Sluff card game rules

How to Play Sluff

Sluff is a trick-taking card game for three or four players, passed down through a Utah family for generations and now playable free online at playsluff.com. Each round is a three-way fight over 120 card points: one player wins the bid and plays alone against the other two. It takes five minutes to learn, and a lifetime of family dinners to master.

What you need

• Players: 3 (with 4, the dealer sits out each round and rotates back in).
• Deck: 36 cards — remove the 2s through 5s from a standard deck, keeping 6 through Ace in all four suits.
• Goal: as the bidder, capture more than 60 of the round's 120 card points; as a defender, hold the bidder to 60 or less.

Card point values

Four suits of 30 points each put 120 points in play every round.

The deal

Deal 11 cards to each of the three active players, and 3 cards face-down to the middle — the widow.

Bidding

Starting left of the dealer, each player passes or bids. Each bid outranks the one before it, and the highest bid plays alone against the other two:

Playing tricks

1. Follow suit whenever you can.
2. If you can't follow suit, you must play trump if you have one.
3. If you have neither the led suit nor trump, you may sluff any card — that's where the game gets its name.
4. You cannot lead trump until trump has been broken, unless your hand is all trump.

The highest trump wins the trick; if no trump was played, the highest card of the led suit wins. The trick winner leads next. Eleven tricks are played in every round.

Scoring

Count the bidder's captured card points. More than 60 and the bid succeeds; fewer than 60 and it fails; exactly 60 exchanges nothing. The score that moves is the bidder's distance from 60, multiplied by the bid's multiplier — paid by both defenders on a win, or paid to both on a loss. A Heart Solo swing is triple stakes, which is why table talk gets loud.

Insurance: the deal-making twist

Mid-round, the three active players can negotiate an insurance deal that replaces the uncertain trick result with agreed numbers. The bidder posts an ask; each defender posts an offer. When the bidder's ask minus the combined offers reaches zero, the deal locks — and at round end the agreed amounts settle instead of the trick score. Read the table, take the money. Or don't.

Four-player Sluff

With four at the table, the dealer sits out the round (they may peek at the widow), and the same three-handed structure plays out. The deal rotates, so everyone takes a turn watching — and dealing themselves back into the fight.

Frequently asked questions

How many players do you need?

Three active players; a fourth rotates in as dealer. Online, the table always fills.

Is this the same game as "Sluff Off!" or "Rook Sluff"?

No — different games entirely. Sluff Off! is a 2003 commercial card game and Rook Sluff is a Spades variant. This Sluff is a traditional family game from Utah, closest in spirit to the classic German game Frog/Solo family of six-bid games.

What does "sluffing" mean?

Discarding off-suit when you can't follow and have no trump. Dumping your points onto a partner's winning trick — or starving the bidder of them — is the skill the game is named for.

Can I play Sluff online?

Yes — playsluff.com is free, runs in any browser with nothing to download, and fills your table automatically. There's a guided first game that teaches you at the felt.