Copyright (C) 2003 - 2006 Markus Schwab (g17m0@lycos.com) This is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later version. This is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details. You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place - Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307, USA. --> "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/strict.dtd"> Hearts - A game where you better don't get them Hearts Hearts is a trick-taking card game, played with a standard deck of 52 playing cards. The game is also known by other names, including Black Lady, Black Widow, Chase the Lady, Slippery Anne, Ricketty Kate and Slippery Bitch. The object of Hearts is to avoid scoring points which one gets by taking certain cards in tricks. When one person scores a pre-specified amount (usually 100) the game is over, and the winner is the person with the lowest score. Dealing/Exchange Every one of the four players start with thirteen cards. In most rounds, each player passes three cards to another player; to the left (1st round), to the right (2nd rount) and across (3rd round). In the 4th round there's no passing, then the cycle is repeated. Playing It starts the player having the two of clubs (with playing exactly that card). The other hands can be lead by any card. The player continue counter-clockwise, following suit, if able or else any other card. The player who played the highest card (of the leading colour) gets the played pile and starts the next hand. There are a few rules during the game: A turn can not be started with a heart, if they haven't been played before. In the first turn neither the queen of spades nor a heart can be played. Scoring If there are no more cards left the number of (bad) points are counted. Each heart counts as one point and the queen of spade counts thirteen points. If a player happens to have got all of them (and therefore would have 26 points, aka "shooting the moon"), the score is reversed, meaning he got 0 points and all of the others 26. The game ends, if one of the player reaches 100 href="#Note1">1 points. The player with the lowest score has won. The status line gives some information about what's going on! Note to the layout After starting a game you have (from left to right and from top to bottom): The cards of the human player. On top his won cards, below the cards in his hand. The won cards can be inspected by clicking on them; right-clicking allows to sort them. In the next line it's the same with players 1 and 3. In between them there's the played pile. In the last line there are the cards of player 2 1) This can be changed in the settings dialog. Markus Schwab (g17m0@lycos.com) Previous(Buraco) Cardgames Next(Machiavelli)
