ONE AND THIRTY 

OBJECTIVE OF ONE AND THIRTY: The objective of One and Thirty is to get as close to a card value of 31 without going over.

NUMBER OF PLAYERS:  2-8 players

MATERIALS: One 52-card deck, and a flat surface.

TYPE OF GAME: Bidding Card Game

AUDIENCE: Any

OVERVIEW OF ONE AND THIRTY

One and Thirty is a renaissance era bidding game. It shares some strong resemblances to blackjack but differs in some aspects of gameplay. 

I will also discuss a variation of the game called Bone Ace, which holds a couple of changes that both make it a more skilled game while upping the luck of the draw. 

SETUP

To set up, a player will be determined to be the dealer. Players should draw cards from a shuffled deck and the dealer is the player with the lowest ranking card. The dealer will reshuffle the deck and begin dealing. Before this though, players will agree on an amount to bid for the game.

Each player should receive a hand of three cards facedown. This includes the dealer who should deal to themselves last. 

Card Rankings and Values

Cards are ranked from highest King, Queen, Jack, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, and Ace, the lowest. Cards also have values attached to them. All face cards (King, Queen, Jack) have a value of 10. All numeric cards have the value associated with their card. Aces are worth 1 point. There is no difference between suits in the base game. 

GAMEPLAY

After the hands have been dealt the dealer will start with the oldest player and ask them if they will “stick it” or stay in blackjack terms, or “have it” take another card. If they stick it, they are satisfied with their hand and will be dealt no more cards. If they will have it, then the dealer deals them one card from the bottom of the deck. The player may decide to keep calling have it until they decide to stick it or they go over 31 points. Then the dealer moves to the next player going around and dealing to themselves last. 

If all other players go out before the dealer is reached, they automatically win. If any player reaches 31 exactly, that player automatically wins. In some instances of the game, this player wins a double stake.

Scoring

After all players have gone out or chose to stick it, the remaining players will tally their scores. The player with the closest to 31 without going over wins the bid. In the case of a tie, the older player wins.

END OF GAME

The game is played until players are done bidding and wish not to play anymore.

BONE ACE

There are a few changes that need to be made to play Bone Ace. During the deal, three cards are dealt but the last card dealt to each player is revealed. The player with the highest-ranking card goes first.

The ranking is the same and suits still don’t matter except the ace of hearts is the highest-ranking card. All other rules are the same.

Nakoa Davis
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