3 Person Pickleball Rules: Everything You Ever Wanted To Know

You may already be a pickleball player who knows a lot about pickleball, but you’re not feeling fresh about pickleball, or you and your partner are an awkward trio. This article is perfect for you in this case because I will talk about how to play 3 person pickleball. Once you understand the pickleball rules for 3 players, there’s nothing to worry about.

Pickleball Rules For 3 Players

One person on one side and two people on the other side sound very unbalanced, but it’s still possible when it’s not used in competitions. When there is an uneven number, the best one of you at pickleball might be on one side, and the other two on the other, and each of you will take turns to serve. The different rules are basically the same, and generally, the first team to score 11 points wins.

Therefore this is not the point of the 3 person pickleball rules, there is a rule called pickleball cutthroat rules. It’s used when there’s no prominent best player among the three of you and you want to make sure the game is as fair as possible. In this rule, who plays the pickleball on one side alone is the server, meaning only he can score. The server changes throughout the game(You decide whether to rotate clockwise or counterclockwise) until someone gets 11 points, and that person is the winner. In this way, no one team can win, and it becomes an individual competition. The advantage of pickleball cutthroat rules is that the game is fair.

Strategy

Here are some strategies for pickleball with 3 players. First of all, every time you’re on one side with another partner and you actually have the advantage, try to talk to your partner about how you can combine each other’s dominant habits to win. As well as extending the range of the ball as much as possible, a team of two can save energy, but alone can quickly wear down. On the other hand, there’s a trick when you’re in a team by yourself. Maybe you already know your opponent or maybe you need some time to observe, anyway, you can try to hit the ball to the weaker side of the other team.

After learning the pickleball rules for 3 players, I hope you can enjoy the game!