Grand Bid

Rules overview

Grand Bid

An auction card game for 3 players

Overview

Players take turns offering cards from their hand for auction. The other two players secretly bid to win the offered card and add it to their tableau. The highest bidder wins the card but pays their bid to the offerer. At the end of the round, each player scores their longest consecutive run of numbers.

Glossary

Hand — Cards held privately. Used for offering and bidding. Tableau — Your face-up collection of won cards. Visible to all players. Only tableau cards score. Offer — Playing a card from your hand face up for auction. Bid — Placing cards from your hand face down to compete for the offered card. Only the number of cards matters, not their values. Pass — Choosing not to bid (placing zero cards). Run — A consecutive sequence of numbers with no gaps (e.g., 3-4-5-6 is a run of 4). Double Offer — Triggered when nobody bids on an offered card. The offerer plays a second card and bidding restarts. Self-take — When nobody bids on a Double Offer. The offerer claims one of the two cards for their tableau. Discard pile — A face-up area for cards removed from play. Visible to all players.

The Deck

Standard 52-card deck. Remove all Jacks, Queens, and Kings. Aces count as 1. The remaining deck contains 40 cards: four copies each of the numbers 1 through 10.

Goal

Win cards through auctions and build the longest consecutive run in your tableau. Suits do not matter. Runs do not wrap from 10 to 1.

Setup

1. Shuffle all 40 cards.
2. Deal 13 cards to each player.
3. Set the 1 remaining card aside face down without revealing it. It is out of play for the round.
4. Each player starts with an empty tableau.
5. Choose a starting offerer by any agreed method.

Playing a Round

Take turns clockwise. On your turn, you are the offerer.

Step 1 — Offer

Play 1 card from your hand face up to the center of the table. You may offer any card in your hand. There are no restrictions on what you offer.

Step 2 — Bid

The other two players simultaneously decide whether to bid. To bid, place up to 3 cards from your hand face down in front of you. To pass, place nothing. You may not bid on a number already in your tableau. The offerer may not bid on their own card.

Step 3 — Reveal & Resolve

Both bidding players reveal their face-down cards at the same time. The player who bid the most cards wins. Card values do not matter — only the count.

• Winner places the offered card into their tableau and gives all of their bid cards to the offerer. The offerer adds those cards to their hand.
• Loser takes their bid cards back into their hand. Losing bidders do not lose any cards.
• Tie — the tied player to the offerer's immediate left wins.
• If nobody bids — proceed to Double Offer (Step 4).

Step 4 — Double Offer

If nobody bids, the offerer immediately plays a second card face up from their hand. The second card must be a different number than the first. Both players bid again simultaneously following the same rules and the same cap of 3. If someone bids: The winner takes both offered cards. Place one in your tableau and discard the other face up. If you already have one of the two numbers in your tableau, you must keep the other. Pay your bid cards to the offerer as normal. If still nobody bids: The offerer takes one of the two cards and places it in their tableau (the unique number rule applies). Discard the other face up. If the offerer cannot play a second card (no cards remaining in hand, or all remaining cards share the same number as the first offer), discard the first card face up.

Step 5 — Next Offerer

The next player clockwise becomes the new offerer. If that player has no cards in hand, skip to the next player who does.

Tableau Rules

• Tableau cards are always face up and visible to all players.
• One copy of each number only. Your tableau may never contain two cards of the same number.
• Your tableau holds every card you have won, whether or not they form a run. Cards do not need to be consecutive to remain in your tableau.
• Before scoring, arrange your tableau in numerical order.

Round End

The round ends immediately when two or more players have no cards in hand. Any cards remaining in the last player's hand do not score and are set aside.

Scoring

Score the number of cards in your longest consecutive run of 3 or more, earning 1 point per card. For each card from the 7th onward in that run, score 2 additional points. Run

Example: Your tableau contains 2, 3, 4, 7, 8, 9, 10. Your longest run is 7-8-9-10 (run of 4, scores 4 points). The 2-3-4 does not score.

Full Game

Play 4 rounds. Between rounds, collect all 40 cards, shuffle, and re-deal. Clear all tableaus. Scores carry over from round to round. The player with the lowest score offers first in the next round. After 4 rounds, the player with the highest total score wins. Tiebreaker: The tied player with the longest single run across all rounds wins. Still tied? Share the victory.

Key Details

• The offerer cannot bid on their own card, including during a Double Offer.
• The offerer's hand grows when they receive bid cards. Offering a desirable card is a strategic way to grow your hand.
• Losing bidders keep their cards. Only the winner pays.
• There is no hand size limit. Your hand may grow beyond 13 cards.
• Runs do not wrap from 10 to 1.
• Discarded cards are placed face up and are visible to all players for the rest of the round.
• No showing hand cards. You may not reveal or show cards from your hand to other players. Bluffing about your intentions is permitted, but physically showing cards is not. No deals between players are binding.
• If you run out of hand cards, you cannot offer or bid for the rest of the round. The round continues until a second player also runs out.
• When you bid, the specific cards you bid with do not affect the auction — only the count matters. However, the cards you bid away become the offerer's hand cards, so choose carefully. What you lose is what they gain.