Thirty-One

Players and equipment

Two to nine players, each for themselves, and a standard 52-card pack with no jokers. Three is often said to be the best number, but it works with a large table too. Each player also needs three lives: pennies, counters, matches, anything you can push into the middle. Thirty-One goes by many names — 31, Scat, Blitz, Ride the Bus, Stop the Bus, Cabbage, Cadillac, Kitty, High Hat, Geronimo — and the rules differ only in house details. It is a five-minute hand with a card-counting edge, which is why it has been played for small change for as long as anybody can remember.

Cards have a value and nothing else; rank and sequence mean nothing.

Ace

11

The best card in the pack

King, queen or jack

10

Any picture card

Ten down to two

10 to 2

Pip value

Your hand is three cards, and it is worth the best total you can make in one suit. Three cards of one suit add all three. Two of one suit add the two, unless the odd card on its own is higher, in which case the odd card is your hand. Three suits and your hand is your highest card. The most a hand can be is 31: an ace and two ten-point cards of the same suit. That is the hand the game is named for.

SquareScores keeps the record. There is no running score in Thirty-One, only who is still in, so the table is a match table set up as a knockout: one game, from three lives each down to one survivor, is one match, and a player is tapped as they go out. More on that under Scoring.

The deal

Choose a first dealer any way you like; the deal passes to the left after every hand. Shuffle, and deal three cards to each player one at a time, starting on the dealer's left. Turn the next card face up to start the discard pile and put the rest face down beside it as the stock. Keep the discard pile squared up so only the top card shows — digging through it is not part of this game.

Look at your cards before anybody plays. A player dealt 31 outright shows it at once: there is no play, and everybody else loses a life. If two players are dealt 31, both are safe and everybody else pays.

Play

The player on the dealer's left goes first, and play goes to the left. A turn is two things, in order: draw one card, from the top of the stock without looking or from the top of the discard pile, then discard one card face up onto the discard pile. You always hold three cards between turns. If you took the top discard you may not put the same card straight back; you must discard a card you already held. If you drew from the stock you may discard the card you just drew, which keeps your hand as it was and tells the table nothing about it.

Instead of drawing, at the start of your turn you may knock. Rap the table, and your turn is over with your hand unchanged. Every other player then has one more turn, round to the player on your right, who goes last. Then all hands are shown and the lowest loses a life. Knock when you believe your hand is not the lowest and at least one other player cannot beat it with one more draw. Knock too early and you lose two lives, because a knocker who turns out lowest pays double.

If you reach 31 during play — after your draw and discard — show your hand straight away. The hand is over, you are safe, and everybody else loses a life. That holds even after somebody has knocked: a 31 shown in the last round costs everyone else a life, the knocker included. A 31 you do not show counts as 30; if somebody else then shows one, you pay with the rest.

With exactly two players left in the game, a small mercy: if your opponent knocks, on your final turn you may draw your own last discard from the pile instead of a stock card, then discard as usual. It is the one time in the game you may pick up a card you put down.

If the stock runs out, play goes on only while each player in turn takes the top discard. The moment the player to move declines it, the hand stops where it is and hands are shown; the lowest loses a life as if somebody had knocked, with no double penalty for anyone.

Scoring

There is no score to add up. There are three lives in front of each player, and a hand costs some of them.

Lowest hand after a knock

1 life

Not the knocker

Lowest hand after a knock

2 lives

The knocker

Tied for lowest with the knocker

1 life each

The other tied players pay, the knocker does not

Tied for lowest, no knocker among them

1 life each

Every tied player

31 shown

1 life each

Everyone except whoever showed it

Stock runs out, nobody knocked

1 life each

The lowest hand, or each of the lowest

Lives go into the middle as they are lost. A player who has lost all three is on the county — also called on poverty, on your honour, on welfare or floating — and plays on, but the next hand they lose puts them out of the game. Lose two lives in one hand with only one left and you are out at once. The last player with a life, or alone on the county with everybody else gone, wins.

