Discover Clumond

Welcome to the exciting world of Clumond! It’s a thrilling card game designed for three players. The objective of the game is simple: win the exact number of rounds you declare at the start.

Clumond was created by the talented Charles Magri, who has dedicated a whole page to the game. You can find additional resources and tips there to improve your Clumond skills.

In Clumond, you keep score using chips. Before each round begins, all players start with the same number of chips. It’s important to agree on a standard ante, which is the amount each player contributes to the pot at the start of each round.

Let’s Get Set Up

First, we need to modify the deck. Remove all the 10s from the deck to create a custom Clumond deck.

Next, all players contribute an equal stake to the pot as their ante.

To determine the dealer for each round, a random player is chosen, and the dealer position moves clockwise in subsequent rounds. Once the dealer is determined, the deck is shuffled, and each player receives 16 cards for their hand.

Understanding Card Ranking and Declarations

When it comes to Clumond, the ranking of the cards follows a standard order. The Ace is the highest, followed by the King, Queen, Jack, and numbers 9 to 2, which are in descending order.

The suits of the cards come into play during the declaration phase after each round. During gameplay, each player completes a total of 13 tricks. Once these tricks are finalized, the player’s remaining 3 cards determine their trick declaration for that round.

Each club card in your possession increases your trick declaration by 3. If you have any hearts, they will add 2 to your declaration. Having spades adds 1, while having a diamond card doesn’t affect your trick declaration. For example, if you end the round with a 3 of Hearts, a 7 of Spades, and a 4 of Diamonds, your trick declaration will be 3.

GAMEPLAY

When the cards are dealt to everyone, just before we start playing, we all have a chance to “go for Clumond.” It all starts with the player to the left of the dealer. If they choose not to take the offer, then it moves around the table in a clockwise direction.

If nobody decides to go for Clumond, then we play the round without any trumps and using standard scoring. The game begins with the player to the left of the dealer and continues in a clockwise direction.

But if a player does decide to go for Clumond, they get to declare any suit as trumps or they can choose no trump. This means that they will be teaming up with the other two players to compete for the entire pot. The player to the left of the one who declared trumps will start the play, and then we continue clockwise.

When we start a game, anyone can play any card to start the trick. Then, the other players have to follow suit if they can. But if they can’t, they can play any card they want. The trick is won by the highest trump, if there is one. But if there are no trumps or no trump suit for the round, then the trick is won by the highest-ranked card of the suit that was led. After winning a trick, the winner gets to lead the next trick.

We keep playing tricks until we’ve played 13 of them. And then, it’s time to start scoring.

SCORING

Once we’ve finished playing the 13 tricks, each player should have 3 cards left in their hand. The suits of these cards tell us how many tricks each player has won.

So here’s how it goes. When we play a regular round with no one being the boss, we all have to decide our declaration and tally up the scores. If I manage to win 10, 11, 12, or even all 13 tricks, all I have to do is subtract 10 from my score to see if I met my declaration. If I did, jackpot! I get a cut of the winnings. If not, well, I have to pay up. For every trick I’m off from my declaration, I need to toss in one chip into the pot.

For example, let’s say I won 9 tricks, but I only declared 5. That means I missed it by 4 tricks. So I have to pay 4 chips to the pot.

Once everyone has paid their dues to the pot, it’s time to divvy up the rewards. The players who nailed it, they get a cool one-third of all the chips in the pot, rounded down if needed.

If you’re playing with a declaring player like me, you’ll find that your declarations and payouts depend on whether you succeed in earning the exact number of tricks you declared. It’s a bit of a challenge, but quite exciting!

If you manage to succeed, you earn the entire pot. However, if you don’t quite hit the mark, the pot is split evenly and given to your two opponents. It’s a little disappointing, but it keeps things fair.

END OF GAME

The great thing about this game is that it doesn’t have a fixed ending. Before we start, we can decide if we want to play until someone reaches a certain score or for a set number of rounds. The winner in the end is either the player with the most chips at the time limit or the first player to reach the target score. It’s all about strategy and a bit of luck!

By the way, I’m Amber (They/Them). I’m not just a player, but also an Austin-based writer and a connoisseur of all things gaming. I consider myself a gaming master, and I have a soft spot for dogs, plants, and Dungeons & Dragons. Let’s enjoy the game together!