8-5-3
Laz and HKL came over to play some Artemis yesterday. I wanted to try out the new version which included some new submarine type 3-d maneuvering. We tried to get MJO connected with us but we had some technical difficulties and he was never able to connect to my network for some reason. That was unfortunate, as we could've used the extra pair of hands.
After our session, we decided to change gears and play some cards. I suggested that we play 8-5-3 since it was a great game for three people. HKL and I were a little fuzzy on the rules, but Wikipedia came to the rescue. They had the rules there, like the optional rule of looking at the kitty before discarding your card which we used, but there were a couple of rules that we had at Woburn that we implemented to try to make the game a bit more balanced. I was mostly Mahesh, LXC and I who came up with these rules after thousands of hands - yes we played this way too many times.
The first new optional rule involved the first round of play. Instead of randomly picking the first dealer, we would bid to see who would deal first. So the dealer would get the first chance to bid on how many tricks he would get (starting at eight) if he was in the dealer position, and then bidding would progress clockwise. Of course if you can not out bid the last bid you can pass. Once all hands have passed out, the player who bid the highest would become dealer and play would resume. If nobody makes a bid, the hand is re-dealt, but this never happens. Finally, to balance out the trick quota, the number of tricks that the other two positions need to get would be reduced as follows: 8-5-3, 9-4-3, 10-4-2, 11-3-2, 12-2-2, 13-2-1, 14-1-1, 15-1-0, 16-0-0. In practice, we've never got past 11.
The second new optional rule that we had was "maximum bleed". We would limit the most any one person who can exchange cards to three. Yes, we had situations where players were down 5+ tricks, and it got a little silly. Priority for starting the exchange went to the player who needed to collect more tricks, which is the same order that card exchanges are made. Once a player has exchanged three cards, no more cards are exchanged with that person. If the 8 spot was +2 and the 5 spot was +2, and the 3 spot was - 4, then the 8 spot would exchange two cards with the 3 spot, and then the 5 spot would only exchange one card. Similarly, if there are more than one recipient of the exchange, the priority is reversed. If the 8 spot was +4 and both the 5 and 3 spots were -2, then the 8 spot would exchange one card with the 5 spot and two cards with the 3 spot.
I'd really have to check with Mahesh with the second rule as he'd probably remember the details better than I.
After our session, we decided to change gears and play some cards. I suggested that we play 8-5-3 since it was a great game for three people. HKL and I were a little fuzzy on the rules, but Wikipedia came to the rescue. They had the rules there, like the optional rule of looking at the kitty before discarding your card which we used, but there were a couple of rules that we had at Woburn that we implemented to try to make the game a bit more balanced. I was mostly Mahesh, LXC and I who came up with these rules after thousands of hands - yes we played this way too many times.
The first new optional rule involved the first round of play. Instead of randomly picking the first dealer, we would bid to see who would deal first. So the dealer would get the first chance to bid on how many tricks he would get (starting at eight) if he was in the dealer position, and then bidding would progress clockwise. Of course if you can not out bid the last bid you can pass. Once all hands have passed out, the player who bid the highest would become dealer and play would resume. If nobody makes a bid, the hand is re-dealt, but this never happens. Finally, to balance out the trick quota, the number of tricks that the other two positions need to get would be reduced as follows: 8-5-3, 9-4-3, 10-4-2, 11-3-2, 12-2-2, 13-2-1, 14-1-1, 15-1-0, 16-0-0. In practice, we've never got past 11.
The second new optional rule that we had was "maximum bleed". We would limit the most any one person who can exchange cards to three. Yes, we had situations where players were down 5+ tricks, and it got a little silly. Priority for starting the exchange went to the player who needed to collect more tricks, which is the same order that card exchanges are made. Once a player has exchanged three cards, no more cards are exchanged with that person. If the 8 spot was +2 and the 5 spot was +2, and the 3 spot was - 4, then the 8 spot would exchange two cards with the 3 spot, and then the 5 spot would only exchange one card. Similarly, if there are more than one recipient of the exchange, the priority is reversed. If the 8 spot was +4 and both the 5 and 3 spots were -2, then the 8 spot would exchange one card with the 5 spot and two cards with the 3 spot.
I'd really have to check with Mahesh with the second rule as he'd probably remember the details better than I.
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