Canadian Salad Variations

Here is a collection of variants of the card game Canadian Salad, contributed by readers of pagat.com.

In 1999, Randy Green suggested this extension of the game, with extra hands and using more than one deck to accommodate more players.

Plays many players. Use as many decks as needed to deal each player 10-15 cards, removing low cards until deal is even.

For example:

• Three players: one deck of 51 cards, remove the 2 of clubs.
• Four players: one deck of 52 cards. IDEAL GAME!!!
• Five players: one deck of 50 or two decks of 100 cards, remove the 2s of clubs and 2s of diamonds.
• Six players: one deck of 48 or two decks of 96 cards, remove all the 2's.
• etc............

NOTES:

• Low score wins, so you do not want to take points.
• Games is played like SPADES except there are NO TRUMPS at all, and only twelve hands are played per game.
• You MUST follow suit lead if possible.
• On multiple deck games, when two identical winning cards fall, the last one thrown wins trick.
• One Eyed cards are: Jack of Hearts, Jack of Spades, and King of Diamonds.
• Even Cards are 2,4,6,8,10,Q
• If someone manages to catch all cards of interest on a round, they score zero but everyone else scores 100 points. - i.e. All Aces on round 3, or All hearts on round 6, etc. Even on the last round. This does NOT apply to single events such as LAST TRICK and single deck KING OF SPADES scoring.
• The easiest way to score the last round is too call out what you want, one at a time starting with round 1: Call 'NO RED CARDS, 5 POINTS EACH', write down scores as called, then call round 2, etc. continuing to LAST TRICK then add scores. LOW SCORE WINS.

Randy Green, the inventor of the above variant, suggests a modification to the scoring to make the last deal less dominant. He writes:

"Only 50% of the points have been given at the end of rounds 1-11. That makes round 12 quite volatile on points. To dampen the wild score swings, I suggest you score round 12 at 1/5 the regular points. i.e. 1 point for reds, 2 points for hearts, 8 points for one-eyed, 15 for last trick. etc. Some poor sucker always seems to take a real beating in round 12."

Randy Green has provided PDFs of a scoring sheet and a rules summary for his version of the game.

Sylvia, of Nova Scotia, Canada, suggested the following alternative arrangement of decks, depending on the number of players:

• 3 players: one deck, remove 1 set of all clubs = 13 cards each
• 4 players: one deck, perfect
• 5 players: one deck, remove 2 of clubs & 2 of diamonds = 10 cards each
• 6 players: two decks remove 1 set of all clubs & 1 set of all diamonds = 13 cards each
• 7 players: two decks, remove 1 set of all clubs = 13 cards each
• 8 players: two decks - perfect

Bill Honeywell writes:

We have been playing Canadian Salad for some time now as it is the best game we have found for four, six, or eight. But we prefer different eliminations for six or the odd number of players. As the rules stand both red and even numbered cards are being eliminated. Every effort should be made to keep these in play; i.e., take out black ones, threes, and/or fives in order to get an even distribution in the deal.
We are also working on a NORTH AMERICAN SALAD which changes some and adds some contracts.

Dan Johnson has provided a Canadian Salad Score Sheet for download (PDF file)

Randy Wilson from Utah plays a variant in which the leader to the first trick of each hand is the player who holds the 2 of clubs (or the lowest club in play when the 2 is omitted from the pack). The lead does not have to be the 2 of clubs, but can be any card from the holder's hand. Randy also calls the game ‘Canadian Sadness’ because of the escalating feeling of impending doom you feel as the game progresses.