Black Maria
Card games · Trick-taking
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Summary — 3 players
Black Maria is the British form of Hearts, a trick-taking card game for three where every penalty card you take costs you points. Each heart is one, the queen of spades thirteen, and the king and ace of spades ten and seven, so a deal is worth 43. Three cards pass to the right before every deal, and the lowest score wins.
- Scored by
- Card points / trick count
How it plays
1 of 8
The deal
Three players, each for themselves. Take the two of clubs out of a standard deck and fifty-one cards go round evenly — seventeen each, nothing left over, and no card face up. That missing club is the only change to the pack all evening.
Rules
How to play
Players and equipment
Black Maria is the British, three-handed cousin of Hearts, played for the same reason: to avoid the cards that cost you points. Three players, each for themselves, and a standard 52-card deck with the two of clubs removed, so that fifty-one cards deal evenly into three hands of seventeen. There are no trumps; aces are high and twos low. Four can play with the whole pack, thirteen cards each.
The deal
Seventeen cards each, dealt one at a time. Before play, every player chooses three cards and passes them face down to the player on their right, and picks up the three arriving from the left only after passing their own, so nobody passes on a card they have just received. The pass is always to the right: unlike Hearts, the direction does not rotate from deal to deal. The deal itself moves to the left after every hand.
Play
The player to the dealer's left leads anything. Follow suit if you can; if you cannot, play whatever you like, a penalty card included. There is commonly no restriction on leading hearts, and none on the first trick either. Some tables borrow the Hearts rule that hearts may not be led until one has been played on a trick of another suit, so ask before the first card goes down. The highest card of the suit led takes the trick, and the winner leads the next. Tricks are kept face down, because only the penalty cards in them count.
Scoring
Scoring
The penalties are the spades and the hearts, and as in Hearts they are points against you: the lowest score wins.
- Queen of spades
- 13
- Black Maria herself
- King of spades
- 10
- The second spade penalty
- Ace of spades
- 7
- The third
- Each heart
- 1
- Thirteen in the deck
- A deal
- 43
- Every point is taken by somebody
Many tables play with only the hearts and the queen counting, which is plain Hearts with three players and a right-hand pass, and a deal worth 26. The scorecard here counts all three spades. If your table plays the shorter version, turn the king and ace off in the house rules when you launch, and the card asks for the queen alone.
Taking every penalty card in one deal — all thirteen hearts and the three spades — is shooting the moon. The shooter scores nothing and the other two players take the full forty-three each. Some tables let the shooter subtract forty-three from their own total instead; the card offers both, so agree which before the first deal.
A worked deal
Three players. When the tricks are turned over, Alice took the queen of spades and four hearts, Ben took the king and ace of spades and three hearts, and Cara took six hearts.
- Alice
- 17
- The queen and four hearts
- Ben
- 20
- The king, the ace and three hearts
- Cara
- 6
- Six hearts
The three numbers add up to 43, which is the check to make before anybody writes them down: thirteen hearts and thirty in spades, all taken by somebody. On the next deal Cara takes everything and shoots the moon. Cara scores 0 and the other two take 43 each, so after two deals the totals are Alice 60, Ben 63, Cara 6. In the third deal Ben takes only two hearts, Alice takes the queen and the king with five hearts for 28, and Cara the ace and six hearts for 13: Alice 88, Ben 65, Cara 19. Alice is now within one bad deal of the line.
Ending
Play an agreed number of deals — a multiple of three, so that everybody has dealt the same number of times — or until somebody reaches a total agreed on first, with 100 the usual line. Fewest points wins. Keeping score on SquareScores, set the target when you launch and the app ends the game at the line.
Strategy
The pass
Pass to the right, and pass what will hurt you. The ace and king of spades are the most dangerous cards in the game: whoever holds them can be made to win a spade trick with the queen in it, and they now cost seven and ten on their own even when the queen stays away. Pass them unless you hold five or more spades to hide them behind. The queen herself is safe enough with plenty of small spades beside her and a liability without them. A suit of two cards or fewer is worth passing away whole, because a void lets you throw a spade or a high heart on the first trick of that suit somebody else leads.
