Hearts is a trick taking game in which the object is to avoid winning tricks containing hearts; the queen of spades is even more to be avoided. The game first appeared at the end of the nineteenth century and is now popular in various forms in many countries. This page describes the American version first: the same game is played in Australia under the name Rickety Kate. Some remarks on other variations will be found at the end.
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This page is partly based on information collected by John Hay in preparation for his projected book. Many thanks to John for permission to use it here.
The Complete Win at Hearts
by Joe Andrews
The classic guide to Hearts strategy.
Hearts is most commonly played by 4 people. There are no formal partnerships, though there are times when players will find it in their interest to help each other.
A standard 52 card deck is used, with the cards in each suit ranking as usual from ace (high) down to two (low). There is no trump suit.
Each heart is worth one penalty point and the queen of spades is worth 13 penalty points. The other cards have no value.
The object is to avoid scoring points. The game is ended by someone reaching or going over 100 points, and the winner is the player with the lowest score at this point.
Deal and play are clockwise. All the cards are dealt out one at a time, so that everyone has 13.
On the first hand, after the deal, each player passes any three cards face-down to the player to their left. When passing cards, you must first select the cards to be passed and place them face-down, ready to be picked up by the receiving player; only then may you pick up the cards passed to you, look at them and add them to your hand.
On the second hand each player passes three cards to the player to their right, in the same way. On the third hand each player passes three cards to the player sitting opposite. On the fourth hand no cards are passed at all. The cycle then repeats until the end of the game.
The person who holds the 2 of clubs must lead it to the first trick. The other players, in clockwise order, must play a card of the suit which was led if possible. If they do not have a card of that suit, they may play any card. The person who played the highest card of the suit led wins the trick and leads to the next trick.
It is illegal to lead a heart until after a heart has been played to a previous trick, unless your hand contains nothing but hearts. Discarding a heart, thus allowing hearts to be led in future, is called breaking hearts. In general, discarding a penalty card on a trick is called painting the trick.
A player whose hand consists entirely of hearts may lead any heart, thereby breaking hearts, even if hearts have not previously been broken.
Players are permitted to lead spades to any trick after the first. In fact it is a normal tactic to lead lower spades to try to drive out the queen. This is sometimes known as smoking out the queen.
Normally, each player scores penalty points for cards in the tricks which they won. Each heart scores one point, and the queen of spades scores 13 points. However, if you manage to win all the scoring cards (which is known as a slam or shooting the moon), your score is reduced by 26 points, or you may choose instead to have all other players' scores increased by 26 points.
The game continues until one player has reached or exceeded 100 points at the conclusion of a hand. The person with the lowest score is then the winner.
Some play that only 12 cards are dealt to each player. During the deal, four cards are dealt to a face down kitty, which is added to the tricks of the first player who takes a penalty card. A kitty can also be used to cope with the fact that the cards cannot be dealt evenly when there are more or fewer than four players.
Different passing cycles may be used, for example:
Some play that players are not required to pass any cards if they do not wish to. They simply pass on the cards that were passed to them without looking at them. This could result in a player getting their own cards back.
Some players allow hearts to be led at any time. This was the original rule, but in the USA nearly everyone now plays that heart leads are forbidden unless hearts have been broken.
The original rule was that player to the left of the dealer always leads to the first trick (rather than the holder of the 2 of clubs leading it), and may lead any card. Some people still play that way. If you play with the now usual restriction on leading hearts then the opening lead can be anything but a heart.
Some play that is illegal to play points on the very first trick, unless of course you have you have nothing but penalty cards in your hand.
Some play that the Queen of Spades breaks hearts. In other words, hearts may be led anytime after the Queen of Spades or any heart has been played.
If hearts have not been played and a player is on lead holding nothing but hearts and the Queen of Spades, many people allow hearts to be led, instead of forcing the player to lead the Queen of Spades.
Some players insist that you must play the Queen of Spades as soon as it is safe to do so. This could be when you are void in the suit led or to a spade trick when the Ace or King of Spades has already been played.
Many people play that the Jack of Diamonds (or sometimes the Ten of Diamonds) is a bonus card, counting minus 10 points for the person taking it. With this form of scoring, the game is known as Omnibus Hearts. To shoot the moon, you need all the hearts and the Q, and as usual you can choose to have 26 points deducted from your score or added to everyone else's; in addition to this, 10 points are deducted from the score of the player who took the Jack of Diamonds (who may be the same player as the shooter).
Shooting the sun is taking all the tricks (as opposed to taking all points). Some score this as 52 points with the scoring handled in the same as shooting the moon.
There are variations on the choice of scores for shooting the moon. Possibilities are:
For some people, reaching certain scores has a special effect. For example if your score is exactly 100 points at the end of a hand, it is reduced to 50 (or zero).
If a player reaches or exceeds 100 points and there is a tie for low score, additional hands may be played until there is a clear winner.
There are two ways that four players can play hearts in fixed partnerships, partners sitting opposite each other.
