Hearts

HOW TO PLAY

Take as few points as you can.

1. Pass three cards — left, then right, then across, then none — and then follow suit if you can.
2. Every heart costs 1 and the queen of spades costs 13. Lowest score wins.
3. Take all twenty-six in one hand and you shoot the moon: everybody else takes them instead.

Every Hearts game is accused of cheating, so this one can be checked. The three opponents are given their own thirteen cards and the cards already played, and nothing else — not your hand, and not each other's. When a hand ends you can open the table, turn all four hands face up and read the reason each seat recorded for every card it played. Three strengths to beat, and a Deal of the Day that gives everybody the same cards and the same opponents, so the ten best scores are ten ways of playing it.