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| Hearts Card Game! |
The Hearts rules at World of Card Games require that after cards are dealt, each player must remove 3 cards from their hand and pass them face-down to another player. This is done in a particular order: After the first deal, cards are passed to the left. After the second deal, they are passed to the right. After the third deal, they are passed to the player across from them. And after the fourth deal, no passing is allowed - so you are stuck with the cards dealt to you. This is the "no-passing" or "hold" round.
Another rule is that if you are so lucky as to take all the tricks in a hand, you have "shot the sun", and the other players get a penalty of 52 points. It's a bit like shooting the moon (in which you take all the point cards and penalize others with 26 points), but probably involves more luck than skill.
In addition, there's a rule at the site which says you cannot lead hearts until hearts have been broken, or if you have no other cards except hearts cards in your hand. This rule is painful when you are holding just the Queen of Spades and all other cards are hearts cards. In this case, the rule forces you to lead the Queen! You'll almost always take that trick, leading to a 13 point penalty. Often, getting into this situation is just due to bad luck.
I've had a few requests to change the rules as follows:
(1) Remove the "no-passing" round. The "no-passing" round adds more of an element of luck to the game. You may get stuck with a lone Queen of Spades, which usually doesn't end well! You may also get stuck with a very good set of cards - it's all down to luck.
(2) Remove the "shooting the sun" penalty, so it is treated the same as "shooting the moon".
(3) Allow a person to lead hearts if hearts have not been broken, and they are holding only hearts cards and the Queen of Spades.
I have chatted with Joe Andrews, who is a leading expert in card games, and who ran Hearts tournaments for many years. He told me that the rules above all applied at these tournaments, so that skill was emphasized over luck. This is the reason that I'm proposing the rule changes. In particular, the strategy for passing cards is a huge factor in Hearts, and having a "no-passing" hand adds excessive randomness to the game.
I'd like to get some feedback from players at the site. Please let me know what you think about these rule changes in the comments.