Sergeant major (card game)

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3-5-8, also known as sergeant major for its popularity among members of the 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, and there are many variations with names like "8-5-3" and "9-5-2" played throughout the world. [1]

Contents

Preliminaries

Three 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. When a player wins 12 or more tricks in one hand, they win the game.

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. Some groups allow the dealer to pick up the kitty and add it to his or her hand before discarding any 4 cards of the 20 they now have.

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:

After 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.

Subsequent 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:

Play and scoring continues as above. As the game proceeds, a players target moves up, i.e., 3, 5 then 8 and back to three and so on.

Variations

Optional 3-5-8 rules

Any of the following rules may be incorporated in a normal game of 3-5-8:

Optional Woburn rules

Two optional rules were created to try to balance the game. These rules were used at Woburn Collegiate Institute in the early 90s.

  • First round bidding: The dealer position is determined by the players bidding on the number of tricks they plan on getting if that player was the dealer. Bids must be at least eight tricks. Bidding starts with the dealer of the first hand and goes clockwise. Once all players have passed, the player who bid the highest becomes dealer for the first round and play continues as normal. If all players passed, then the hand is re-dealt with the deal being passed clockwise. To balance out the trick quota, the number of tricks that the other two positions need to get would be reduced as follows: 8-5-3, 9-4-3, 10-4-2, 11-3-2, 12-2-2, 13-2-1, 14-1-1, 15-1-0, 16-0-0.
  • Maximum bleed: Card exchanges are limited to a maximum of three cards. Priority for starting the exchange went to the player who needed to collect more tricks, which is the same order that card exchanges are made. Once a player has exchanged three cards, no more cards are exchanged with that person. e.g. If the 8 position was +2 and the 5 position was +2, and the 3 position was - 4, then the 8 position would exchange two cards with the 3 position, and then the 5 position would only exchange one card. If there is more than one recipient of the exchange, the priority is reversed. e.g. If the 8 position was +4 and both the 5 and 3 positions were -2, then the 8 position would exchange one card with the 5 position and two cards with the 3 position.

Sergeant major alternate

Played as previously with 3-5-8 hands and a 4 card kitty.

Instead of swapping cards at the end of each round, a running total is kept. Anything over the minimum is a plus score and everything under the minimum is a minus score; 1 point per trick. If the 3-hand player wins 6 tricks then they have scored +3, and if the 5-hand player wins 4 tricks then they have scored -1.

The other change is that each player can only make one call of each type. The calls that the 8-hand player can make are:

In a no trumps call, the trick is won by the highest-ranked card of the suit that was lead. So if 5 is played first followed by K and then 10, the 10 wins.

A miz round is played as a no trumps round, but the aim is to lose tricks and the usual minimum needed to win instead becomes the maximum that may be won without losing points.

If a player wins under their maximum then this is a plus score and if they win over it is a minus score; 1 point per trick. So, if the 3-hand player wins 5 tricks, then the score is -2, if they win 1 trick then the score is +2. The 5-hand player is allowed to win 5 tricks without penalty, so if they have won 4 tricks then they have a score of +1.

The game is played until all three players have played all six 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:

9-5-2

A Canadian variant whose rules are the same as in 5-3-8 except for the following:

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:
  1. Dealer picks up the four kitty cards and then discards four
  2. Players with positive scores on the previous hand pass cards
  3. Dealer names trump
  4. 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. [2]

9-5-3 variation using single card kitty

Play is as before with each aiming for 9, 5 and 3 respectively, except:

  • All cards are dealt except for the one remaining card, which is placed face up on the table. This card is available to the player who holds the two of diamonds, and proceed by swapping if they wish to. If the card happens to be 2, no swap is possible.
  • Play continues until one player wins 13 tricks with one hand, who is then declared the winner.

See also

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References

  1. Parlett 2008, p. 53.
  2. "Rules of Card Games: Sergeant Major". www.pagat.com.

Parlett, David (August 2008). The Penguin Book of Card Games. Penguin. p. 53. ISBN   9780141916101.