Did You Hear About Cutthroat?

Cutthroat is a fun card game that can be played in a relatively short time and can be addictive! It is an offshoot of spades, so if you know about trumps, you will have no trouble picking up Cutthroat.

To begin, deal seven cards to each player (4 or more players is the most fun, and you can play with up to seven). When each hand has been dealt, the dealer turns up the next card on the deck to determine trump for that hand. So trump can change each hand.

The first player to the left of the dealer bids on how many tricks s/he thinks s/he can catch. Every one bids around to the dealer. One of the differences between cutthroat and spades is that the total number of bids must not equal the number of tricks available in the hand. So if the bids have totaled six when the dealer is to bid, he may not bid one, anything but. That assures that every hand at least one player will have his "throat cut".

The hand begins with the first bidder leading any card s/he wants, including trump. Everyone must follow suit if he can, high card wins the trick. If a player does not follow suit, he cannot win the trick unless s/he trumps.

The game proceeds by dealing six cards to each palyer for the second hand, five for the next and so on down to one. Then you proceed back up to seven, by adding one card to the deal till you get back to seven. The game is over after thirteen hands, high scorer wins.

The scoring in Cutthroat is a bit different than spades as well. You can only score if you catch exactly the number of tricks you bid. If you bid 2 and catch 3, no points. If you bid 3 and catch 2, no points. There is no penalty like in spades where you subtract the underbids. Just no points unless you catch your bid exactly.

If you bid and catch 0, you score 10 points, 1 and catch 1, you score 11 points; 2 and catch 2, your score that hand is 22; 3 and catch 3, 33 is your score, and so on.,/br>

Give it a try, but be warned you may get hooked!

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