3 Player Card Games to Play with Friends

There’s no greater feeling than the rush of winning at card games. The feeling gets even better when you play cards with your friends. From hometown buddies to college gangs, 3 player card games are perfect to play with any kind of social circle. The 52-card dack offers a wide range of 3-player card games to improve your creativity, bluff calling, and situation reading skills. You can play three-player card games at any time and anywhere, without much preparation beforehand. Each variation of 3 player games requires a different set of skills, experience, and room reading ability. Some games may require quick decision-making, while others may require better bluffing. From Rummy to Crazy Eights, in this article, we’ll cover a wide range of unique, fun, and interesting 3 player card games to play for you to enjoy with your friends.

Three Player Hearts

Usually, people play hearts in a minimum group of four people, but it works just fine with 3 people as well. In the three-player version of Hearts, 17 cards are given or dealt to each person. The leftover extra cards are called kitty. You have to keep them face down and give them to the person who wins the first trick. It’s played like regular hearts, to keep the score low by avoiding hearts and Queen of Spades. Each heart card is equal to one point, and queen spade is equal to thirteen points. You can’t lead with hearts until or unless they are broke (played on another suit). This three-player version is much faster and usually requires more strategy because you have more cards and you naturally have to pay closer attention to what’s been played.

Cutthroat Spades

Cutthroat Spades is specifically designed to keep 3 player criteria in mind. The goal is simple, you have to win the tricks that you bid. The catch is, unlike regular spades, you have to play against two players, and there’s no partner to help you. That’s why the bidding part of games becomes more intense and thrilling. Spades are always trump, so the first card that you bid sets the course of suit. If you don’t have the means to follow suit, you may throw any random card at your disposal, even a spade, in an attempt to win the trick. The whole shenanigan of sabotaging one player by pairing another makes the whole concept fun. But remember, there are only three of you, so the alliance can shift anytime. Hence, you need a good memory, and quick adapting nature.

Three Way Cribbage

Just like Cutthirat Spades, cribbage is usually played in groups of two to four players. But hey, today our focus is on a three-player version, and cribbage can be adapted for that.
In this three-player game, 5 cards are given out or dealt to all three players, out of which everyone has to give one back as a discarded card to form the crib. This crib is under the control of the dealer. Now players one by one turn a card in an attempt to create a combination of numbers that adds up to 15, runs, pairs, and flushes The combination of 15 equals 2 points, the pair also gives you 2 points, runs give you one point per card and you get either 5 or 4 points for flushes. Jack belonging to the same suit is equal to one point. The crib is the score at last, and players use the movement of their pegs on the board to keep track of scores. The final aim is to reach 121 points as soon as possible.

99 ( Ninty-Nine )

Ninety Nine or 99, is a fairly popular 3 person card game to play at home. It’s a trick-taking game combined with modified rules to further improve the challenge and entertainment aspect of this trick card game category. This variation requires you to be good with calculation in the head, quick memory, and adaptability. To play the game, 12 cards are given to each player, and the rest of the 16 cards are kept face down on the side. Players now play their cards one by one, and the total score is calculated on the go. To remain in the game, your goal must not exceed 99. If your score exceeds 99, then you have to collect the cards and start again. The person left with the least number of tricks ( card combos ) at the end wins the game. Scoring System is quite simple. Ace is worth 1 or 11 points. The face card is worth 10 points. Number cards are worth their face value. King will reverse the direction, the queen will be equal to 99 points directly, the jack card has no value, and 9 subtracts the 10.

President

President is a unique and interesting card game that can be thoroughly enjoyed by a group of three friends. It’s usually known as capitalism or scum, which ironically fits well with the nitty gritty of our modern society. It’s a shedding game, where you win by getting rid of all your cards as soon as possible. It’s fast-paced and requires you to be on your feet ( metaphorically ) all the time. You start by dealing 17 cards to each player and keeping the extra cards aside. The first player can play any card or a set of cards from the same rank. Subsequent players either have to play the same number of cards from a higher rank or choose to pass. If everyone decides to pass, then the last player has to start the new rounds. The first player to get rid of all cards becomes President for the next round, the second becomes Vice President, and the last is the Scum. In the next round, Scum gives their best card to President. There’s no point system in this 3 player game as such, and the main aim is to become president as many times as possible.

Oh Hell

Oh Hell, is one of the best 3 player games involving cards that you can play with your friends. Continuing its nomenclature legacy, the game is also popularly known as Pshaw or Up and Down the Rives in certain regions. The game follows a unique bidding system, wherein total tricks bid by the player cannot be equal to the available number. This makes things interesting because every time group is left with one person who bid incorrectly during each round. The game consists of multiple rounds, starting with each player getting one card and increasing by one each round until you run out of cards, then decreasing back down to one. Players bid on how many tricks they think they’ll win each round. 10 points are awarded to players who make exact bids, and one extra point for each trick they take. If the bid made by the player is not exact, no points are awarded to them, regardless of how many tricks they took.

Conclusion

Well, that’s a wrap. We hope you learned something new today from the above-mentioned card games to play with friends. All the games mentioned in this list can be played either in person or on online platforms like Solitaire Card Games Online. The games may sound tricky at first, but once you start playing, things will become much smoother over time. It’s quite easy to get the hang of these games once you get a full picture of the point system and individual rank and power of cards in 52 Deck. So pick one today and start exploring in detail with your friends to make your get-together more fun and engaging.