Tombstone

What Tombstone Is

Tombstone is a three-player standard-deck game combining Spades-style contracts and trump, poker-style hand construction and betting, and a match economy divided among three pots. Players bid for rocks, capture specific cards through trick play, build reveal hands from their pockets and captured cards, and decide whether their money belongs in the immediate Dust or the long-term Ante and Grave.

What you need

• One standard 52-card deck with no jokers.
• Chips, counters, or written units for betting. Real-money wagering is not required.
• A score sheet for points, bags, Dust wins, Grave eligibility, and Undertakers remaining.
• Three small Undertaker markers per player. Coins or spare chips work.

Standard match

• Exactly three players in this public playtest format.
• Three rounds for a standard match. Competitive tables may declare five; extended matches may declare six.
• The match length cannot change after the first deal.
• Each player receives three Undertaker uses for the entire match, regardless of match length.

Table language

Rock

A trick or book.

Pocket

Three hidden cards used at reveal and through Undertaker; normally not playable.

Play hand

Eight cards retained after choosing four of the twelve dealt cards to burn.

Captured pile

Face-up cards won in rocks and used at reveal.

Dust

The immediate round pot.

Ante

The mandatory match pot funded by antes and carried Dust.

Grave

The optional match pot funded by Grave wagers during contract betting.

Bury

The table verb for adding a Grave wager: “Bet ten. Bury five.”

Before the First Deal

Choose the table rules

• Choose a betting unit and starting banks. Five-unit antes and five-unit minimum bets are recommended for a first playtest.
• Tombstone may be played with points or chips. If money is used, players are responsible for local law and table consent.
• The public playtest assumes table stakes: no borrowing. A player unable to call Dust must fold from Dust; a player unable to match Grave loses Grave eligibility.
• Choose the first dealer by any fair method. The dealer rotates clockwise after each completed round.

Seat and action order

The player to the dealer’s left acts first during pocket betting, contract declarations, contract betting, and Rock 1. Action proceeds clockwise. After the first rock, the winner leads the next rock.

Deal and deliberate burn

1. Shuffle one complete 52-card deck.
2. Deal three pocket cards face down to each player.
3. Complete pocket betting.
4. Deal twelve potential play cards face down to each player.
5. Each player privately chooses four of those twelve cards to burn face down, leaving an eight-card play hand.
6. Set the remaining seven undealt cards aside face down. They do not enter the round.

Card zones

Captured cards should remain grouped by rock whenever practical. Every player may inspect every captured pile at any time. Burned cards remain available only for later verification or Reneg reconstruction.

Round Sequence

1. Round ante: each player pays the required ante into the Ante Pot.
2. Pocket deal: each player receives three hidden pocket cards.
3. Pocket betting: players wager only into Dust.
4. Potential play-hand deal: each player receives twelve hidden cards.
5. Burn selection: each player privately burns four, leaving an eight-card play hand.
6. Contracts: each player declares a rock contract.
7. Contract betting: players wager into Dust and may attach Grave wagers.
8. Rock play: exactly eight rocks are played.
9. Reneg window: calls and reconstruction resolve before reveal begins.
10. Final betting: remaining Dust-active players wager once more.
11. Reveal: active players reveal; folded players may optionally reveal afterward.
12. Award and record: resolve Dust, score contracts and bags, and update match pots.

Rocks, Contracts, and Match Points

After choosing their four burn cards, each player declares how many of the round’s eight rocks they expect to win. Contracts are individual. The bids do not need to total eight; the table may overbid or underbid.

Contract scoring

How bonuses stack

• Base award for meeting or exceeding a contract: +10.
• Exact-contract bonus: +5.
• High-contract bonus for a declared contract of five or more that is met: +5.
• The exact and high-contract bonuses stack.

Bags

Every rock above the contract is a bag. Bags accumulate across the match. Each time a player reaches three bags, that player loses ten match points and the bag counter resets to zero. Process multiple new bags one at a time so excess bags after a reset remain counted.

The Three-Pot Economy

Ante Pot

• Every player must pay the round ante to play the round.
• The Ante Pot is awarded at match end to the highest contract score.
• Tied winning reveals move the entire Dust Pot into the Ante Pot.
• A folded player who optionally reveals the strongest hand also moves Dust into the Ante Pot.
• Grave decisions never affect Ante eligibility.

