PLAYERS AND CARDS
Sergeant Major is a game for 3 players using the classic French deck with 52 cards and also is known as 3-5-8 or 8-5-3.

From strongest to weakest, the cards in each suit are as follows: A, K, Q, J, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2

DEALING
Dealing is in clockwise direction. The dealer for the first hand is chosen randomly. For the next hands, the dealer is the next player in the direction of play.

The initial dealer is chosen at random for the first hand. Cards are dealt in a clockwise fashion. For each subsequent hand, the player to the dealer’s left becomes the new dealer.

All players receive 16 cards. The last 4 cards, called the “kitty”, remain face-down on the table for later use in the round.

PLAYING THE CARDSThe first card is played by the player with 5 tricks target.
The player who starts can play a card from any suit, which will be the required suit for the trick.
Second and third players in the trick should play a card from the required suit. If they don't have cards from this suit, they can play any card they want.

The next trick is started from who won the previous trick.
When no trump card was played, the trick is won by whoever played the highest card of the required suit.
If trump card was played, the trick is won by whoever played the highest trump card.

In each round the players should make exact number of tricks as is shown:
Dealer: 8
Player on the left of the dealer: 5
Player on the right of the dealer: 3
After the dealing the players should:
1. Exchanging cards with the other players (if needed).
2. Announcing a contract.
3. Exchanging cards from the kitty.

In the beginning of the first round there is no exchange.
For the second and next rounds, players who were Up and Down in the previous round exchange cards. A player who was Up in the previous round gives a card for every Up point to a player who was Down.
Players don’t exchange cards at the beginning of the first trick. At the beginning of subsequent tricks, any player who was Up gives a number of cards to a player who was Down equal to the number of points they were up.

For each received card, the player who was Down should return a card as follows:
-When having a stronger card from the required suit: return the strongest.
-The requested card is returned if he or she has only weaker cards, or “0” cards from the required suit.
For each card received from the Up player, the Down player must send back a higher-value card of the same suit. If they cannot, they just return the given card.

When all players should exchange cards there are rules for who makes the first exchange:
-When are two players Up and one Down
The Up player who has a higher target
-When is one player Up and two Down:
The Up player first requests cards from the opponent with the higher target
If all players are required to exchange cards, the exchange order is as follows:
If two players are UP and one is Down - The Up player with the higher target of tricks exchanges cards first. 
If one player is Up and two are Down - The Up player exchanges cards with the Down player who had the higher target of tricks.

You need to select cards for exchange when you were Up in the previous round. If you were Down, the cards you should return would be selected automatically.
If you were Up in the previous round, you select which card or cards to exchange. If you were Down in the previous round. The cards you exchange are chosen for you. 

After the cards are dealt initially and the players exchanged cards, it is time to set the trump suit. The player with the 8 tricks target chooses and announces the trump suit for the current round;selects 4 cards from his hand, puts them down, and takes the kitty.
After hands are dealt and cards are exchanged, the player with the goal of 8 tricks chooses the trump suit, announces it to the other two players, then discards 4 cards of their choice and picks up the “kitty”.

At the end of a round the targets are checked:
Players with more tricks than the target, are Up by the number of tricks won above and Down by the number of tricks if they won less than a target.
At the end of the round the number of tricks taken by each player is compared to that player’s number of target tricks. If more are taken, they are Up, if less, they are Down.

SCORING
After all 16 tricks have been played you would see the round score. Players Up are scoring positive points, and players Down are scoring negative points.
You can see an example if your target is 3:
Table or image:
Took 3 tricks: 0 points.
Took 5 tricks: 2 points.
Took 2 trick: -1 points. 

SESSION SCORE
The game finishes when a player scores 10 points or more.
If few players reach the 10 points limit with same score, then the winner is determined in the following order:
-The player who won more points (compared to his target) in the last round.
-The player who most recently won a trick. 
The game finishes when a player scores 10 or more points. If multiple players reach the 10-point limit simultaneously, the winner is determined as follows: 
The player who was Up by the most points, or, alternatively, the player who acquired a trick most recently is declared the winner