On SquareScores a whole game of Thirty-One is one match on the match table, set up as a knockout, so the taps run backwards. Tap a player's name the moment they are out of the game — the hand that cost them their last life — and they take the place that is the number of players still in: with five at the table, the first one out is fifth. The tap that leaves one player standing crowns that player in the same motion and files the match. A game that stops short is End match, which banks the places given so far and leaves the rest reading out. The host chooses at launch between winner-takes-all, where every player tapped out reads out and the survivor won, and ranked, where the survivor and the last two to fall carry three, two and one points and the players below the podium read out. Two players going out on the same hand are tapped one after the other in whatever order the table prefers; the app will give them the next two places. SquareScores deals nothing and never sees a card: the lives are pennies on the table and the hands are in your fists, and the app only hears who has gone.

A worked hand

Four players: Alice, Ben, Cara and Dev, each with three pennies. Dev deals. Alice draws, builds and knocks a few turns in holding the ace, nine and four of hearts. Ben, Cara and Dev each take one more turn.

Alice

24

Ace, nine, four of hearts: 11 + 9 + 4

Ben

17

King and seven of spades, ace of clubs: 10 + 7 beats the lone 11

Cara

10

Queen of diamonds, queen of hearts, five of clubs: three suits, so the highest card

Dev

22

Jack, ten and two of clubs: 10 + 10 + 2

Cara is lowest on 10 and pushes one penny into the middle. Alice knocked and was not lowest, so she pays nothing; had Ben, Cara and Dev all beaten her 24, she would have paid two. Nobody is out yet, so nothing is tapped. Cara loses three more hands, the last of them on the county, and the tap on her name writes fourth. Dev goes next, third; and when Ben loses his last penny against Alice, the tap on Ben writes second for Ben and first for Alice together, and the match files. On a ranked table Alice has three points, Ben two and Dev one, and Cara reads out; on a winner-takes-all table Alice reads won and the other three read out.

Ending

Hands are played and lives are lost until one player remains. That player wins the game and, at most tables, the pennies in the middle. A hand in which every player left is on the county and the stock runs out with equal lowest hands and no knock is a wash: deal it again. Then shuffle up for the next game; on the sheet the next match is already waiting under the one just filed.

Pick a suit by the second card

With three cards there is no time to be flexible. Look at your deal and choose the suit you are collecting straight away, usually the one you hold two of, or the one holding your ace. Then every draw is a yes or no: a card of your suit stays, anything else goes back on the pile. Players who change suit twice in a hand are the ones who get caught on 14 when somebody knocks.

Count to 17 before you feel safe

A single picture card is 10 and a lone ace 11, so a hand below 17 is very often the lowest at the table. Two cards of one suit that add to 17 or more will beat anybody still sitting on one card, and most knocks are made on 20 to 25. If you are below 17 after two draws, you are the player the knock is aimed at, and you should take a risk on the discard pile rather than wait.

Knock early, not well

The knocker's hand does not have to be good; it has to not be the worst. The best moment to knock is the first turn after you are confident at least one other player is behind you — a player who has been throwing away cards of three different suits, or who picked up a low card from the pile. Every turn you wait gives them a draw, and a hand that looked worst on 12 can be 23 two turns later. The double penalty is the only reason to hesitate, so hesitate only when two or more players look to be level with you.

Watch the discards, not just your own hand

The discard pile is the only public information in the game, and it says a great deal. A player who discards a king is not collecting that suit; one who takes a low card from the pile has a hand that was lower than it. If three spades have gone by and you hold two, the ace of spades is still out there and your odds are good; if the ace went into somebody else's hand from the pile, they are at 21 or better and you are no longer the knocker.

Use the stock when you have nothing to hide

Taking from the discard pile tells the table exactly what suit you want. Drawing from the stock tells them nothing, and discarding the card you drew tells them even less. Early in a hand, when you are close to 20 and happy to wait, draw blind and throw the draw back; the knock will come to you from a player who thinks you are stuck.

