Card Games
9 Best Card Games For 3 People – They’re Legendary!
Sep
3 is the number of harmony, understanding, and wisdom, as is the group of 3 people. Therefore, there gotta be some card games that deepen your connections and help you have unforgettable times. Lucky you, we’ve thought of it all and will share a list of the top 10 card games for 3 people so that you can choose your favorite of them all.
- Cribbage;
- Ninety-Nine;
- Oh Hell!
- Regicide;
- Durak;
- Skat;
- Dou Dizhu;
- Hearts;
- Sergeant Major;
These aren’t drinking games, mates. If you’re looking for one, nothing beats Sip & Challenge!
1. Cribbage
A standard deck of cards is used.
When playing Cribbage, the classic game of cards and wooden board, the main objective is scoring points while making different card combinations. You will move cards and make sure your running total doesn’t exceed 31. If the latter happens, you say ‘Go’, and let the other player continue playing. Depending on the score of each pair, run, or more, you will move your peg ahead. The first player to beg out of the board is the winner. More on the rules and an example round can be found here.
2. Ninety-Nine
A standard deck of cards & 15 chips are used.
In Ninety-Nine, there’s one dealer who deals everyone 3 cards and 5 chips. Players in their turn must play a card into the deck, and draw another from the draw pile. Whenever a card is played, it adds up the total value of the playing deck, with number cards being counted as their face value, face cards being worth 10 points, and an Ace is worth either 1 or 11. However, 4s and 9s are worth 0 points, 10s either add or subtract 10 from the total value, and Kings set the value to 99. Whenever you can’t play without exceeding 99, you play a chip. The last player to remain with chips wins. Watch How To Play 99 for more details!
3. Oh Hell!
A deck of 52 cards is used.
When playing Oh Hell! all players are dealt 12 cards, and the remaining deck is the draw pile. The first card of this pile gets turned over, and the suit of this card becomes the trump suit. Players take a look at their cards and guess how many tricks they will win. After each player plays a card of the same suit as the leader, the trick is won by whoever has the highest value card of that suit: ace is the highest, and 2 is the lowest. The cards of the trump suit beat any other suit in the game. Players get one point for each won trick in the game, plus 10 additional points if they exactly guessed the number of tricks they’ll win, as explained here.
4. Regicide
A standard deck of cards OR a special Regicide deck is used.
If you’re into more challenging card games, Regicide is the one to look for. This isn’t a competition between you three, but it’s simply you against the enemies. Each number in the cards tells you the attack value you could use to fight the bad. All four suits in the game have a different power, and our favorite one is definitely black spades, which provide double the damage of the attack power. The game continues until the last King is defeated (which means you all win), or a player dies, and everyone loses. Here’s a meticulous video to watch: Regicide Learn to Play.
5. Durak
36 cards from the deck are used.
To play Durak, you only use cards from Ace to 6, with Ace being the highest and 6 the lowest. Players play cards and beat each other if they have a card in a higher rank in the same suit or in the trump suit of the round. Attackers can keep attacking and beating cards if they have cards of the exact same rank. If defenders can’t defend the attacks, they take all the cards in the middle into their hands. The goal of the game is to avoid being the last player with remaining cards in their hand, otherwise, you become the Durak. More on the gameplay of Durak is explained here.
6. Skat
32 cards from the standard deck are used.
Skat, the very famous card game, requires cards from Aces (the highest) to 7 (the lowest) to be included. Each player is dealt 10 cards, and 2 cards are placed in the middle, known as the Skat. This one’s a trick-taking game as well, with the highest-ranked card winning each trick. In Skat, we have eight multipliers, and a win is just one of them. We have Matadors, Hand, Schneider, Schwarz, Open, and more. How To Play Skat explains all these perfectly. However, as assumed, whoever has the highest score, wins!
7. Dou Dizhu
A 52-card deck, 1 black Joker & 1 red Joker are used, also, money or chips.
We don’t say no to a Chinese climbing card game such as Dou Dizhu, do we? Card rank goes from red Joker, black Joker, 2, Ace, all the way to 3 which is the lowest. After everyone bids, the highest bidder becomes the landlord. Players play cards depending on their rank and make one of the 13 card combinations, starting from the single to the quadplex set. The game ends when one player runs out of cards. If the landlord wins, everyone gives them the bidding money. Otherwise, the landlord pays them all. How to Play Dou Dizhu will be a great help if you decide to play it.
8. Hearts
A deck of 52 cards is used.
Hearts is our all-time comfort game played with a deck of cards. For the 3-player version, Jokers and 2 diamonds should be removed, so everyone gets 17 cards. The 3 of clubs is the opening lead, and everyone must follow suit to play a card. If they don’t have a matching suit, another card of a different suit can be discarded, except for it being a heart or a Queen of Spades. The highest card of the leading suit wins the trick. Whoever takes all the 13 hearts and the Queen of Spades in their hand, scores 0 points, and the opponents get 26 points. The player with the lowest score wins. Just like this video explains.
9. Sergeant Major
A 52-card standard deck is used.
Start Sargent Major by dealing everyone 16 cards, and leaving the remaining cards in the middle, as the draw pile. The dealer aims to win 8 tricks, the player to the dealer’s left aims to win 5, while the player to their right aims to win 3. Players take turns playing cards, and of course, whoever has the highest value card, wins the trick. When you run out of cards, everyone counts the number of tricks they’ve won and compares it to the goal number of tricks which is different for each player. Although the gameplay is pretty simple, if you’d like more details, watch How To Play Sergeant Major.
Final Thoughts
Although each game can be adapted for various numbers of players, we made sure to include ones that were made & work best as 3-player card games. We adde trick-taking, poker, story-telling, non-competitive ones, and more, so no matter what your preferences on card games are, you will definitely find one you love with all your heart.