Grave Pot

• The Grave is funded only by Grave wagers during contract betting.
• To remain eligible, a player must match every Grave increase faced.
• Declining a Grave wager permanently forfeits Grave eligibility for the rest of the match.
• Previous Grave contributions remain committed after eligibility is lost.
• A player who loses Grave eligibility may still win Dust, Ante, and contract points.
• Once only one Grave-eligible player remains, no further Grave wagers may be made.

Dust Pot

• Dust is the immediate round pot.
• Pocket betting, the Dust portion of contract betting, and final betting all feed Dust.
• Folding removes a player from Dust betting and prevents personal collection of Dust.
• Dust is normally awarded to the strongest Dust-active reveal.

Betting phases

Grave wager limit

A Grave increase may not exceed one-half of the Dust increase made in the same action. A player must increase Dust to increase Grave.

Dust and Grave responses are independent: a player may call Dust and decline Grave, or fold from Dust while matching Grave. A Grave increase enters the pot only to the extent at least one opponent matches it. If nobody matches, the bettor’s unmatched Grave increase returns, while declining opponents still lose Grave eligibility.

Folding, Null Rounds, and Showdown Pressure

Folding from Dust

• You stop participating in Dust betting for that round.
• You continue playing every rock and must still follow suit.
• You score contracts and bags normally.
• You may call Reneg, use Undertaker, and match Grave wagers during contract betting.
• At showdown, you may optionally reveal after the Dust-active players reveal.

Optional folded reveal

A folded player is never forced to expose a pocket. After the Dust-active hands are shown, a folded player who believes their hand is strongest may reveal it.

• If the folded hand is not strongest, the active winner receives Dust.
• If the folded hand wins outright, the entire Dust Pot moves into the Ante Pot.
• If the top hands tie, the entire Dust Pot moves into the Ante Pot under the normal tie rule.
• A folded player never personally collects Dust.

Null round

If contract betting ends with only one Dust-active player, the round is null. This refreshes a dead board state and prevents a player from buying an uncontested scoring round.

• Return every contribution made during that deal, including ante, Dust, and Grave wagers.
• Record no contract points and no bags.
• Collect all cards and shuffle again.
• The same dealer redeals; the round number does not advance.

Playing the Rocks

Standard trick rules

• The player to the dealer’s left leads Rock 1.
• A player must follow the led suit when able.
• Spades are trump.
• If no Spade is played, the highest card of the led suit wins.
• If one or more Spades are played, the highest Spade wins.
• The winner captures all three cards face up and leads the next rock.
• Ace is high in trick play.

The eight-card play hand

Each player has already chosen four cards to burn before contracts. The remaining eight cards form the complete play hand, and exactly eight rocks are played. Burned cards cannot enter trick play, Undertaker exchanges, or the reveal.

Undertaker

Each player begins the match with three Undertaker uses. Uses do not refresh between rounds, and unused uses expire at match end.

1. Win a rock.
2. Before leading the next rock, declare “Undertaker.”
3. Choose one card from your hidden pocket and one unplayed card from your play hand.
4. Reveal both cards to the table.
5. Exchange them. The pocket card becomes playable; the play card enters the pocket.
6. Spend one Undertaker marker, then lead the next rock.

• A player may use multiple Undertakers in one round if they win enough rocks and still have markers.
• Burned cards cannot be exchanged through Undertaker.
• An Undertaker card introduced into play cannot prove a Reneg alleged before that exchange.
• All Undertaker exchanges are public information and should be recorded when practical.

Reneg

Definition

A player Renegs by failing to follow the led suit despite holding at least one card of that suit in the play hand at that moment. Reneging is illegal.

Calling Reneg

• Any player may call Reneg without penalty.
• The call may be made at any time before reveal begins.
• The caller should identify the disputed rock when possible: “Reneg. Seventh rock.”
• Once reveal begins, uncalled or unproven Renegs stand.

Reconstruction and proof

Use captured piles, remembered sequence, Undertaker exchanges, remaining play cards, chosen burn cards, written logs, footage, or an official. A later card proves an earlier Reneg only if it was already in the accused player’s play hand at the time. A card deliberately burned before contracts was not in the play hand and cannot prove a later Reneg. If the violation cannot be established cleanly, the call fails and play stands.

