Thirty-One
Three cards, one suit, as close to 31 as you dare. Knock when you’re ahead. 2–7 players.
Also known as Scat, Blitz, Ride the Bus, and 31.
How to play Thirty-One
- 1Everyone starts with three cards and three lives. One card is turned face up to start the discard pile.
- 2On your turn, draw the top card of the stock or take the top discard, then discard one card. You can't throw back the card you just took.
- 3A hand is worth the total of its best suit: aces 11, kings, queens and jacks 10, other cards their number. Three of a kind is worth 30½. The best hand is 31: an ace and two ten-point cards of one suit.
- 4Make 31 and the round ends at once: everyone else loses a life.
- 5Instead of drawing, you can knock when you think your hand isn't the lowest. Everyone else gets one last turn, then all hands are shown. The lowest hand loses a life. If the knocker is lowest, or tied for it, only the knocker pays, and they lose two.
- 6Lose your last life and you're out. The last player with a life left wins.
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