About Thirty-One
What Thirty-One is
Thirty-One is a three-card card game from Tamaki Technologies. You build a hand in a single suit, choose the moment to knock, and try to be the last player who still has a life. It is a short game of timing: most turns are one draw and one discard, and the round ends as soon as someone is willing to compare hands.
Objective
Each player starts with three lives. Drop to zero and you are out of the match. The last player with a life left wins. You are not racing to a point total. You are trying to avoid being the low hand when a round stops.
How a round works
Everyone is dealt three cards. Only cards of the same suit count together. An ace is worth 11, each face card is worth 10, and cards from 10 down to 2 are worth their face value. On your turn, draw one card from the stock or take the top of the discard pile, then discard so the hand is back to three cards. If the hand feels strong enough, knock instead of drawing. The table can leave knocking open, or it can require a minimum of 16, 21, or 26 before a knock is allowed. After a knock, every other player gets one last turn. A hand of 31 is a blitz: the round stops immediately, with no last turns.
How scoring works
When the round stops, the hands are compared. The lowest hand loses one life. If the player who knocked is the lowest, that player loses two lives. On a blitz, everyone except the player who reached 31 loses a life. Three of a kind is the exception to a plain total: it beats any hand of 30, and it loses only to 31. A mixed suit is usually weak, because the cards that are not in your best suit add nothing.
Number of players
Thirty-One seats two to seven players. Two is a fast head-to-head. Seven is a full table, with more discards to read and more lives that a blitz can take at once.
Strategy
Commit to one suit and throw the rest away. Look at the discard pile before you knock, because those last turns can improve someone else's hand. Knocking from behind costs two lives, so a decent hand is not always a knocking hand. Take a blitz when you can reach it. It charges a life to every other player in a single showdown.
Local and online play
On this device, house players fill the other seats. You choose the table size and the knock minimum before the deal. Online, the host opens a room and shares a code, and empty seats can still be filled by the house. No account is required.
Where to play
Play in the browser at thirtyone.tamakitech.com, or install Thirty-One on Google Play.