

For me, card games were integral to my childhood: I grew up playing cards with my parents and three siblings.

#Queen of spades card game portable
They're social, portable and inexpensive (unless you're gambling with money), and the rules are easy to learn. First published 2005.Card games have entertained people for centuries and have always been a great way to pass time.

London, NY, Sydney, Ontario and Auckland: Granada. Diagram Group, Sterling, New York/London. Collecting all 14 penalty cards counts in the player's favour.Penalty points: ♠Q 13, ♥A 5, ♥K 4, ♥Q 3, ♥J 2 and all other Hearts 1 each.The 3 discards are passed to the left and must not include the ♠Q.Most descriptions of the game do not mention a slam or 'take-all', although it is common in other games of the Hearts family.Ī variant called Dirty Lady is described by Headington in 1972.

If successful, the score is reduced by 43 points. The winner is the player with the lowest score after an agreed number of deals (usually divisible by three so that everyone has the same number of turns as dealer).Īrnold mentions a type of slam known as 'hitting the moon' as an optional rule whereby a player with a poor hand is able to capture all the penalty cards. Tricks are won by the highest card of the led suit and the trick winner leads to the next.Īt the end of the deal, players tot up their penalty points which should collectively add up to 43 points. They must not view the cards they receive until they have selected and passed on their three discards. Players examine their hands and pass three cards, face down, to their right-hand neighbours. After shuffling the cards and having them cut, the dealer deals 17 cards to each player, one by one and face down, beginning with eldest hand (left of dealer). The dealer may be chosen by cards lowest deals. The following rules are based on Arnold (1995). The penalty cards are all the hearts, A ♠, K ♠ and Q ♠ ( Black Maria). The aim of Black Maria is to avoid capturing the penalty cards in tricks. If five play, the 2 ♣ and 2 ♦ are removed and, if six play, all four 2s are removed. In the case of the three player game, the 2 ♣ is removed from the pack. The game is best suited to three players, but may also be played by four, five or six. The cards rank in their natural order, Aces high: A K Q J 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2. The games uses a standard French pack, normally of the English pattern, with 13 cards in each of the four suits: Hearts, Spades, Diamonds and Clubs. One source states that an alternative name is Slippery Anne, although this is also an alternative name for Black Lady, while several sources erroneously give the name Black Maria to the game of Black Lady. Although Black Maria is its most common name, it is occasionally called Black Lady which, however, usually refers to the popular American variant of Hearts that features the Queen of Spades (the Black Lady) as the only high-scoring penalty card, as opposed to the three top penalty cards that characterise Black Maria. Westall, referring to three-player games, describe it as "the best of them all". Its rules first appears in print in The Complete Book of Card Games in 1939, where Phillips and co-author, B.C. In the Penguin Hoyle of 1958, English economist, journalist and bridge player, Hubert Phillips claims to have invented Black Maria during the First World War. While many of the games of the Hearts family may be considered as variants of 'basic' Hearts, Black Maria is "sufficiently different and popular" to justify being described as a separate game. The name Black Maria is sometimes used, confusingly, for the related American game of Black Lady likewise this game is occasionally referred to as Black Lady. The name of the game is derived from the nickname given to the Queen of Spades which plays a key role. Black Maria is regarded as one of the best games for three players. It is an elaboration of Black Lady, itself a development of the original American game of Hearts, the progenitor of the group. Aim: avoid capturing hearts, the ♠A, ♠K or ♠Qīlack Maria is a popular British card game of the Hearts group for three to six players.
