The Penguin Book of Card Games: Everything You Need to Know to Play Over 250 Games (45 page)

You may do so if you have nothing else, or your only

alternative is Q.

Unless otherwise agreed, it is acceptable to throw al non-penalty

cards won in tricks on to a common wastepile, and for players to

leave the penalty cards they have won face up on the table before

them, so that everyone can see which are yet to come.

Score At end of play each player gets 1 penalty point for each

heart taken in tricks, and 13 for Q. For taking al 14 penalty cards,

however, you may either deduct 26 from your total, or add 26 to

everyone else’s. The winner is the player with fewest penalty points

when one or more players reach 100. A tie-breaker may be played

if necessary.

Sample game Here is an amusing deal that demonstrates some of

the problems and pitfal s the game can give rise to.

Passing to the left, North gave East T 7 7, get ing rid of some

indeterminate cards and keeping his safe run of spades – safe

indeed, as you wil see from the exciting finish. East discarded his

eminently unsafe A (trusting to luck not to be given the King or

Queen), plus 2T8. South, similarly embarrassed in spades, unloaded

its Ace, together with two useless but dangerous clubs. West, facing

the awful four-spades-to-the-Queen prospect, decided to hope for

an extra covering spade from North, and got rid of 1J 2K C9,

an extra covering spade from North, and got rid of 1J 2K C9,

leaving an ideal position in the minor suits. East, holding 2, kicks

of with it.

At trick 6, with 18led, North ‘sacrifices’ with 19, planning to win

the trick and lose the rest, thus preventing anyone from making a

slam. East, however, with the same object in view, ‘over-sacrifices’

with the King.

At trick 4, West could (and perhaps should) have unloaded Q

before it was too late. He reckoned, however, that his five-card

holding would save him from being forced to take a trick with the

Queen, and embarked on the not infrequent dodge of let ing

everyone know he held the Queen and winding up the suspense by

withholding her for the last trick. Unfortunately for him, however,

North also held five spades and got rid of the King early on.

Coming in at trick 9, North plays from S9732 against West’s Q854,

and West finds himself, at the last trick, hoist by his own petard.

Result: North 2, East 5, South 6, and West 13 penalty points.

Truly a wonderful game!

Partnership Hearts

Played by four with either fixed or (my invention) floating

partnerships. Each partnership, or each member of a partnership,

scores the amount taken by the partnership as a whole.

1. Fixed partnerships. The players facing each other across the

table are partners for the whole game, and the passing cycle is left,

right, across, none.

2. Rotating partnerships. In the first deal, NE oppose W, and

each player exchanges three cards with his neighbouring opponent.

In the second, NS oppose EW, and each exchanges cards with his

partner. In the third, NW oppose E and each exchanges with his

neighbouring opponent. In the fourth, there is no exchange and the