First deal and exchange

Draw cards to determine the first dealer and deal 16 cards to each player, the 4 remaining cards are placed on the table to form a kitty. Dealer names a suit as trump and discards 4 cards from his or her hand before replacing them with the kitty. Some groups allow the dealer to pick up the kitty and add it to his or her hand before discarding any 4 cards of the 20 they now have.

Play

Eldest hand leads any card to the first trick and play moves clockwise with each player following suit, or playing any card if unable to follow suit. Each trick is won by the highest trump, or by the highest card of the suit led if no trump card was played to the trick. The winner of each trick leads to the next.

Targets and scoring

Each player has a minimum number of tricks called a target. Targets are determined by each player's seat for that hand as follows:

• Eldest hand: 5
• Middle hand: 3
• Dealer: 8

After all 16 tricks have been played, scores and targets are compared and players who won more tricks than their target are up by the number of excess tricks, while players who fell short of their target are down by a number of tricks. If players are gambling, up players receive one stake per excess trick won, paid by down player who will have lost by the same number of tricks.

Subsequent deals and exchanges

Deal and targets are passed to the left and the new dealer deals the cards out as before, only now there is an exchange of cards before dealer names trump:

• Each player who was up on the previous hand gives one unwanted card per overtrick to a player who was down, and that player must return the highest card or cards that they hold of the same suit or suits. Aces are low and Kings are high. Jokers have no value. Players receiving cards in suits that they do not have or in a suit which they can not provide a higher card for, simply return those cards to the issuer instead of making an exchange. This is done without declaring any suits or revealing any cards.
• If two players were up, the player with the higher target for the hand about to be played, gets to exchange the cards first, and if they are to exchange cards with two players who were down, then they exchange with the player who has the lowest target first.
• After this exchange is complete, dealer names trumps, discards four cards and takes the kitty as before.
• If the dealer was down in the previous round and gave away the highest card of a suit, but then picks up one or more higher cards of that same suit, these high cards must be shown privately to players who traded cards in that suit.

Play and scoring continues as above. As the game proceeds, a players target moves up, i.e., 3, 5 then 8 and back to three and so on.

Optional 3-5-8 rules

Any of the following rules may be incorporated in a normal game of 3-5-8:

• Dealer picks up the kitty and then discards instead of discarding before picking up.
• Game goes on until someone takes all sixteen tricks making for an extremely long game.
• Game proceeds until someone scores five more tricks than their target, rather than twelve tricks which only the dealer (target 8, who calls trumps) would otherwise be likely to win. This makes it easier for the eldest (target 5) or especially the middle (target 3) hands to win and end the game in any round, and slightly harder for the dealer. A common ending is the dealer managing to go "up" and then winning (going "out") next round on the middle hand.

Sergeant major alternate

Played as previously with 3-5-8 hands and a 4 card kitty.

• 8-hand (dealer) must win a minimum of 8 tricks
• 5-hand (eldest hand) must win a minimum of 5 tricks
• 3-hand (middle hand) must win a minimum of 3 tricks

Instead of swapping cards at the end of each round, a running total is kept. Anything over the minimum is a plus score and everything under the minimum is a minus score; 1 point per trick. If the 3-hand player wins 6 tricks then they have scored +3, and if the 5-hand player wins 4 tricks then they have scored -1.

The other change is that each player can only make one call of each type. The calls that the 8-hand player can make are:

• Hearts
• Clubs
• Diamonds
• Spades
• No trumps (NT)
• Miz

In a no trumps call, the trick is won by the highest-ranked card of the suit that was lead. So if 5♥ is played first followed by K♣ and then 10♥, the 10♥ wins.

A miz round is played as a no trumps round, but the aim is to lose tricks and the usual minimum needed to win instead becomes the maximum that may be won without losing points.

• 8-hand (dealer) may win a maximum of 3 tricks
• 5-hand (eldest hand) may win a maximum of 5 tricks
• 3-hand (middle hand) may win a maximum of 8 tricks

If a player wins under their maximum then this is a plus score and if they win over it is a minus score; 1 point per trick. So, if the 3-hand player wins 5 tricks, then the score is -2, if they win 1 trick then the score is +2. The 5-hand player is allowed to win 5 tricks without penalty, so if they have won 4 tricks then they have a score of +1.

The game is played until all three players have played all six calls that can be made.

6-3-8

6-3-8 is a good game for 3 people whose deck is one card short. It is played the same as 5-3-8 except for the following:

• Preliminaries: A card (usually 2♠, but any will do) is removed the pack and the game is played with only 51 cards.
• Deal: 17 cards to each player – There is no kitty.
• Targets: Eldest hand's target is 6 instead of 5. Other targets are the same.
• Scoring: Scores are kept on paper: +1 for each trick above target, -1 for each trick below.
• Game: Winner is the first person to reach +10 points.

9-5-2

A Canadian variant whose rules are the same as in 5-3-8 except for the following:

• The targets for the three players are:
  • Eldest hand: 5
  • Middle hand: 2
  • Dealer: 9
• After trading cards and choosing trump, the dealer picks up the four kitty cards before discarding four.
• Players' cumulative scores are recorded on paper as in 6-3-8 (above). Thus, the total score of all three players will always be zero.
• Game is played until one player has reached a predetermined score of either +10 or +20 points