Proven Reneg penalty

The offending player is null for that round only. The round remains valid for every other player.

• No contract points, exact bonus, high-contract bonus, or bags are recorded for the offender.
• The offender cannot reveal, win Dust, tie Dust, or redirect Dust into the Ante Pot.
• All Ante, Dust, and Grave contributions remain committed.
• Every other player keeps their captured-rock count and scores normally.
• A proven Reneg does not automatically remove future Grave eligibility.

Reveal and Hand Construction

Eligible cards

At reveal, build the strongest qualifying hand using only your three-card pocket and every card in your captured pile. Burned cards, undealt cards, and cards captured by opponents are never eligible. For ordinary poker hands, choose the best five cards. Extended and named hands use the exact number stated in their definitions.

Reveal order

1. All Dust-active players reveal their pockets and announce their best hands.
2. Compare the Dust-active hands.
3. Folded players may then choose whether to reveal.
4. Resolve Dust or move it into the Ante Pot as required.

Ties

Suits never break ties. If two or more players share the highest qualifying hand after normal comparison, Dust is not split. Move the entire Dust Pot into the Ante Pot.

General comparison rules

• Ordinary poker hands use standard poker comparisons, except for Tombstone’s ranking order.
• For equal-length Processions or straight flushes, the higher ending rank wins. Ace may be low or high but may not wrap except in a Revolver.
• For equal-length extended flushes, compare the highest card, then the next highest, and so on.
• For Matchbox Quads, compare the higher four-of-a-kind first, then the lower four-of-a-kind.
• Identical-rank Revolvers or King’s Coffins tie; suit does not break the tie.

Tombstone Hand Rankings

Tombstone uses its own hierarchy. It is not standard poker. The order below runs from lowest to highest.

The five-to-eight gap

Six-card and seven-card straights or flushes receive no special extended rank. They may still supply an ordinary five-card straight or flush, but extended recognition begins only at eight cards. This makes an extended chase risky rather than incremental.

Important hierarchy breakpoints

• At eight, nine, and ten cards, a Procession beats a same-length flush.
• Four of a Kind, Straight Flush, and Royal Flush beat both eight-card hands but lose to both nine-card hands.
• Eight- and nine-card straight flushes beat the unnamed ten-card Flush and Procession.
• Mississippi Flush beats every unnamed straight flush. Robber Baron ranks above Mississippi Flush and below Matchbox Quads.
• Tombstone and King’s Coffin are ten-card straight flushes and beat Matchbox Quads and Revolver.
• King’s Coffin is the highest possible hand.

Special-hand construction notes

• A card may serve only once inside the declared hand, but a player announces the single highest qualifying hand available from the full reveal pool.
• Pocket cards are allowed in every hand except Mississippi Flush and Robber Baron, which must be built entirely from captured rocks.
• Robber Baron is the captured-only nine-card Procession and ranks above the captured-only nine-card flush.
• Revolver is the only hand allowed to wrap from Ace low through King and return to a second Ace.
• A ten-card straight flush is never an ordinary straight flush: it is either a Tombstone or King’s Coffin.

Winning the Match

Award the Ante Pot

After the final round, award the Ante Pot to the player with the highest contract score. Every player who remained in the match is eligible, regardless of Grave status.

Award the Grave Pot

Award the Grave Pot to the highest-scoring player who remains Grave-eligible. A player who declined any Grave wager cannot win the Grave Pot, even with the highest overall score.

Public playtest tiebreak

1. Fewest current bags.
2. Most Dust Pots won during the match.
3. Highest single revealed hand during the match.
4. If still tied, split the affected match pot equally among tied eligible players.

The Ante and Grave are resolved separately. Different players may win them.

Optional Variant: Rock Around the Clock

Rock Around the Clock preserves the original high-chaos three-player structure for tables that want spectacular extended hands and a longer capture game.

Use all other current Tombstone rules unless the table declares a different house rule before the first deal. Rock Around the Clock is an extended-hand variant; conventional poker hands will be substantially less dominant.

Current scope

This edition publishes the three-player rules. Duel, four- to six-player deals, team formats, solitaire instruction mode, and tournament-official procedures remain in development.