Some prefer to play this game passing three cards to partner on every deal. The cards passed can provide useful information, such as signalling whether one intends to shoot the moon.
The game may be played with either three or five players. There are various ways of coping with the fact that the cards cannot all be dealt out equally to the players:
In the 3 player game, the passing may follow any one of these patterns:
In the 5 player game, the passing could follow any of these patterns:
Two players can play Huse Hearts for Two, an interesting version involving a dummy hand.
Three players can play George Wang's Dummy Hearts in which players bid for control of the Dummy.
The Hearts Variations page has a collection of Hearts variants contributed by readers of pagat.com
Turbo Hearts, introduced at Upenn in the 1980's by Richard Garfield, is an American version of the Chinese game Gong Zhu (Catch the Pig).
Richard Garfield recommends the following variation, introduced around 1990. Booster nines work the following way. If a nine is led to a trick or played while following suit, then there is a boost: one more round is played in the same suit - i.e. a further card from each player, in rotation. The suit of the first of the eight cards played is the led suit, and the highest card of this suit takes the eight card trick. If a nine is sloughed (discarded on a lead of a different suit) or played in the last trick, there is no boost - the trick consists of just four cards as usual.
This variation makes shooting the moon somewhat easier, since you can dump a loser on your own good nine (or one drawn from an opponent).
This is a version of Hearts for 6 to 10 players using two 52 card packs shuffled together. The cards are dealt out as far as they will go, any left over cards being placed in a face-down kitty which is taken by the winner of the first trick. The player to the dealer's left leads first and can lead anything.
When two identical cards are played to a trick, they cancel each other out in terms of trick-taking power (but still carry penalty points if they are penalty cards). The trick is taken by the highest card of the suit led which is not duplicated. If all the cards played of the suit led are in cancelling pairs, the trick remains on the table, the same player leads again, and the cards go to the winner of the next trick. If the very last trick has no winner its cards go to the winner of the previous trick.
This is a variation in which the penalty value of the hearts is their pip-value. That is, the two the 2 penalty points, the three 3, the four 4, etc. The jack of hearts carries 11 penalty points, queen 12, king 13, ace 14, and the queen of spades 25.
As an alternative, some play that hearts from 2-10 are face value, all heart pictures are 10, the heart ace is 15, and the spade queen is 25.
Playing spot hearts the scores are higher, so a higher target score is needed - say 500.
This is the British version of Hearts, sometimes also called Dirty Lady, Slippery Bitch.
NB. There is also an entirely different Finnish game called Black Maria (Mustamaija in Finnish; Svarta Maija in Swedish). A description of that game will be found on the Mustamaija page.
In Black Maria there are usually 3 players; the 2 of clubs is removed from the pack and 17 cards are dealt to each player. Black Maria can also be played by four people, in which case all the cards are dealt out.
Cards always passed in same direction - the books say pass three to the right, but some players pass three to the left.
The player to dealer's left leads first and may lead anything. There is no restriction on leading hearts.
There are various alternative scoring schemes:
Shiva Ctylyctyc describes a Hearts variation from Florida.
Various tactical nuances now exist, for example:
Here are some other WWW pages with rules for Hearts and its variations:
An excellent guide to the strategy of Hearts can be found in Joe Andrews' book Win at Hearts, a new and expanded edition of which was published in 1998. Here you can learn about card passing technique, spade and heart suit management, how to make and defend against slams, strip plays and advanced endplays.
You can order 'Win At Hearts' from amazon.com
Here are some Hearts computer programs and online games against computer opponents:
Here are some web sites which allow you to play Hearts on line against live opponents:
Hearts can be played by e-Mail on Richard's Play-By-eMail Server.
Megadollar Games runs on line two-player Hearts tournaments for cash prizes.
History – How To Play – Rules – Odds – Strategy
“Bingo!” It’s an eager declaration understood by both children and grandparents alike. Bingo is a classic game of probability enjoyed by players across multiple continents.
For the last few hundred years, the game of bingo has worked its way into the culture of multiple European countries and eventually found its way into the United States. Despite the time and distance, the game has traveled, players are still enjoying the game almost the same way it’s been played since day one.
History credits the creation of bingo to Italy in the 1500s. During the 14th century, Italians had quickly developed a passion for betting on games of chance. They invented a lottery game which they referred to as ‘Lo Giuoco Del Lotto D’Italia.’ Lo Giuoco Del Lotto D’Italia was considered the first version of modern-day bingo.
The French were the next culture to embrace bingo. The upper class favored the game, which they referred to as ‘Le Lotto,’ in the 1770s. The structure they followed wasn’t very different from the one players know and love today. Using bingo sheets featuring a 9×3 grid, players would follow the lead of a bingo caller, who would randomly select a wooden chip numbered 1-90. If a player had the chosen number on their board, they would mark it. The first player to cover an entire line of 9 was the winner.
As bingo grew in popularity in the 1800s it found its way to Germany. Rather than serving as a source of entertainment, the game was used as an educational tool. By playing the game, children were able to learn spelling, math, and history.
