Black Lady
Black lady is an American card game of the hearts group for three to six players and the most popular of the group. It emerged in the early 20th century as an elaboration of hearts and was initially also called discard hearts. It is named after its highest penalty card, the queen of spades or "black lady". It is a trick-avoidance game in which the aim is to avoid taking tricks containing hearts or the black lady. American author and leading bridge exponent Ely Culbertson describes it as "essentially hearts with the addition of the queen of spades as a minus card, counting thirteen" and goes on to say that "black lady and its elaborations have completely overshadowed the original hearts in popularity".
The game is often called hearts in America, although that is the proper name for the basic game in which only the cards of the heart suit incur penalty points. It is known by a variety of other names including American hearts, black lady hearts, black widow and slippery Anne. In Australia it is known as rickety Kate. It is sometimes misnamed black Maria which, however, is the British variant of hearts played with additional penalty cards.
History
Black lady was developed in America in the early 20th century from hearts. It is first mentioned by R. F. Foster in 1909 who describes a variant called "Discard hearts which is sometimes called black jack or black lady". In black jack, the jack of spades was worth "ten hearts"; in black lady the queen of spades was worth "thirteen hearts". Discarding three cards was already part of the game as the name discard hearts suggests. The discards were passed to the left. Scoring was simple: one penalty point for every heart captured and thirteen for the queen of spades.The slam known as "shooting the moon" first appeared in Britain in 1939 in a variant of hearts called hitting the moon. This was essentially black lady with the addition of a slam. Today this feature is a common element in the game.
Black lady was incorporated into Microsoft Windows under the name "Microsoft Hearts", starting with Windows 3.1.
Aim
The aim of black lady is to avoid capturing heart cards or the queen of spades.Earliest rules – Foster (1909)
The following rules are based on the earliest known rules – those by R.F. Foster – in which black lady was an alternative name for discard hearts, itself a variation of classic hearts.Preliminaries
The game is designed for three to six players, although "four is the usual number." A standard 52-card deck of Anglo-American pattern cards is used in which cards rank in their normal order, aces high. If three play, the is removed, if five play, the two black deuces are removed and, if six play, all four deuces are discarded. It was usual practice to play with two decks, one being shuffled while the other was being dealt. Players cut for the choice of seats, lowest becoming the first dealer and choosing a seat first and then others choosing their seats in their order. Players tying must cut again.Any player has a right to shuffle, the dealer last. Dealer offers the cards to pone for cutting, before dealing all the cards, clockwise and one at a time, to each player starting with eldest hand. The deal always rotates to the left. After the deal, each player discards three cards to the left-hand neighbour. Players may not view the cards they receive before selecting their discards.
Playing
The aim is to avoid taking any hearts or the black lady in the tricks. Eldest hand leads any card to the first trick. Players must follow suit if they can; otherwise may discard. There is no trump suit. The winner of a trick leads to the next.Scoring
Foster's scoring scheme for basic hearts is that players start with a fixed number of counters and pay one counter into the pool for each heart captured; the Black Lady being worth thirteen. The pool is claimed by the person or people winning it. There are two ways of deciding a winner. In the sweepstake method, the pool may only be claimed by a player or players who takes no hearts at all. If everyone takes at least one, the pool stays and forms a 'jack' until someone eventually takes no hearts at the end of a deal. If more than one player takes no hearts, they divide the pool, any odd counters staying put. In the 'Howell' method, at the end of each deal, players pay into the pool per opponent as many counters as they took hearts. So in a four-player game, if Andy takes the Black Lady and a heart i.e. 14 hearts, he pays counters into the pool. Once everyone had paid up, players claim as many counters as they did not hold at the end. So Andy may claim counters. This exhausts the pool and is designed to be a fairer reflection of the players' ability. The Black Lady ranks as a spade within the spade suit and so may be discarded if any other suit is played.Culbertson's rules (1950)
The following rules are based on those by American bridge expert, Ely Culbertson, where it is described as a separate game that is "essentially Hearts with the addition of the queen of spades as a minus card, counting thirteen". However, he omitted to mention that it also differed in retaining the discard or passing feature of Black Lady/Discard Hearts. The main change from the earliest rules is a much simplified scoring system. Culbertson includes a slam, first introduced by Phillips in 1939, but this time no points are scored for it.Preliminaries
According to Culbertson, black lady may be played by three to seven players, individually, the best number being four. The standard 52-card deck is used and, in order to ensure each player gets the same number of cards, twos are discarded in the order:,, and. Aces are high. Again, players may pass any three cards face down and to the left. As an alternative rule, however, players may pass cards alternately to the left and then right from deal to deal.Playing