Seventeen cards
With three players you hold seventeen cards, not thirteen, so every suit is longer and voids are rarer than in Hearts. A trick goes round three players rather than four, which means you follow to a lead more often and there are fewer safe places to hide a high card. Low cards matter more than usual: a hand of sevens and eights that looks dull is a hand that will take almost nothing.
The spades
There are three cards to fear in the spade suit instead of one, and thirty points between them. Lead low spades early when you hold none of the three, to force the ace, king and queen out of the other hands while a low spade of yours is winning nothing. If you hold one of them, do not lead the suit at all until the ones above yours have gone: the ace is safe once it is the only high spade left, and the king is safe once the ace has fallen. Count them as they go. Once all three are out, spades are an ordinary suit.
Leading and following
Lead your long suits low while everybody can still follow. When a trick is plainly going to somebody else, follow with your highest safe card and be rid of it. Watch the player on your left, who received your three cards: you know exactly which cards left your hand for theirs, which is a clue to what they kept and what they will lead.
The moon
Try it only with a hand that will take every trick that matters: the top spades, the top hearts and a long suit to lead from, and the lead itself or a way to take it. It is off the moment either other player has taken a single heart, so it is a bad bet late in a deal. Watching for it matters as much as trying it: at a table of three a moon costs each opponent forty-three, and one heart taken on purpose saves you forty-two of them.
Variations
Hearts only
The queen scores thirteen and each heart one, with the king and ace of spades ordinary cards. A deal is worth 26 and the game is Hearts with three players and a right-hand pass. Turn the king and ace off on the card and the app scores it that way.
Black Lady
The American name for the four-handed game where the queen of spades is the one spade that counts, alongside the hearts. It is the Hearts most people know, and it has its own page here.
Four players
Black Maria for four uses the whole pack, thirteen cards each, and the same right-hand pass. A deal is still worth 43, spread across four players instead of three.
Hearts not led until broken
Some tables borrow the Hearts rule: no heart may be led until one has been played on a trick of another suit, and no penalty card on the first trick. It slows the deal and gives a player with a hand full of hearts somewhere to put them.
The moon, other ways
Some tables let the shooter take forty-three off their own score rather than giving it to the others, and some allow no moon at all, so that taking the lot simply costs 43. The card here offers the first two. Agree before the first deal, because the choice decides a game when somebody is near the line.
A different finish
A fixed number of deals — six or nine, so everybody deals equally — rather than a target, or a shorter target such as 50 for a quick game. Agree it before you start.
FAQs
How is Black Maria different from Hearts?
Three things. It is played by three rather than four, with the two of clubs removed so the cards deal evenly. The pass is always three cards to the right, where Hearts rotates the direction. And two more spades count: the king costs ten and the ace seven beside the queen's thirteen, so a deal is worth 43 rather than 26. The queen is Black Maria herself, and the name is used for the card as much as for the game.
How many players is Black Maria for?
Three is the game, each for themselves, with seventeen cards apiece. Four can play with the full pack and thirteen cards each, and the rules do not otherwise change.
Why is the two of clubs taken out?
Fifty-two cards do not divide into three hands. Removing one card leaves fifty-one, which is seventeen each, and the two of clubs is the card least likely to matter. With four players nothing is removed.
Which way do you pass in Black Maria?
Three cards to the right, on every deal. Choose your three before you look at the three arriving from your left, so you cannot pass on a card you have just been given.
Can you shoot the moon in Black Maria?
Not every book of rules has a moon in this game, but most tables play one, and the scorecard here does: a player who takes all thirteen hearts and the queen, king and ace of spades scores nothing and the other players take 43 each, or the shooter goes 43 down if that is what the table agreed. Miss it by a single heart and you have simply scored 42.
What is Black Maria worth?
Thirteen points, to whoever takes the trick she is played on, the same as the queen of spades in Hearts. The king of spades is ten and the ace seven, so a player who takes all three spades in one deal has thirty points before a single heart is counted.
Can you lead hearts on the first trick?
Under the usual Black Maria rules, yes: there is no restriction on what may be led or played, on the first trick or any other. Some tables borrow the Hearts rule that hearts may not be led until one has been played on another suit, so ask before you start.