In the roaring 1920s, bingo gained a following in the United States. While the evolution of the game, and its name, are highly speculated, we do know that it was originally played under the name ‘beano.’ This name stemmed from the player’s use of beans as card markers. Legend has it that during a game one very enthusiastic player declared her victory by yelling ‘bingo,’ rather than ‘beano.’ The name stuck, and it’s still what we call the game almost a hundred years later. A toy salesman named Edward Lowe further revolutionized the game by working to develop a system to increase number combinations on bingo cards. His charitable work with one Pennsylvanian church (who used the game for fundraising), helped contribute to the rise in the game’s popularity. More recently, an organization in the United States launched the country’s first entirely charitable online bingo website (www.ticketyboogames.org).
Fortunately for bingo fanatics, the game can be enjoyed either in-person or from the comfort of your own home in an online format. Both offer slightly different experiences but deliver the same excitement none-the-less. (Wondering what the future of bingo will look like? The development of mobile bingo apps is on the rise!)
The first necessary measure for a bingo game is to purchase admission. Depending on the venue, the player may have the option to do this beforehand, or on-site. After players have found their seats, and it’s almost time to begin, the Bingo Caller will first announce that occasion’s prizes. When the Caller has completed the introduction, they’ll say ‘eyes down,’ indicating that it’s time for the game to begin. The Caller will pick and announce numbers using their selected method (traditional balls from a bingo tumbler, or from the use of a Random Number Generator (RNG)). When one of the numbers announced appears on a player’s card, the player will mark that square off.
The game continues until a player yells ‘bingo!’, which signals that they’ve marked off all the numbers that form a winning pattern on their card. Their card is checked by a staff member, and the game will either end, or continue, depending on the rules of the venue, and the number of prizes up for grabs.
For those who seek the thrill of betting but are reluctant to leave the comfort of their home, online bingo is the next best option. With the demand for at-home entertainment increasing, online bingo has become one of the most rapidly growing variations of online gambling. In 2004 the UK had 20 online bingo sites, and today you can find over 500 of them across the web.
The process of online bingo is similar to that of land-based: You enter in a (virtual) game, choose the number of cards you’d like, listen to the numbers being called, and declare when you’ve got a winning card. However online, the talking must be done via chat, the cards are marked on your computer screen, and a win is announced with the click of a mouse. Just like land-based bingo, card styles and winning patterns can differ from game to game. Online bingo is already prominent in the United States and Europe and is expected to grow in Spain, Asia, and Latin America.
While different bingo venues and halls have different rules, the same general guidelines are applied everywhere; however, we’ve listed the general guidelines for both land-based and online-based casinos below:
Technicalities often differ between bingo halls, but there are common rules that you’ll need to follow, regardless of your venue:
In the case of online bingo games, there isn’t a need for restrictions on body language or noise level. The rules players are required to follow will vary from platform to platform. Before a game, especially your first experience, players are encouraged to read the rules and regulations that the website presents. Doing so will ensure a smooth game.
Just like any other type of betting game, bingo has odds. In bingo, the caller will traditionally choose from balls numbered 1 through 75. When the first call is made, the odds of a specific number on your card is 1 in 75. As the game progresses, with each ball selected, those odds increase. The more numbers that are chosen, the longer a game continues, and the higher the chance that each particular number has of being called. Go figure; if you stay in the game long enough, eventually you’re guaranteed to end up with a winning combination.
A theory regarding bingo odds, developed by L. H. C. Tippett, claims that the more numbers that are called in a game, the higher the odds are that those numbers will be closer to the set’s median (number 38). To take advantage of that, players expecting a longer game should (if possible) seek out cards with a surplus of numbers close to the median, and players expecting a shorter game should keep their eye out for a card with very high and very low numbers. The length of a game can be estimated by how easy it is to achieve a winning combination.
One of the reasons why bingo is such a crowd-pleaser is because it doesn’t require much practice or strategy. Because it’s a game based almost entirely on luck, both novices and experts alike have equal chances of winning. Players can, however, take advantage of tips and techniques to try to swing the odds in their favor.
The most common bingo tactic used, is playing with multiple cards at the same time. The more cards mean the more possible winning combinations, so it’s a no-brainer. It’s even more ideal if your assortment of cards incorporates a wide variety of numbers. The danger in a greater number of cards is not having time to check all the cards when a number’s called. Players should aim to have the maximum number of cards that they’re able to keep track of. Keeping ‘your eyes on the prize’ and maintaining focus during the game, will ensure that you mark your card properly. (Bonus: online bingo often offers an ‘Auto-Daub’ mode, which will mark off the called numbers on your card for you!)
The game of bingo is a classic source of entertainment that has stood the test of time. It’s traveled the globe for hundreds of years and is played almost the same way from country to country. Whether a traditional in-person game or the fast-growing craze of online bingo, it’s one of the easiest-to-learn gambling options. What do players need, you ask? Just a venue, a bingo card, and a little luck.