Eldest hand leads to the first trick with any card. Players must follow suit if they can; otherwise may discard any card. A trick is won by the highest card of the led suit and the winner of the trick leads to the next.Scoring
When all the tricks are played, players total up their scores. Each heart card captured scores one penalty point and the black lady scores thirteen. If one player takes all the penalty cards, no scores are recorded for that deal. When the first player reaches 100 points, the game ends and the winner is the player with the lowest score.Modern rules – Morehead (2001)
Glenn and Denton state that this version "is nearly universal in the United States." These rules are based on Morehead, except where stated. The major differences are the rules on passing and the scoring scheme for shooting the moon which reflects the earliest rule by Phillips.Preliminaries
Three to six may play, but the game is best for four. There are no partnerships and no trumps. The standard deck is used and an even distribution of cards is achieved by removing as many of the following as are needed:,, and. Cards rank in the normal order with Aces high. Alternative rule: any cards left over after the deal are put into a kitty and the winner of the first trick adds them to his or her tricks. Some rules allow the winner of the first trick to view the kitty as well.Players cut for the deal, the player drawing the lowest card becoming the first dealer. Cards are dealt clockwise beginning with eldest hand. After the deal each player selects three cards to discard and passes them to the left-hand neighbour. This must be done before viewing the cards received from the right. Alternative rule: In the American version of this game, called American Hearts by Glenn and Denton, the cards are passed differently in successive deals. For the first deal, cards are passed to the left. For the second deal, cards are passed to the right. In the third deal, cards are passed across the table and in the fourth deal, players 'hold' i.e. do not pass any cards.
Playing
Card play follows the normal rules: eldest hand leads to the first trick. Players must follow suit if able; otherwise, they may play a card from any suit. The highest card of the led suit wins the trick, and the trick winner leads to the next. Alternative rules: The player holding the leads with that card. Some rules state that neither hearts nor the Black Lady may be led until the first heart has been discarded. According to Morehead, in club play, the player with the may be required to play it at the first opportunity by discarding or following a higher spade.An innovation in modern black lady is the take-all or shooting the moon, whereby a player may aim to capture all the penalty cards; i.e., the black lady and all hearts. In this event the player scores zero, while each opponent scores twenty-six penalty points. In a failed attempt, penalty points are scored as normal. Morehead gives the old scoring rule that no players score for the deal and the other alternative that the player who successfully shoots the moon scores twenty-six plus points.
Scoring
Apart from shooting the moon, the usual scoring system is employed with players scoring one penalty point for each heart card taken and thirteen for taking the Black Lady. Game is 100 points. When the first player reaches this score, the game stops and players settle their scores.Variations
Passing cards
Unlike the basic game of hearts, card passing has always been a feature of black lady. It is also referred to as discarding, hence the earliest alternative name for black lady was discard hearts. The idea is that, before each hand begins, each player chooses three cards and passes them to another player. Cards are usually passed to the left, unlike the British game of Black Maria, where cards are passed to the right. Passing cards to the left is easier because you know something about the hand of the player who follows you whereas, in passing cards to the right, you have no information about the hand of the player to your left.In the earliest rules, passing was always to the left. Today, there are many variations of passing:
- Four-way passing. The most common method, popularized by computer versions, rotates passing through four deals; on the first deal, players pass to the left, the second deal to the right, the third across the table. On the fourth deal no cards are passed; alternatively players may pass one card to each opponent. The cycle of four deals is then repeated.
- Left and right. The discarded cards are passed alternately left and right with each deal.
- Star passing. With an odd number of players, passing across is not possible. If five play, players choose two cards and pass one each to the two players opposite. The pattern of passing routes forms a five-point star.
- Shuffle passing. Players choose three cards and discard them to a central pile. The dealer then gathers, shuffles, and re-deals these cards.
- Two cards. When there are more than four players, only two cards can be passed.
- Dealer's choice. The dealer chooses the number of cards to be passed and the direction of passing.
- Rotating pass. Players pass in the following cycle: one player to the left, two players to the left, three players to the left, etc. This method accommodates any number of players. Additionally, if the cycle ends with a "no pass" round, one player will always pass to the dealer; this can assist in remembering where to pass cards.