Sloppy Seconds

By

Players: 3 or 4

Equipment: Standard Deck, No Jokers

Object: Score the SECOND most number of points of each suit in each hand.

Deal: Deal out all the cards evenly. If three are playing, remove the 2 of Clubs. Player to the dealer's left leads the first trick.

Play: Standard trick taking rules apply. The first player leads a card, the others must follow suit if they can otherwise they may play any card. The highest card of the led suit takes the trick unless a trump suit is played in which case the highest trump takes it. At the start of the hand, however, there is no trump suit yet.

Rank and Scoring: Each card is worth its face value with Jacks=11, Queens=12 and Kings=13. Aces rank highest for taking tricks but are only worth one point for scoring.

Setting Trump: The SECOND suit to be "broken in" during a hand immediately becomes the trump suit. A suit is "broken" when it is played after a different suit was led. The first suit broken in becomes ineligible for trump. The second suit can be broken in during the same trick as the first broken suit or during a subsequent trick.

Scoring: At the end of the hand, each player separates and totals the points they won by suit. Players then compare their scores for each suit.

Players who are first or tied for first get no points for cards of that suit.

Players who are second or tied for second get the points for cards of that suit.

Players who are third or fourth get no points for cards of that suit.

Anyone who scores less than five points for a hand automatically gets a score of five points for that hand.

Play up to 300 or maybe 364 which is the total number of points in the deck. Remember, there are 91 points total for each suit.

(I posted this on the cheapass mailbox and boardgamegeek.com with no response. Perhaps you and your associates could try this idea out and let me know if it works for you or if it is too derivative of something else you've played. Thanks and enjoy.)

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