10. Hearts

This is the chief group of nullo games. In all, an object of play is to avoid winning hearts. If you are invited to play "Hearts" with a group that you have never played with before, you had better ask them to state the rules. Otherwise, you may find yourself playing one game while they play another. The name of the basic game, Hearts, is used loosely for all its offspring.

HEARTS

NUMBER OF PLAYERS: 2 to 6, but almost always 4. Other forms of the game are preferred with more or less than 4: Draw Hearts for 2, Heartsette for 3, Domino and Cancellation Hearts for 5 or 6.

CARDS: Each receives 13 cards. When the cards cannot be divided equally, remove enough deuces from the deck to make the deal come out even. Aces rank highest, above Kings.

THE PLAY: The player at left of the dealer makes an opening lead and the cards are played in tricks. A trick is won by the highest card played of the suit led. There is no trump suit, though hearts are often miscalled "trumps." The winner of a trick leads to the next trick.

OBJECT OF PLAY: to avoid winning any hearts, or to win all 13.

SCORING: TO begin a game, equal numbers of counters are distributed to all the players. For each heart he wins, a player must pay 1 counter into a pool. If one player alone took no hearts, he wins the pool. If two or more players took no hearts, they divide the pool. But if all players took hearts nobody wins the pool; it stays on the table as a jackpot and becomes part of the pool for the next deal. If one player takes all 13 hearts, nobody pays. (In this last case, it is customary for all players to ante 2 or 3 counters, as agreed, to form a jackpot for the next deal.)

If you do not want to use counters, score with pencil and paper. Each heart taken counts 1 against the player. A game can be ended at any agreed time, and the player with the lowest total score is the winner. The usual method is to charge a player 13 if he wins all the hearts. A good alternative is to deduct 13 (or 26, as agreed) from his score, preserving the principle that a player with a bad hand should have a chance to save himself (or gain) by taking all the hearts.

HEARTSETTE

This is an adaptation of Hearts to an odd number of players. A widow is dealt face down on the table: 4 cards with 3 players; 2 cards with 5 players. The rest of the deck is dealt out. The widow is turned face up after the first trick and goes to the winner of that trick. He must of course pay for any hearts it contains.

SPOT HEARTS

This is a variation in cumulative scoring that can be applied to any member of the Hearts family. The charges for hearts taken go according to rank: Ace counts 14, King 13, Queen 12, Jack 11, the others, their pip value.


BLACK LADY

This is the best-known game of the Hearts family. It is what most people refer to when they speak of "Hearts."

NUMBER OF PLAYERS: 3 to 7. Best for 4, without partnerships.

CARDS: The whole deck is dealt, giving equal hands to all. With more or less than 4 players, discard an appropriate number of deuces from the deck so that the deal will come out even.

THE PASS: After looking at his hand, each player passes any 3 cards he chooses to the player at his left. He must choose his pass and put it on the table before picking up the 3 cards passed to him by his right-hand opponent.

THE PLAY: The player at left of the dealer makes the opening lead. The cards are played out in tricks. Aces rank highest. A trick is won by the highest card played of the suit led. The winner of a trick leads to the next trick.

OBJECTS OF PLAY: TO avoid taking the Queen of spades (called Black Lady, Black Maria, Calamity Jane, etc.), to avoid taking hearts, or to take all the hearts and the Queen of spades.

SCORING: If one player takes all 14 "minus" cards, nobody scores. Otherwise, 1 point is charged for each heart won, and 13 points for the Queen of spades. A running total score for each player is kept on paper. The one who first reaches 100 or more loses the game, and the one who has the lowest total at that time wins the game. (To make a shorter game for children, set the limit at 50.) An alternative method is to score with counters, settling after each hand. Payments are made into a common pool, which is distributed equally to the players from time to time.

CANCELLATION HEARTS

This is a variant for 6 or more players. Use two decks shuffled together. Deal them out as far as they will go evenly. Put the extra cards face down on the table as a widow. This goes to the winner of the first trick.

The play is as in Black Lady. But when two identical cards, such as two Aces of spades, are played on the same trick, they cancel each other; they rank as zero and cannot win the trick. Thus, if a deuce is led and all higher cards of the suit played to the trick are paired and so cancelled, the deuce wins.

When ALL cards of the suit led are cancelled, the cards stay on the table and go to the next winner of a trick. The same leader leads again.

The game is scored like Black Lady. Counters make for easier scoring than pencil and paper.

DISCARD HEARTS

This is Black Lady with the rule that the 3 cards are passed sometimes to the left and sometimes to the right. (The best plan is to alternate.) The pass often allows you to ruin your neighbor. Alternate passing gives him the chance to get back at you.

OMNIBUS HEARTS

Many regard this as the most interesting game of the Hearts family. It is the same as Black Lady with one addition—the 10 of diamonds is a "plus" card, counting 10 for you if you win it. Consequently, each suit has its own character—clubs are neutral, diamonds contain the plus card, spades contain the worst minus card, and all the Hearts are minus cards. A player who makes a "take-all" by winning all 13 hearts, the Queen of spades, and the 10 of diamonds, scores 26 plus.

SKILLFUL PLAY: The most dangerous cards to hold are high spades—Ace, King, Queen—without enough lower cards to guard them. Pass such high spades when you are dealt less than three lower spades. Pass high hearts if you can afford to, and if they look dangerous, but two low hearts are usually enough to guard them. Any suit outside of spades is dangerous if you have four or more without any card lower than, say, a six. Even a single very low card, two or three-spot, may not be a sufficient guard. Pass one to three cards from the top or middle of such a suit, if you do not have more pressing troubles.

If you do not have any high spades after the pass, lead spades at every opportunity. You can never gather Black Maria by a lower spade lead! You want to try to force her out by spade leads so as to save yourself from winning her by discard. If you have her yourself, usually lead your shortest side suit so as to void your hand of this suit and get a chance to discard Black Maria.

If you are dealt the 10 of diamonds, usually pass it if you can afford to. The 10 is much easier to catch than to save. It is not often caught by higher diamonds—and even then mostly by accident. It usually falls to the winner of the last trick. The hand with which you may hope to catch it has some Aces and Kings, adequately guarded by lower cards, in two or more suits. Of course, if you hope to catch the 10, don't pass any higher diamonds, and don't ever lead diamonds if you can avoid it. But put a high diamond on any diamond lead that might be won by the 10 if you were to play low.

Don't attempt a take-all without a very powerful hand. Certain holdings are fatal no matter how strong you are in other suits—low hearts (not at the end of a long solid suit), the 10 of diamonds (without enough diamond length and strength to save the 10 even if you do not go for take-all). However, such a holding as one or two middling-high hearts is not fatal. You may be able to win the tricks simply by leading these hearts. The players holding higher hearts may shrink from taking the tricks.

When your chief ambition is to avoid taking minus cards, which is most of the time, get rid of your high cards early rather than late.

Thus, if you have A-J-2 in clubs, put the Ace on the first club lead and the Jack on the second, saving your 2 to escape having to win the more dangerous third lead. The more often a suit is led, the more likely it becomes that Black Maria or hearts will be discarded on it.