King is a Russian
compendium card game of the
Hearts family for 3 or 4 players that goes back to the 1920s. It may be related to
Barbu, but its country of origin is unknown.
[''King'']
at pagat.com Pagat.com is a website containing rules to hundreds of card games from all over the world. Maintained by John McLeod, it contains information for traditional, commercial, and newly invented card games from all over the world. It has been described ...
. Retrieved 13 January 2021.
Rules
Three players
King is played by three players with 36
Russian-pattern,
French-suited playing cards
French-suited playing cards or French-suited cards are cards that use the French suits of (clovers or clubs ), (tiles or diamonds ), (hearts ), and (pikes or spades ). Each suit contains three or four face/court cards. I ...
ranking in their
natural order,
Ace
An ace is a playing card, die or domino with a single pip. In the standard French deck, an ace has a single suit symbol (a heart, diamond, spade, or club) located in the middle of the card, sometimes large and decorated, especially in the c ...
s high. Deal and play are assumed clockwise and each player receives 12 cards.
Eldest hand
Card players are those participating in a card game. Various names are given to card players based on their role or position.
Position
Games of Anglo-American origin
In games of Anglo-American origin played in English-speaking countries, ...
leads and players must follow suit if able; failing that they may play any card.
There are two rounds of six contracts. The first is a round of negative games as follows:
# No Tricks. Each trick taken incurs 6 penalty points.
# No Hearts. Each heart taken is worth 8 penalty points. Hearts may not be led unless there is no choice.
# No Men. Each King and Jack incurs 9 penalty points.
# No Queens. Each Queen costs 18 penalty points.
# No Last Two Tricks. Taking either of the last two tricks is worth 36 penalty points.
# No King of Hearts. K is worth 72 penalty points. Hearts may not be led unless there is no choice. K must be played if unable to follow suit.
The second round is identical, except that all the games are now positive – ''Tricks'', ''Hearts'', ''Men'', etc., and score plus points instead.
Four players
A version of King for four players is played with 32-card deck, each player receives 8 cards.
There are two rounds of six contracts. The first is a round of negative games as follows:
# No Tricks. Each trick taken incurs 2 penalty points.
# No Hearts. Each heart taken is worth 2 penalty points. Hearts may not be led unless there is no choice.
# No Men. Each King and Jack incurs 2 penalty points.
# No Queens. Each Queen costs 4 penalty points.
# No Last Two Tricks. Taking either of the last two tricks is worth 8 penalty points.
# No King of Hearts. K is worth 16 penalty points. Hearts may not be led unless there is no choice. K must be played if unable to follow suit.
The second round is identical, except that all the games are now positive – ''Tricks'', ''Hearts'', ''Men'', etc., and score plus points instead.
Jeu du Roi
There appears to be a French version, ''Jeu du Roi'' played between four players using a
standard 52-card pack
The standard 52-card deck of French-suited playing cards is the most common pack of playing cards used today. In English-speaking countries it is the only traditional pack used for playing cards; in many countries of the world, however, it is used ...
.
[''Jeu du Roi'']
French version of King, at jeuxdecartes.net. Retrieved 13 January 2021.
References
Bibliography
*
External links
* {{pagat, King, compendium/king.html
''Jeu du Roi'' French version of King, at jeuxdecartes.net.
Compendium games
Three-player card games