Thirty-one (card game)

Thirty-one or Trente et un is a gambling card game played by two to seven people, where players attempt to assemble a hand which totals 31.

Such a goal has formed the whole or part of various games like Commerce, Cribbage, Trentuno, and Wit and Reason since the 15th century.

[3] The game is also known as Blitz,[2] Scat,[2] Cadillac[2] in south Louisiana and Mississippi, Cad in Pennsylvania, Whammy!

in central Indiana, Juble in Oklahoma and Kansas, as also as Kitty,[2] High Hat,[2] Ride the Bus[2] and Geronimo.

It is mentioned by Rabelais, Cardano and numerous other 16th century sources, but David Parlett notes that the name referred to two different card games – one like Pontoon and one like Commerce.

[4] The game spread rapidly across Europe to become popular in France, England and Ireland and is a precursor to Vingt-Un.

At the end of the round, all players show their hands and total each one up, only counting cards of the same suit.

The card that the other player discarded just before the knock is still on top of the pile, so it is now available to take back if desired.

A player who has folded all four corners of their bill, continues to play on a "free ride", also sometimes called "on the bike".

One optional rule is that if a player has three cards of the same value from different suits, the hand is worth 30.5 points.

[7] The play is the same as the regular version of Thirty-one described above, but with the following changes: Side wagers between individual players are quite common and often encouraged.

The difference for this version called Switch is that instead of picking from the pile or the discard up-card, players exchange cards from two hands on the table.

After each round of the game, each player earns points for a running total as follows: All ties get highest score possible.

Stop the Bus is a game common in England that uses the hand rankings from three card brag, instead of scoring closest to 31.