AUCTION HEARTS

Welcome to Auction Hearts, a unique card game that belongs to the Hearts family. In this game, players have the exciting opportunity to bid on the privilege of choosing the pain suit for each round. Unlike other Hearts games, avoiding hearts might not be your only goal. Let me explain how it works.

At the end of each round, all players contribute a certain number of chips to the pot based on the number of cards they captured from the pain suit. However, if you manage to avoid collecting any cards from the pain suit, congratulations! You win the entire pot!

Auction Hearts can be played for points or actual cash. The game continues until one player runs out of chips or money. Of course, if you and your friends prefer a different ending, you can always agree to play a specific number of rounds instead.

THE CARDS & THE DEAL

Alright, here’s what you need to know to play this card game. You’ll need a deck of 52 cards, with ranks ranging from 2 (low) to Ace (high). Make sure each player has the same number of chips – around 50 chips per person is a good amount. If you’re playing for money, each player will buy in for their chips, and that will go into a pool to be divided at the end of the game.

To begin, determine which player will be the dealer for the first round. That player will then distribute 13 cards to each player.

Now, onto the bidding. The bidding starts with the player to the left of the dealer, also known as the eldest hand. This player will say how many chips they are willing to pay in order to name the pain suit, which is the suit that everyone should try to avoid. Each player will have the chance to bid once. If a player doesn’t want to bid, they can pass. The player with the highest bid wins the bid and pays that number of chips into the pot. They also get to name the pain suit.

Once the bidding is done, it’s time to play the game. Each player takes turns, starting with the player who won the bid. They will lead the first card, and then each player must follow suit if they can. If a player doesn’t have a card in the led suit, they can play any card. The player with the highest ranking card in the led suit wins the trick and leads the next one.

Keep playing like this until all the cards have been played. The player who wins the most tricks wins the game. If someone wins all 13 tricks, it’s called a “moon” and they automatically win the game.

So there you have it, the basics of this card game. Give it a try and see if you can outsmart your opponents!

When we start a game, the person who won the bid is the one who leads the first round. They have a special rule to follow: they can’t play a card from the same suit as the card they initially played.

As we continue playing and it’s each player’s turn, we have to follow the suit led if we can. But during the first round, there’s another rule: if a player doesn’t have any cards of the same suit as the lead suit, they are not allowed to play a card from the pain suit.

The trick is won by the player who has the highest card in the suit that was led, and they get to lead the next round.

BREAKING THE PAIN SUIT

Starting from the second round, if a player can’t follow the suit that was led, they can play any card from their hand. Once a player has played a card from the pain suit, that suit is considered broken. That means any player can now start a round using cards from that suit.

Keep in mind that Bicycle doesn’t explicitly say you can’t play the pain suit on the first trick or until it’s broken. When it comes to basic play, they simply say “play proceeds as in the regular game.” However, you can always make your own rules if everyone agrees or if the House makes the call.

KEEPING THE GAME GOING

The game continues until all the tricks have been played. Then it’s time to settle up and collect.

HOW POINTS ARE SCORED

Every pain-suited card you capture adds one chip to the pot.

If you don’t capture any cards from the pain suit, you get to take the whole pot. If two players manage to avoid capturing any pain cards, the pot is divided evenly. Just leave one chip in the pot if there’s an odd number left.

So here’s the deal: if one player collects all 13 pain cards, or if each of the four players grabs at least 1 pain card, then the pot sticks around for the next round. No one gets to take it home. The person who won the previous bid still gets to choose the pain suit, but the deal goes to the left. They lead the first trick, and the game carries on from there. Everyone contributes to the pot accordingly, and if possible, someone eventually gets awarded the pot. If no one wins it again, we just do it all over again.

WINNING

We keep playing until one player runs out of chips (or until we have a fixed number of rounds). If we’re playing for points, the player with the most chips at the end is the winner. If two or more players have the same number of chips, we have a tie. Simple as that.

If we’re playing for cash, the payouts are based on how many chips each player has when the game comes to an end.

And hey, if you’re really into this game, you should give the original Heart rules a try!