Knocker loses two on a tie

At some tables a knocker who ties for lowest loses two lives, and the players tied with them lose one each — the reverse of the main rule, where the knocker is safe on a tie. Other tables go the other way again and say only the knocker pays on a tie. Agree which before the first knock, because a tie is exactly the moment people argue.

One life for a bad knock

A gentler game: a knocker who turns out lowest loses one life, the same as anybody else. It makes knocking cheap and the hands shorter, and it suits a table of children or a crowd of nine, where waiting for a safe knock would take all afternoon.

Three of a kind

Three cards of the same rank, which the basic game counts only as a single card, are often given a value. Most tables call them 30, equal to three ten-point cards of one suit; some call them 30 and a half, beating everything except a true 31. A rarer house rule makes a run of three in one suit 30 too, with ace, king, queen of a suit counting the full 31.

Minimum to knock

Some tables forbid a knock below a set total — 17, 19 or 21 — or allow one only with three cards of one suit. It stops the player on the dealer's left knocking blind on the first turn, which is otherwise a legal and infuriating play.

Knocking under the gun

The first player may knock before drawing, so the hand is settled on the deal alone. Some tables call it a hammer or a shotgun and make you choose before you look: call a showdown blind, and everybody shows what they were dealt. The lowest loses one life, or two if it was the caller.

Cadillac

A regional version in which 31 is called a Cadillac, three aces are a Grand Cadillac worth 33, any other three of a kind is 30, and players start with four lives instead of three. A knocker who ties for lowest loses two lives and the players tied with them lose nothing.

Ride the Bus

The same game with the lives given names. Everybody starts at the back of the bus; lose a hand and you move to the middle, then the front, then the stairs, and the next loss puts you off the bus and out of the game. Tables add stops by agreement to make the game last. Stop the Bus is another name for this game, and also the name of a different game built on Brag hands, so ask which one the table means.

Gin lives

Lives are letters, G, I and N, spelt out across the hands you lose, and the knock is turned round: a knock claims the highest hand at the table, and if it is, everybody else takes a letter, while a beaten knocker takes one. A 31 shown gives everybody else a letter. Three letters and you are out.

How do you play 31 with cards?

Deal three cards each and turn one up to start a discard pile. On your turn draw one card from the stock or the discard pile and discard one, trying to hold three cards of one suit worth as close to 31 as you can, with aces 11 and picture cards 10. When you think you are not the lowest, knock instead of drawing; everybody else gets one more turn, then hands are shown and the lowest loses a life. Show 31 at any time to win the hand outright. Three lives each; the last player still in wins.

How many cards do you get in Thirty-One?

Three, and you always hold three between turns: one card in, one card out. There is no building or laying down. The hand is scored on its best single suit, so three cards is the most you can ever count.

What happens if the knocker has the lowest hand in 31?

The knocker loses two lives instead of one. If the knocker merely ties for lowest, the main rule has the other tied players paying and the knocker safe; some tables reverse that and charge the knocker two on a tie, so settle it before you play. A knocker whose hand is beaten by every other player has made the worst knock in the game.

What is on the county in Thirty-One?

A player who has lost all three lives but has not yet been knocked out. They play on with nothing in front of them, and the next hand they lose puts them out. Tables call it on poverty, on your honour, on welfare or floating; in Ride the Bus it is the stairs.

Can you knock on the first turn in 31?

In the main rules yes: knocking replaces the draw, and the player on the dealer's left may knock before taking a card. A knock on a dealt hand is a gamble that somebody at the table was dealt three suits and a low card. Many tables rule it out with a minimum total to knock, or allow a first-turn showdown only when called before anybody looks at their cards.

Is Scat the same game as 31?

Yes. Scat, 31, Blitz, Cabbage, Kitty, Ride the Bus and Stop the Bus are all names for the same three-card knock-and-lose-a-life game, differing only in house rules about ties, three of a kind and how many lives you start with. Cadillac is a close cousin with four lives and three aces worth 33. Schwimmen, the German 31, is a cousin: the same three-card hand and the same 31, with a central pool of cards swapped instead of a draw and a discard. Blitz here is not Dutch Blitz, which is a racing patience game.