Rules of Sluff
Sluff is a team trick-taking game played with two Rook decks, for 4 to 10 players.
Teams
Sluff is played with 4, 6, 8 or 10 players in two teams of equal size; games with 6 to 10 players are most common. Teammates sit in alternating seats around the table.
In Sluff Scorecard, choose the number of players on the opening screen and rename teams and players to make bids easier to follow.
Objective
Each hand, your team tries to win at least the number of tricks it bid, while every player who bid Sluff wins zero tricks.
The game ends when every player has dealt once, so there are as many rounds as players. The team with the higher score wins.
The cards
A Rook deck has four colors (red, black, green and yellow), each numbered 1 to 14, plus a bird card. Sluff uses two Rook decks and never uses the bird cards.
Cards rank from high to low: 1, 14, 13, 12, 11, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2. Black is always trump.
Depending on the number of players, some cards are removed:
- 4 players: remove all 2s through 8s, then replace one red 9 with a red 2.
- 6 players: remove all 2s through 5s, then add back one red 2, one yellow 5, one green 5 and one black 5.
- 8 players: play with all of the cards.
- 10 players: remove one red 5 and one green 5.
Shuffle and deal
Player 1 deals first; Sluff Scorecard marks the current dealer with a yellow D. The dealer deals clockwise one card at a time: 14 cards each with 6 or 8 players, 11 each with 10 players. Leftover cards stay face down and are not used.
Alternatively, spread all the cards face down in the middle of the table, let everyone mix them, and have each player draw their own hand.
After each hand, the player on the dealer’s left deals next.
Bidding
Starting on the dealer’s left, each player bids the number of tricks they expect to help their team win, or bids Sluff: zero tricks, and a promise to take none. Team bids are the sum of their players’ bids. Enter each bid in Sluff Scorecard and it totals the bids and Sluffs for you.
Playing the hand
The player with the first red 2 (going clockwise from the dealer, in games with two) leads it to start the hand. Play continues clockwise.
Players must follow the color that was led. If they can’t, they may play trump (black) or any other card.
The highest trump wins the trick; if no trump was played, the highest card of the color led wins. If two identical cards tie, the one played first wins. The trick’s winner leads next.
Scoring
Enter the tricks and Sluffs each team won, and Sluff Scorecard calculates the score.
- A team that takes fewer tricks than it bid scores zero for the round.
- A team that makes its bid scores 10 points per trick bid, plus 1 point for each extra trick.
- Each player who bid Sluff and took no tricks earns +50 for their team; a Sluff that takes a trick costs −50.
- Important: if a team misses its bid, it scores zero for the round, period. Its Sluffs don’t count for or against it.
Scoring example
Team 1 bids 5 with two players Sluffing and wins 9 tricks; one Sluff is made and one is lost. Score: 5 × 10 = 50, plus 4 extra tricks = 4, plus 50 for the Sluff made, minus 50 for the Sluff lost = 54.
Team 2 bids 6 with one player Sluffing, wins only 5 tricks, and makes its Sluff. It missed its bid, so it scores 0, and the Sluff doesn’t count.