Four players, conventionally named West, North, East, and South.
A regular 52-card deck. Aces are high.
The entire deck is dealt, with each player receiving a hand of thirteen cards. South deals first, and the deal rotates clockwise on every subsequent hand.
There are two phases of play on each deal: first an exchange of cards between players, then cards are played.
During an exchange, each player passes three cards to another player. The player must select her three cards before receiving passed cards from another player. The direction of the pass rotates on each deal:
These four pass directions are then repeated indefinitely. (For example, when South deals the pass direction is always left, and when East deals there is no exchange.)
Each player plays one card per trick. Thus, there are thirteen tricks in each hand.
The player holding 2♣ leads on the first trick. Once hearts are broken (see below), any card may be played first on subsequent trick. If hearts have not been broken, a heart may not be led on the first trick (unless the player holds no other suit, which is very rare).
Playing clockwise from the leader, each player must follow the suit led, if possible. If a player cannot follow suit, she may play any card in her hand. However, point cards (see below) may not be played on the first trick (unless the player holds no non-point cards, which is virtually impossible). The highest card of the suit led takes the trick. The winner of the trick then leads on the next trick. A point card played on a trick breaks hearts.
At the end of playout, the points taken by each player are added that player's score. Each heart is worth one point, and the Q♠ is worth 13 points. A player who takes all 26 points (the 13 hearts and the Q♠) “shoots the moon”. In this case, the player may choose to either subtract 26 points from her score or add 26 points to the other players' scores. (By convention, the second option is chosen unless it would not make the shooter the low scorer.)
The game ends when one or more player has 100 or more points at the end of a deal. The player with the lowest score is the winner. (If multiple players have the same low score, they tie for the win.)
Contact: [email protected]