3-PLAYER TROEVEN!

Welcome to 3-Player Troeven, a fun card game designed for three players! The goal of the game is to be the first player to decrease your score to zero. How do you do it? By winning rounds, of course! To win a round, your team must score more points than your opponents.

Now, let me explain the two versions of the game. In version one, we use a dummy player, and in version two, we play with a smaller deck. Let’s dive in!

SETUP

To start, we need to choose the first dealer randomly. The dealer will change clockwise with each new round. Now, let’s modify our 52-card deck for the game. We’ll remove all cards numbered 6 or lower. This will give us a 32-card deck for version one. In version two, we’ll also take out the seven of clubs and spades, leaving us with a 30-card deck.

Once the deck is ready, the dealer will shuffle it and pass it to the player on their right to cut. It’s time to get the game started!

When it comes to version one of the game, I’ll start by dealing each player to my left a hand containing four cards. The player who receives the first hand gets to choose a trump suit, which doesn’t have to match the cards they hold. Once trumps are decided, I’ll continue dealing eight cards to each player to complete their hand. It’s worth mentioning that the player to my left will be partnering with the dummy player. As for the dummy player, I’ll deal them four cards face-down in a row, followed by four face-up cards on top.

Now, version two of the game has a slight variation. For this version, I’ll deal the player to my left a five-card hand. Then, that player will have the opportunity to select a trump suit. Once the trump suit is chosen, I’ll proceed to deal cards to each player until they have a total of ten cards in their hand.

Let’s Talk about Card Rankings and Values

We follow the traditional ranking of cards in this game. The Ace holds the highest value, followed by the King, Queen, Jack, 10, 9, 8, and 7, which holds the lowest value.

The cards come with scores attached. In this order, they’re worth 4 points, 3 points, 2 points, and 1 point. So, at the end of each round, you could earn up to 40 points.

TIME TO PLAY!

I’ll start, and we’ll go around in a clockwise direction. When it’s my turn, I can play any card. And when it’s your turn, you have two options: either play a card that matches the suit I played, or if you don’t have a matching card, you can play any card, including trumps.

If you’re wondering who wins each round – it’s the player with the highest-ranked trump card. But if there’s no trump card, then it’s the player with the highest-ranked card of the suit I played. Whoever wins each round gets to keep the cards and will lead the next round.

In version one, your partner will act as the dummy player. They are only allowed to play the faceup cards to the trick. As they play a faceup card, the one below it is turned face up as well.

In version 2, the gameplay remains the same as described above.

SCORING

Once all tricks have been won for the round, it’s time to start scoring.

In version one, each team starts with a score of 7. The team that scores the most points in the round will decrease their score by one. However, if the dealer’s team wins the round, the trump caller’s team must add a point to their score.

If both teams score an equal number of points in the round, there will be no change to either team’s score.

In version 2, each player starts with 5 points and points are added or removed as described above.

When playing traditional scoring, you start by splitting a piece of paper in half (or into thirds for version 2) with a long vertical line. Each side represents a team or player. Each team/player begins with 7 (5 for version 2) horizontal lines or branches. During a round, if a team earns more points, they can cancel out one of their lines by adding a ball to it. However, if the team of the trump caller loses, they must add a branch to their side.

The Game’s End

The game ends when a team or player reaches a score of 0 or cancels out all of their team’s branches. The first to achieve this wins!

The game ends when a team or player reaches a score of 0 or cancels out all of their team’s branches. The first to achieve this wins!