How to Play

Linger Longer is a simple trick-taking survival game for 3 to 6 players. Each hand starts with as many cards as there are players; winning a trick lets you draw a replacement from the stock, losing tricks shrinks your hand. The last player still holding cards wins.

Linger Longer (also Sift Smoke) is a simple trick-taking family card game for 3 to 6 players. Each player receives a hand equal to the number of players (4 players get 4 cards each, 5 get 5, and so on), with the remaining cards stacked face-down as a central stock. The dealer's final card is turned face-up briefly to set the trump suit for the whole hand, then taken back into the dealer's hand. Each trick proceeds with standard trick-taking rules: players must follow suit if they can, otherwise they may trump or discard. The big twist is that the winner of each trick immediately draws one card from the stock, so winning a trick grows your hand while losing tricks shrinks it. When your hand is empty and the stock is also empty, you drop out. The last player still holding a card wins the game, hence the name: you win by lingering longer than anyone else.

Players

3 to 6 players, each for themselves. 4 to 5 players is the sweet spot; with 3 the hands are thin and the game is short, with 6 the stock runs out quickly. Turn order is clockwise. The first dealer is chosen by a cut (lowest card), and the deal rotates clockwise after each hand. A typical hand lasts 8 to 15 minutes.

Card Deck

• Standard 52-card French-suited pack; no jokers.
• Card ranks from high to low: A, K, Q, J, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2.A♠K♠Q♠J♠10♠9♠8♠7♠6♠5♠4♠3♠2♠
• Suits are equal except for the trump suit, which is higher than any non-trump card in trick comparisons.

Objective

Outlast every other player by winning tricks to keep refilling your hand from the stock. You win the game when you are the only player still holding cards. There is no trick or point target; survival alone decides the winner.

Setup and Deal

1. Shuffle the 52-card pack. The player to the dealer's right cuts.
2. Deal cards one at a time, clockwise, starting to the dealer's left.
3. Deal each player a hand size equal to the number of players at the table: 3 players get 3 cards each, 4 get 4, 5 get 5, 6 get 6.
4. Place the remaining cards face-down in the middle as the stock.
5. The dealer turns the final card they dealt to themselves face-up briefly so everyone sees it, announces its suit as the trump for this hand, then returns it to their own hand.
6. The player to the dealer's left leads the first trick.

Playing a Trick

1. The lead player plays any card from their hand face-up in front of them.
2. Each following player, going clockwise, must play a card: if they hold the led suit they must follow suit; otherwise they may play a trump or discard any other card.
3. The trick is won by the highest trump played; if no trump was played, by the highest card of the led suit.
4. The winner of the trick collects the played cards into their personal won-trick pile (won tricks are not returned to any hand).
5. The winner then draws one card from the top of the stock as their reward. If the stock is empty, no draw occurs.
6. The trick winner leads the next trick. If they have no cards (just used their last one and nothing was drawn because the stock is empty), the lead passes clockwise to the next player still holding cards.
7. If a player runs out of cards and cannot draw (stock empty), they are out of the game. They take no further part in tricks, even as an obligatory follower.

Winning a Trick and Drawing

• The trick winner draws the single top card of the stock and adds it face-down to their hand. Many regional versions let the winner draw one card per trick, not one per card in the trick; this is the standard Hoyle/Bicycle rule.
• Once the stock is empty, tricks continue without drawing. From that point on, every player's hand steadily shrinks toward zero.
• A player who wins their last trick and has no stock left to draw from will be down to zero cards and is eliminated on the spot.
• If all but one player is eliminated mid-trick, the remaining player holding cards wins the game immediately.

Winning

The last player still holding at least one card in hand wins. Ties are essentially impossible under standard rules: the trick winner is always unique, so one player will be the last to run out.

Scoring

Linger Longer has no points in its basic form; winning one hand settles the game. For a longer session, track hand-by-hand victories: first to win three hands (or five) takes the match. Alternatively, each player pays 1 chip for every trick the final winner won, or the winner collects 1 chip per opponent still holding fewer cards than they did when they ran out.

Common Variations

• Per-card draw: instead of drawing one stock card per trick, the winner draws one per card played in the trick. Hands swell quickly and the game runs longer.
• No-trump: play without a trump suit; only the highest card of the led suit wins tricks. Simpler for young children.
• Random trump: instead of the dealer's last card, cut for trump by turning up the top of the stock after the deal, then place it under the stock.
• Grand coup: the winner of the first trick chooses the trump suit instead of the dealer, adding a strategic lead-off.
• Sift Smoke: older American name for the same game; rules identical.
• Long-hand variant: deal 7 cards per player regardless of table size, for a meatier opening hand.

Tips and Strategy

• The stock is a clock. Count how many cards are left; when it is nearly gone, every trick is existential.
• Win tricks while the stock is fat. Trumping a low lead early is cheap if the reward is a fresh card from a still-large stock.
• Save your highest trumps for the late hand. Once the stock is dry, your remaining trumps are your last survival tool.
• Do not over-commit to losing tricks. Dumping a strong off-suit card on a trick you cannot win burns ammunition; prefer to discard your weakest off-suit.
• Watch for suit voids. A player who discards instead of following suit has revealed they are void, so leading that suit next turn forces them to trump or discard again.
• Against a leader who has just drawn several cards, lead long suits to deprive them of comfortable follow-ups.

Glossary

• Trick: one round of play in which each still-in player contributes one card.
• Trump: the suit, set by the dealer's last card, that beats all other suits in tricks.
• Stock: the face-down pile of undealt cards from which trick winners draw.
• Follow suit: play a card of the suit that was led; obligatory if you hold any.
• Lead: the first card of a trick; the player who plays it sets the suit others must follow.
• Void: having no cards of a given suit; a voided player may trump or discard when that suit is led.
• Sift Smoke: an older name for the same game.