Black Maria

Full rules

1. Overview
2. Setup
3. Passing cards
4. Playing a deal
5. Scoring
6. Winning the game
7. Tips for beginners
8. Variants

Overview

Black Maria is the British cousin of Hearts: a trick-avoidance game, where you try not to win certain cards. A trick is one card from each player; the highest card of the suit led wins them all. Every heart you win costs you a penalty point – and the three top spades cost far more: the Queen of Spades (the "Black Maria") 13, the King 10 and the Ace 7. After an agreed number of deals, the player with the fewest points wins.

• Players: 3–6; best with 3.
• You need: one standard 52-card deck without jokers, paper and pencil.

Setup

The cards rank from high to low in every suit: A K Q J 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2. There are no trumps.

1. Remove cards so that everyone gets the same number:

2. Deal: choose a first dealer. The dealer shuffles and deals all the cards face down, one at a time, clockwise, starting on the left. After each deal, the turn to deal passes to the left.

Passing cards

After looking at your hand, choose any three cards and pass them face down to the player on your right. You may only pick up the three cards you receive after you have passed your own.

Passing is your chance to get rid of dangerous cards – such as the Q♠ or high hearts – but remember that you are giving them to your neighbour, who may pass problems back to you next deal.

Playing a deal

1. The player to the dealer's left leads (plays the first card to) the first trick. Any card may be led – including hearts, at any time.
2. The others play one card each, clockwise. You must follow suit: play a card of the suit led if you have one. If you can't, you may play any card – this is your chance to dump a penalty card on someone else.
3. The highest card of the suit led wins the trick. Cards of other suits never win.
4. The winner puts the trick face down in front of them and leads to the next one.

Example: Three players. Anna leads the 9♠. Ben plays the Q♠ – he has no other spade. Carla plays the K♠ and wins the trick, taking 23 penalty points (K♠ 10 + Q♠ 13). Ben got rid of the Queen safely, because Carla still had to follow suit.

Scoring

When all cards have been played, everyone counts the penalty cards in their tricks:

In every deal there are 43 penalty points in all. Write each player's points down and keep a running total.

Example: After a deal, Anna has three hearts and the A♠ (10 points), Ben has eight hearts (8), and Carla has two hearts, the K♠ and the Q♠ (25). 10 + 8 + 25 = 43.

Winning the game

Play an agreed number of deals – best a multiple of the number of players, so everyone deals equally often (for example 9 or 12 deals with three players). The player with the lowest total wins.

Tips for beginners

• Don't hold the A♠ or K♠ without small spades to protect them – they will win a spade trick and may catch the Queen as well.
• Having no cards of a suit (being void) is powerful: you can then dump penalty cards when that suit is led. Passing away all of a short suit can create a void.
• If you are safe in spades, lead small spades to force the Queen out.
• Watch which penalty cards have gone – towards the end of a deal, it's often clear who has to take the rest.

Variants

• Pass left: some players pass to the left instead of the right.
• Breaking hearts: some don't allow hearts to be led until a heart has been discarded on another suit.
• Play to 100: instead of a fixed number of deals, stop when someone reaches 100 points; the lowest total wins.
• Plain Black Maria: only the hearts (1 each) and the Q♠ (13) count – like Hearts, but passing to the right and with free heart leads.
• Dirty Lady: pass to the left, the Q♠ may not be passed, and high hearts cost more: A♥ 5, K♥ 4, Q♥ 3, J♥ 2, others 1.