How to Play Clubs
Description
Three players, thirteen tricks, and a quota of four each — which doesn't divide evenly on purpose. Every trick above or below your quota moves you a point in one direction or the other.
Objective
Win more than your quota of four tricks. Everyone owes four, there are thirteen to go round, and the arithmetic guarantees somebody misses.
Setup
Three players and a standard deck. Deal all 52 cards into four hands of thirteen — one each, plus a spare left face down in the middle.
Clubs are trumps for every hand. Ace is high in every suit.
Rules
In turn, each player either keeps their hand or swaps it entirely for the spare, putting their own cards down as the new spare. More than one player can swap.
Follow suit if you can. Beyond that, you must beat the highest card played so far if you are able — so if you cannot follow suit and hold a club, you must play it.
You cannot lead a club until clubs are broken: someone trumps a plain-suit lead, or has nothing but clubs left.
Whoever swapped last leads the first trick; if nobody swapped, the player left of the dealer leads.
Winning
At the end of each hand, compare your tricks to your quota of four. Each trick above adds a point, each trick short costs one, and exactly four scores nothing.
Scores can go negative. The game ends when a player reaches +11 or -11.