Main Rules
- The game proceeds by trick-taking in the standard way, and there are no trumps.
- Certain cards are listed as penalty cards, and have assigned penalty values. When a trick is taken which contains any penalty cards, the winner of the trick is penalised by the total number of these penalty points. Penalty points are counted at the end of each hand, and each player's running total of penalty points is adjusted as appropriate.
- If one player takes every penalty card in the pack, called 'going for the lot', he can choose to do one of two things; either zeroise his running penalty total, or double everyone else's.
The penalty cards are :
- Queen of Spades: 50 points (hence 'Black Lady')
- Ace of Spades: 40 points
- Ten of Spades: 20 points
- Heart face cards: 10 points (this includes the Ace)
- All other Hearts: face value
There are therefore 205 points to be taken per deck, per hand. One variant makes the 10♠ worth 15 points, so the total is exactly 200.
Read more about this topic: Black Lady
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