Sore Spot

Full rules

1. Overview
2. The cards
3. Setup
4. Choosing your sore suit
5. Playing a trick
6. Scoring
7. Winning the game
8. Tips for beginners
9. Variants

Overview

Sore Spot is a trick-taking game with two twists. First, nobody has to follow suit, and every suit except the one led beats the suit led – so the led suit is the only one that is not a trump. Second, before each round everyone secretly picks a sore suit: every card of that suit you win counts its full value against you, while every other card you win is worth 1 point. So you want to win tricks – just not the ones the others are stuffing with your sore suit. After one round per player, the highest total wins.

• Players: 3–6; best with 4.
• You need: one standard 52-card deck without jokers, and paper and a pen for the scores.

Sore Spot is our own adaptation for ordinary cards, inspired by Sticheln (Klaus Palesch, Amigo, 1993). It has not been playtested in this form yet.

What is different from the original: the original has its own cards in five or six colours numbered 0 to 14 and gives everyone 15 cards. Here the four suits of a normal deck are the colours, the Aces are the zeros, and the hands are a little smaller (see the table). The rules of play and the scoring are those of the original.

The cards

Every card has a number:

There is no card with the number 1. The Aces count 0: an Ace can never win a trick, and an Ace of your sore suit costs you nothing.

Setup

Take out the cards for your number of players and put the rest back in the box:

Choose a dealer. The dealer shuffles and deals all the cards, one at a time, face down. Pick up your cards as your hand and don't show them to anybody.

Choosing your sore suit

Everyone chooses one card from their hand and lays it face down in front of them. When all are ready, turn these cards face up at the same time. The suit of your card is your sore suit for this round. It stays face up in front of you until the end of the round, so everybody can see which suit hurts whom. Several players may have the same sore suit.

Careful: the card you lay down counts too – at the end of the round it scores its number against you, like every other card of your sore suit. A low card, or even the Ace (0), is a cheap choice.

Playing a trick

A trick is one card from each player. The player to the dealer's left plays the first card of the round face up in the middle: this is called leading, and its suit is the suit led. Then, clockwise, each player plays one card.

You may play any card. There is no need to follow suit.

When everyone has played, find the winner:

1. Any card of another suit? If at least one card that is not of the suit led was played (Aces don't count), the highest number among those cards wins the trick. It doesn't matter which of the other suits it is.
2. Only the suit led? If nobody played another suit (again, Aces don't count), the highest card of the suit led wins.
3. A tie between two cards with the same number: the one played first wins.
4. Aces are ignored. If everyone played an Ace, nobody wins: put the cards aside, out of play, and the same player leads again.

The winner takes all the cards of the trick, puts them face down in a pile in front of them and leads the next trick.

Example: Four players. Anna's sore suit is hearts, Ben's spades, Carla's and Dan's clubs. Anna leads the 9♦, so diamonds are the suit led. Ben plays the 4♥, Carla the K♦ and Dan the 7♠. The K♦ is the highest card, but it is of the suit led; the 4♥ and 7♠ are of other suits, and the higher of them wins: Dan takes the trick with the 7♠.

Example: Dan leads the Q♣. Anna plays the 6♥, Ben the 6♠, Carla the A♦. The Ace doesn't count. The 6♥ and 6♠ are equal, and Anna played first, so Anna wins – and has to take her own 6♥, a card of her sore suit.

Example: Anna leads the 8♣. Ben plays the 10♣, Carla the A♥, Dan the 5♣. Carla's Ace doesn't count, so only clubs were played: the highest club, Ben's 10♣, wins.

Play on until all hand cards have been played.

Scoring

Everyone looks through the cards they have won, plus the sore-suit card in front of them:

• Every card of your sore suit counts its number against you (A = 0, K = 13). This includes the card you laid down at the start.
• Every card of any other suit counts +1 point, whatever its number.

Write down everybody's score. It can be negative.

Example: Anna (sore suit hearts) laid down the 2♥. In her tricks she has the 6♥, the 10♥ and 14 cards of other suits: −2 − 6 − 10 + 14 = −4. Ben (sore suit spades) laid down the A♠. He has won the 3♠, the 9♠ and 10 other cards: 0 − 3 − 9 + 10 = −2.

Winning the game

The deal passes to the left, and you play as many rounds as there are players, so everyone leads the first trick once. Add up the scores: the highest total wins. Players with the same total share the win.

Tips for beginners

• Watch the sore-suit cards on the table. A card of Ben's sore suit is a good gift for any trick Ben is likely to win.
• High cards win tricks, but only when played off the suit led. Leading a high card is usually a waste: any card of another suit beats it.
• Aces are your safe cards. Play one when you don't want the trick, or lay one down as your sore card at the start.
• Choose a sore suit you hold many low cards of: you can shed them into other people's tricks.
• Late in a round, count which of your sore suit's high cards are still out.

Variants

• Shorter game: agree on a fixed number of rounds instead of one per player.
• Longer hands with 3 players: use A to Q of all four suits (48 cards, 16 each). High cards of your sore suit then hurt more.