Black Lady — Rules

Goal

Played by four with 52 cards. Avoid penalty points: each heart is 1, the queen of spades 13. When a player reaches the target (50 or 100) the game ends and the lowest score wins.

Passing

Before each hand everyone passes 3 cards: to the left in hand 1, to the right in hand 2, across in hand 3, no passing in hand 4, then the cycle repeats. (Can be switched off.)

Play

The holder of the two of clubs leads the first trick.
You must follow suit if you can; otherwise you may play any card.
No hearts or queen of spades on the first trick (unless you have nothing else).
Hearts cannot be led until broken.
The highest card of the led suit wins the trick; there are no trumps.

Shooting the moon

A player who takes all the hearts and the queen of spades (26 points) in one hand shoots the moon: they score 0 and everyone else scores 26.

Playing on the portal

Computer players never cheat; they cannot see your cards or any hidden information.
Chance elements such as shuffling and dice use a secure random number generator and give no one an advantage.
Scored / Test: a scored game counts for the leaderboard of that game and level. Test games are not recorded anywhere; they have no move timer and undo can be enabled.
Points: at every level a win is +1, a draw 0, a loss −1. In 3–4 player games the sole winner gets +1, the last place −1, the others 0; a shared first place gets 0, a shared last place −1. Partners get the same points. The number of hands or target does not change this.
Move time: in a scored game you must move within the time you chose (chess 20–300 s, other games 30–300 s). A countdown is shown with a warning in the last 10 seconds. End-of-hand windows do not count.
Leaving the table: in a scored game the Exit button, starting a new game of the same kind, closing your account, losing the connection for more than 3 minutes, running out of move time and long inactivity all count as leaving:
Leaving in the first hand or in a one-hand game is a loss (−1).
Later, if you are in sole first place on the completed hands, no points are recorded; otherwise it is a loss.
In partnership games: if your team is ahead you get no points and your partner +1; if level, you −1 and your partner 0; if behind, both −1.
In chess the material is compared (pawn 1, knight 3, bishop 3, rook 5, queen 9): behind in material is a loss; level or ahead scores 0.
Resigning in chess counts as a loss.