3-5-8

How to play 3-5-8

Three players use 52 cards, aces high, with 16 cards each and a four-card kitty. The dealer needs eight tricks, the next player clockwise five, and the remaining player three. We use the Sergeant Major rules linked below.

After any owed exchanges, the dealer chooses a trump suit, discards four cards, then takes the unseen kitty. The player left of the dealer leads. Follow suit when possible; otherwise play any card. Highest trump wins, or highest led-suit card if there is no trump. The winner leads next.

After a deal, each trick above or below your quota earns +1 or −1. Deal rotates clockwise. On the next deal, players who exceeded quota give one unwanted card per excess trick to players who fell short; each recipient returns their highest card in the same suit, including the offered card if it is highest.

One winning player selects all outgoing cards before any returns. If two players exceeded quota, the player with the higher new quota exchanges first. If a dealer gave away a high card and draws a higher card of that suit from the kitty, it is privately revealed to the trading player.

The first player to take at least twelve tricks in one deal wins. Running points record performance and determine neither the winner nor future exchange counts: exchanges use only the previous deal.

Rules reference: Pagat — Sergeant Major / 3-5-8. The computer chooses legal moves from its own hand and public play.

Questions

What do 3, 5 and 8 mean?

They are trick quotas: the dealer needs eight, the next player five, and the third player three. The quotas rotate with the deal.

When does 3-5-8 end?

Under these Sergeant Major rules, a player wins by taking at least twelve of the sixteen tricks in a single deal.