minus score; 1 point per set. So, should you be allowed to win 3 sets and you actually win 5 then you have scored -2, if you win 1 set in the same position then you have scored +2. The 5 hand is allowed to win 5 hands maximum so if they have won 4 then they have scored +1.

This game is played until all three parties have played all five calls that can be made.

6-3-8

6-3-8 is a good game for 3 people whose deck is one card short. It is played the same as 5-3-8 except for the following:
* Preliminaries: A card (usually 2♣, but any will do) is removed the pack and the game is played with only 51 cards.
* Deal: 17 cards to each player – There is no kitty.
* Targets: Eldest hand's target is 6 instead of 5. Other targets are the same.
* Scoring: Scores are kept on paper: +1 for each trick above target, -1 for each trick below.
* Game: Winner is the first person to reach +10 points.

9-5-2

A Canadian variant whose rules are the same as in 5-3-8 except for the following:
*The targets for the three players are:
** Eldest hand: 5
** Middle hand: 2
** Dealer: 9
* After trading cards and choosing trump, the dealer picks up the four kitty cards before discarding four.
* Players' cumulative scores are recorded on paper as in 6-3-8 (above). Thus, the total score of all three players will always be zero.
* Game is played until one player has reached a predetermined score of either +10 or +20 points

9-5-2 Variation

This variation of a variation plays 9-5-2 with the following changes:
*Eldest and middle hands' targets are switched so that each is trying to win the following number of tricks:
** Eldest hand: 2
** Middle hand: 5
** Dealer: 9
*The order of exchanging cards and making trumps is:
# Dealer picks up the four kitty cards and then discards four
# Players with positive scores on the previous hand pass cards
# Dealer names trump
# Players with negative scores pass back their highest cards in the suits they were given
* The game continues until someone reaches or exceeds either +15 or -15. Whoever has the highest score at that time is the winner.

3-5-9 University High School, University of Illinois - Variation

This variation was played in the 70s and 80s at University High School in Urbana, Ill.
* 9 is the dealer; 5 always leads with the first trick. The deal rotates to the next higher number of tricks to get (3 becomes 5, 5 becomes 9, 9 becomes 3).
* Cards are passed before trump is called and the kitty is picked up. If two people are passing to the same third person, the person who got the first "up" trick gets to pass first.
* 9 calls trump, picks up the kitty and then discards. The kitty becomes 9's first trick.

External links

* [http://www.gamedesire.com/online.game-358.html Play 3-5-8 online at Game Desire]
* [http://www.kurnik.org/intl/en/358/ ...or at Kurnik Online Games]
* [http://cardcol.sourceforge.net/ Cardgame collection] A collection of card games including a 6-3-8 variation for Unix (Linux)