Minibluff

A new game based on Cucumber but incorporating the doubling feature of Backgammon, contributed by Bernard Dulac . It can be played online at minibluff.com.

Setup

From 2 to 5 players. The first dealer is chosen at random.
The dealer shuffles and deals 7 cards each from a standard international 52-card deck.
Cards rank in descending order: Ace, King, Queen, Jack, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2.
Each player begins with 10 credits.
The initial stake is 1 chip. That is: the losers lose 1 credit each and the winner loses nothing.

Play

The player to dealer's left leads any card to the first trick.
The other players, in clockwise order, must play either

• a card higher than or equal to the highest card in the trick, or
• the lowest card in their hand.

The highest card played wins the trick. If there are several equally high cards the last played wins.

The winner of the trick leads any card to the next trick.

Doubling

The winner of a trick, before leading to the next trick, can propose to double the stake for the game.
The other players in clockwise order decide whether to accept the new stake or drop out.
Those who drop out pay the old stake. For example, those who drop out at the first double pay 1 credit, and those who stay in play for 2 credits. If there is a second double, those who stayed in at the first double and drop out at the second pay 2 credits; those who still tay in play for 4 credits, and so on.
The first opportunity to double is at the start of the second trick - no double is allowed at the start of the first trick.
The player who doubled most recently cannot double again during the same round. If you double, you must wait for another player to double before you can double again.
A player is only allowed to double if all players in the game have enough credit to accept. For example if the current stake is 2, you can only propose to double to 4 if all the players who have not dropped out have at least 4 credits.

Winning the round

So long as at least two players remain, the play continues. In the last trick the player of the lowest card wins. In case of equally low cards the first of the lowest cards wins.
The winner's credit stays the same: all other players who have stayed in and lost lose credit according to the current stake.

Winning the match

So long as at least two players still have credit, another round is dealt to those who still have credit.
The turn to lead to the first trick passes clockwise: the next active player to the left of the player who led to the first trick in the previous round leads to the first trick of the new round.
If only one player has credit, the last player with credit wins the match.

Variants

It is possible for up to 7 people to play.
For a longer game players could start with 20 credit instead of 10.