Created (in a very short amount of time) for Iron Puzzler 2004 by Iron M(aid)en.
Hearts is a trick-taking game, played with a standard deck of cards. You may have played other versions, but this is slightly different.
After dealing an equal number of cards to each player, any extra cards are placed face down in the middle and are taken by whoever takes the first trick. No cards are passed between players in this version of Hearts.
The first trick is led by the player with the lowest club, who must play it. Ace is always high. Play follows clockwise until each player has played a card in the trick. Players must follow the led suit if they can. The highest ranked card in the led suit wins the trick. Whoever wins a trick leads the next trick. No player may lead a trick with a Heart until a Heart has been played.
The Queen of Spades is worth 13 points and each Heart is worth one. There are variations of Hearts that specify different point values for the 10 and Jack of Diamonds. In our version, the 10 of Diamonds is worth one point, and the Jack is worth none, for a total of twenty-seven.
Here we have a typical game, played by five players, sitting in a circle alphabetically by name. Our five players have the following hands:
| Alice: | 10♠ 8♠ 4♠ 10♥ 7♥ 5♥ 4♥ 3♥ A♣ 2♣ |
| Benedict: | K♠ 6♠ J♥ K♦ Q♦ 9♦ 8♦ 3♦ K♣ 4♣ |
| Chuck: | Q♠ J♠ Q♥ A♦ 5♦ 2♦ J♣ 8♣ 7♣ 6♣ |
| John: | 7♠ 3♠ A♥ K♥ 9♥ 2♥ 7♦ 6♦ 4♦ 5♣ |
| Rebecca: | A♠ 5♠ 2♠ 8♥ 6♥ J♦ 10♦ 10♣ 9♣ 3♣ |
| extras: | 9♠ Q♣ |
These players are not very bright, so to help them decide what to play, they've adopted the following extra rules/hints:
| Trick 1: | Play a straight flush. |
| Trick 2: | Play your highest Heart or Diamond. |
| Trick 3: | Play the same ranks, in Spades. |
| Trick 4: | Play your highest Spade. |
| Trick 5: | Play 3,4,5,9,10 (not necessarily in that order). |
| Trick 6: | Ditch diggers bury a royal family. |
| Trick 7: | Play the ends of all players' names. |
| Trick 8: | Play your lowest ranked card. |
| Trick 9: | John takes the trick. Three people's choices don't matter. |
| Trick 10: | :-) |
Each rule applies to all players, but only in the specified trick. When considered with the rules of the game and the hands as dealt, these rules specify precisely what must happen (unless they say otherwise). All that's left is to see how the game will turn out.
| tmp+14854@sethoscope.netTue Jan 25 01:24 GMT 2005 |