Difference between revisions of "User:Brian/Chinese Hearts"

Latest revision as of 02:57, 27 December 2014

Chinese Hearts is a card game played according to the following rules:

1. Chinese Hearts is played with a standard deck of fifty-two playing cards. The ranks, in increasing order, shall be 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, Jack, Queen, King, Ace. [5]
2. Gameplay proceeds in a series of rounds. All rounds shall be played according to an identical set of rules, to be given in the following paragraphs. At the beginning of the first round of a game, all players are assigned a score of zero. At the end of each round, points are awarded.
3. A round begins with the distribution of an equal number of cards to each player, if possible. Cards are dealt face-down from a shuffled deck. If the number of players does not evenly divide fifty-two, remove the lowest clubs from play until the number of players evenly divides the number of remaining cards.
4. Cards shall not be transferred from one player's hand to another's.
5. At the beginning of a round, if a player holds the Queen of spades, the Jack of diamonds, the Ace of hearts, or the ten of clubs, that player may expose the card. No other cards shall be exposed, nor shall any cards be exposed once the first trick has begun. A player exposes a card by immediately placing it face-up in front of themselves, leaving it in this position until it is played or picked up (see following paragraphs). A player who holds two or more of the aforementioned cards may choose to expose none, any, or all of them. Cards may be exposed in any order, and players need not take turns in exposing cards. If three of the four exposable cards are exposed, the player holding the fourth such card must expose it. The exposition phase ends when all players have no more cards that they are willing to expose. [1]
6. The round proceeds in a series of tricks. The first trick of each round is led by the player who collected the Queen of spades in the preceding round. In the first round, the oldest player leads the first trick. Play proceeds clockwise [2] with each player playing one card in turn, starting with the leader. The trick ends when each player has played one card.
7. Any card in the current leader's hand may lead. [3]
8. The suit of the card that begins a trick is called the leading suit. Subsequent plays in the trick shall follow suit: that is,
   • A player shall play a card of the leading suit from their hand if possible;
   • Otherwise, if the player has no cards in their hand of the leading suit, they shall play a card of the leading suit from in front of them, if possible;
   • Otherwise, the player is free to select any card from their hand or from in front of them to play.
9. A trick is won by the player who played the highest card of the leading suit during that trick. The player who wins a trick shall collect all cards played during that trick, without adding them to their hand. The player who wins a trick shall lead the next trick in the round, if any.
10. At the end of a trick, each exposed card of the leading suit that has been neither played nor picked up in the current round shall be picked up by the player who exposed it and added to their hand.
11. A round ends when all players have played out their entire hands. At that point, each player is awarded points based on the content of the cards they collected by winning tricks.
12. The following cards have nonzero base values: the Queen of spades (-100), the Jack of diamonds (+100), the Ace of hearts (-50), the King of hearts (-40), the Queen of hearts (-30), the Jack of hearts (-20), and the hearts in the ranks of five through ten, inclusive (-10 each). All other cards have a base value of zero.
13. The value of a card in a given round is computed as follows:
    1. Begin with the card's base value V.
    2. If a card with the same suit was exposed in the current, double V.
    3. If the player who collected the card has collected all thirteen hearts, and the card is a heart, change the sign of V. The player is said to have shot the moon. [4]
    4. The final value of V is the value of the card for the player who collected it.
14. The number of points the player is awarded in this round (to be added to the player's total score so far) is determined by the following rules:
    • If the player collected the ten of clubs, the Queen of spades, the Jack of diamonds, as well as all 13 hearts, the player is said to have shot the sun and receives 10000 points. [6]
    • Otherwise, if the player collected the ten of clubs as well as either the Queen of spades, the Jack of diamonds, at least one heart, or any combination thereof, then the following rule applies: the player receives four times the total value of the cards they collected during the round if the ten of clubs is exposed, or twice the value otherwise.
    • Otherwise, if the player collected the ten of clubs and neither the Queen of spades, nor the Jack of diamonds, nor any heart, then the following rule applies: the player receives 100 points if the ten of clubs is exposed, or 50 otherwise.
    • Otherwise---in the case that the player did not collect the ten of clubs---they receive the total value of the cards they collected during the round.
15. The game ends if any player's score's absolute value exceeds 4999. When the game ends, the player with the highest score wins.

[1] Under the rules of this paragraph, it is legal for one player, Alice, to wait for another player, Bob to expose his card before she exposes her own. However, if Alice and Bob are both waiting for each other, then the exposition phase may simply end with neither card being exposed, as there is no turn order to determine who exposes first. Likewise, it's legal for Alice to expose one card, wait for Bob to expose another, and then finally expose another one of her own cards.

[2] i.e. "Western" turn order, as opposed to the traditional counterclockwise order in China.

[3] In the extremely unlikely event that the leader has no cards left in their hand at the beginning of a trick, they shall, of course, play a card from in front of them.

[4] That is, if you have successfully shot the moon, the hearts have positive value. Note that shooting the moon does not require collecting the Queen of spades, nor does it reward the player for doing so.

[5] The optimal number of players is four although the game is reasonably practical for three to six players.

[6] Therefore, this player is guaranteed to win the game, regardless of the scores prior to this round.