Welcome to Complex Hearts!

Complex Hearts is an exciting card game for four players that will challenge your strategic thinking. The goal of the game? Simple – don’t lose!

In this unique game, we introduce complex numbers and absolute values to add a twist. And yes, it does involve some math, but don’t worry – it’s not as complex as it sounds!

Let’s Get Set Up!

To begin, let’s shuffle the deck of cards. Once shuffled, the dealer will distribute 13 cards to each player. Remember, the dealer changes each round, starting with a random player and moving clockwise.

When we start each round, we’ll pass around the cards. In the first round, we’ll take three cards from our hand and pass them to the player on our left. Then we’ll receive three cards from the player on our right and add them to our hand. In the second round, we’ll pass the cards to the player on our right, and in the third round, we’ll pass them to the player sitting across from us. In the fourth round, there’s no passing. After that, we’ll go back to the first round pattern again.

How to Play

Once all the cards are dealt and we’ve organized our hand, the player who has the two of clubs starts the game.

When playing Complex Hearts, it’s important for all players to follow the suit if they can. There isn’t a special trump suit, so the highest card of the leading suit wins the trick. The winner of the trick gets to start the next one. If a player can’t follow suit, they can play any card from their hand. This is a good chance to get rid of high cards and avoid winning unwanted suits. However, there’s one exception: in the first trick, neither Hearts nor the queen of spades can be thrown, but they can be played in any trick after that, as long as you don’t have the suit currently being led.

You can’t lead with a heart until someone has played a heart or the queen of spades. However, the queen of spades can be played at any time during the game.

The game continues until a player reaches a score of 100 or more.

SCORING

Hey there! Let me tell you about this really cool card game. It’s called Hearts, but instead of trying to win all the tricks, you actually want to win as few as possible. Sounds tricky, right?

So here’s the deal: at the end of each round, we add up all the Hearts we’ve won, including the queen of spades, and that’s our score. But remember, the goal is to have the lowest score. We definitely want to avoid winning those Hearts and the queen of spades.

Now, let’s talk about the points. Each Heart is worth 1 point, and the queen of spades is worth 13 times the number of rounds played. So the more rounds we go through, the higher the value of that queen! But hey, there’s a catch. The jack of diamonds actually deducts 10 points from our score, and the 10 of clubs multiplies our score by 2. So, depending on how things go, we might end up with a negative or really high score!

Now, here’s something interesting. If we manage to win all the scoring cards, we get a special option. We can either subtract 13 + 13i from our score, or we can add 13 + 13i to everyone else’s score. It’s kind of like a bonus move, but you have to be strategic about it – it might help you or hurt the others!

Oh, one more thing to remember. It might seem tempting to go for it and try to get the jack of diamonds and 10 of clubs, but trust me, it’s actually not a good idea. Those cards might mess up your score and make it higher than you’d like.

The End of the Game

When a player accumulates 100 or more points, the game comes to a close. At this point, the player with the lowest score emerges as the winner, while the player with the highest score becomes the loser.

Allow me to introduce myself – I’m Amber! I’m a writer and avid gamer from Austin. I consider myself a gaming expert and have a deep affection for dogs, plants, and Dungeons & Dragons.

Hi there! I’m Amber, and I’m here to talk about games. I’m a writer from Austin and a true connoisseur when it comes to gaming. Not to brag, but I consider myself a gaming master. When I’m not playing games, I’m usually surrounded by my beloved dogs, tending to my plants, or delving into the world of Dungeons & Dragons.