Welcome to Cutthroat Canadian Smear

Are you ready to play Cutthroat Canadian Smear? It’s a fun card game for 2 or 3 players where the goal is to reach a score of 11 before your opponents do.

In this game, you play by yourself, competing against the other players.

How to Set Up the Game

To start, the first dealer is randomly chosen and then passes to the left for each new deal.

The deck is shuffled, and each player is dealt 6 cards. The remaining deck is put aside.

Understanding Card Rankings and Point Values

In Cutthroat Canadian Smear, the cards are ranked in the following order: Ace (highest), King, Queen, Jack, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, and 2 (lowest).

During the game, there are certain cards or criteria that will earn players points if they win them.

In the game, players can earn points by winning certain cards or meeting specific criteria. Points can be obtained through the high trump, low trump, Jack, and Game.

The high trump point is given to the player who plays the ace of trump. The low trump point goes to the player who plays the lowest numeric trump in play, which is usually the 2 of trumps but can be any lowest one in play. Jack is awarded to the player who wins the jack of trump in a trick. Finally, the game point is given to the player who scores the highest total points throughout the game.

To calculate the game point, players add up the points from the cards they have won in tricks. Each ace is worth 4 points, each king is worth 3 points, each queen is worth 2 points, each jack is worth 1 point, each 10 is worth 10 points, and the joker is worth 1 point.

Alright, let’s go over the details of this game. There are 4 points up for grabs in total.

BIDDING

Now, once we’ve all gotten our hands, it’s time to start the bidding. We’ll begin with the player on the dealer’s left, and take turns bidding higher than the previous player or passing. Each of us only gets one shot at bidding. Our bids indicate how many of those points we believe we can win in a round.

Remember, the minimum bid is 2, and the maximum bid we can make is 4.

If everyone else passes, then we reshuffle the cards and have a redealt by the same dealer.

The bidding phase comes to an end when the dealer either makes a bid or passes, or when someone bids the maximum of 4. The highest bidder is then declared the winner and they become the bidder for this round.

GAMEPLAY

When it’s my turn to bid, I start the game by playing the first card. The suit of this card determines the trump suit. Then, we take turns playing cards in a clockwise fashion. If a player has a card of the same suit as the one led, they must play a card of that suit. However, if they don’t have a card of the same suit, they can play any card, including trumps.

The winner of each trick is determined by the highest-ranked trump card. If there are no trumps played, then the highest card of the suit led wins the trick. The player who wins the trick collects it and leads the next trick.

Once all six tricks have been played, the round comes to an end.

Scoring

After each round, we calculate the scores.

When you place a bid, you determine if it was successful or not. If you win, you earn points equal to the number you bid – it could be more than your bid! But if you lose, the number you bid is subtracted from your score. Sometimes, you may end up with a negative score. The other players also score points and add them to their own scores.

The End of the Game

The game continues until one player reaches a score of 11. Once a player reaches 11 points, they must make a bid and win it in order to win the game. The first player to do this is the winner. However, if any player has at least one point and successfully bids 4, they automatically win the game too.

I’m Amber (They/Them), an avid writer and gaming enthusiast from Austin. I consider myself a master of gaming, and I have a deep love for dogs, plants, and D&D.