Losing Lodam

Full rules

1. Overview
2. The cards
3. Setup
4. Exchanging cards
5. Playing the tricks
6. Losing a life
7. Winning the game
8. Tips for beginners
9. Variants

Overview

Losing Lodam was played in England around 1600 and is one of the oldest ancestors of Hearts. Everyone tries not to win tricks that contain the valuable cards, the loaders: Aces, Tens and face cards. Whoever collects 31 or more points of them loses one of their three lives; the last player still alive wins.

Only one description of the game survives, written by the naturalist Francis Willughby around 1670, and it leaves some gaps. The rules here follow the reconstruction by John McLeod on pagat.com, which stays closest to Willughby's text. The points where David Parlett's reconstruction differs are listed under Variants.

• Players: 3–9, each for themselves.
• You need: one standard 52-card deck without jokers, and three counters (coins, matches) per player to show their lives.

The cards

A trick is one round in which each player plays one card; the best card wins it. The cards rank as usual, from high to low: A K Q J 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2.

Five ranks are loaders and count as penalty points if they end up in your tricks:

All other cards count nothing. The whole deck holds 108 points.

Setup

1. Everyone takes three counters: these are your lives.
2. Choose the first dealer; after each hand the deal passes to the left. Play goes clockwise.
3. The dealer shuffles, the player to the dealer's right cuts, and the dealer deals the cards one at a time so that everyone gets the same number and a few are left over. The leftover cards go face down in the middle as the stock.

As players drop out, the others get more cards – just as Willughby says: "when some are out the rest have more cards dealt them".

Exchanging cards

A loader you can't get rid of is dangerous, especially a single Ace or King with no small cards of its suit to protect it. You may offer to swap it:

• For a King, Queen or Jack, put it face down in front of you and say "A coat for a coat" (face cards were called "coats").
• For an Ace or Ten, say "A card for a card".

Going round the table, the others may accept by putting down a card of the same type (a face card for a face card, an Ace or Ten for an Ace or Ten). The two players swap face down without showing anyone. If the two cards turn out to be of the same suit, the swap is cancelled and each takes their own card back. Swaps usually happen before the first trick, but Willughby doesn't forbid them later, and you may offer more than once.

Playing the tricks

The player to the dealer's left leads (plays the first card) to the first trick. Then everyone in turn adds a card:

• You must follow suit – play a card of the suit that was led – if you can.
• If you can't, you may play any card.

At the start there are no trumps. The first time anyone can't follow suit, the top card of the stock is turned face up. Its suit is trumps for the rest of the hand: a trump beats any card of another suit. Once everyone has seen it, the card is turned face down again – "that it may be forgotten and mistaken afterwards", as Willughby puts it.

A trick is won by the highest trump in it, or, if it has no trump, by the highest card of the suit led. The winner puts the trick face down in front of them and leads to the next trick.

Swallowing: if a player takes a trick by mistake – say, with the highest heart, not noticing that someone had trumped – and nobody objects, the trick stays with them and they lead next. A player may also do this on purpose, for example to take a trick with no points in it and get the lead.

Example: Five play. Anna leads the 9♦, Ben plays the K♦, Carla has no diamonds and plays the 4♣. The stock's top card is turned: the 6♣ – clubs are trumps, so Carla's 4♣ is now winning. Dan and Emil follow suit with low diamonds, so Carla takes the trick, which holds 3 points (the King). The stock card was turned face down again, and Carla leads.

Losing a life

Keep an eye on the points in your tricks. As soon as you have 31 or more, say "out". The hand ends at once and you lose one life.

If all the cards are played and nobody has said "out", everyone counts: the player with the most points loses a life. If several tie for the most, they all lose one.

Challenging: if you reach 31 but think another player got there before you without saying so, you may challenge them. They show their tricks. If they have 31 or more, they lose the life instead of you; if not, you lose it as normal. Players who are already out of the game may challenge too.

Example: Dan says "out" with 33 points. Emil thinks Ben has been hiding more. Ben shows his tricks: A♥, 10♠, 10♣ and a Queen – 33 points. Ben loses the life, not Dan.

Revoking – not following suit when you could – is punished hard: you are out of the game at once.

Winning the game

Whoever loses their third life is out. If that player was due to deal next, they deal once more before leaving, so that nobody loses their turn to lead. The last player left wins.

Tips for beginners

• Get rid of loaders early. A lone Ace is a liability; play it on a trick someone else is sure to win, or offer "a card for a card".
• Keep small cards. A 2 or 3 in a suit lets you slip under a trick and let others take the points.
• Remember the trump. It is shown only once – that's the whole joke of the game.
• Watch the scores. A player close to 31 will play carefully; dump your Tens on them if you can.

Variants

Agree on these before you start.

• Parlett's order: in David Parlett's reconstruction the Ten ranks second, between Ace and King (A 10 K Q J 9 … 2), as in many continental games.
• Short deck: Ulf Martin (on the German pagat.com page) suggests playing with 32 cards (7–A) once only four or fewer players are left, so the hands don't get too big.
• Stakes: at the start, everyone puts an agreed number of chips into a pool; the last survivor takes it all.
• Winning Lodam: Willughby also mentions the opposite game, which he never saw played: whoever takes 31 or more points in tricks (or the most below 31) scores a counter, and the first to three counters wins.