How to Play Rickety Kate

Rickety Kate is the Australian name for Hearts — a trick-taking game with a twist: winning tricks is usually bad news. Every heart you capture costs you a point, and the Queen of Spades, nicknamed "Rickety Kate" herself, costs you thirteen. Lowest score wins, and if you're bold enough, you can flip the whole game on its head by taking every penalty card in the deck.

Overview

Rickety Kate — known internationally as Hearts, or Black Lady in the United States — is a trick-avoidance game for four players using a standard 52-card deck. Instead of chasing tricks, you're trying to steer clear of them: every heart card you capture adds a penalty point to your score, and the Queen of Spades, the card that gives the game its Australian name, adds thirteen all on its own. Whoever finishes with the fewest points once the game reaches its target score wins.

How to Play

1. Deal. The full 52-card deck is dealt out evenly, thirteen cards to each of the four players.
2. Pass three cards. Before play begins, every player chooses three cards from their hand and passes them to a neighbour — left on the first hand, right on the next, then across, before repeating the cycle. You keep whatever you're passed, so this is your first chance to get rid of dangerous cards.
3. Lead the two of clubs. Whoever holds the two of clubs leads it to start the first trick of the hand.
4. Follow suit. Each player in turn must follow the suit that was led if they can. If they can't, they may play any card — including a heart or the Queen of Spades.
5. No penalty cards on the first trick. Hearts and the Queen of Spades can't be played on the very first trick of the hand, and hearts generally can't be led until a heart has already been played in an earlier trick (known as hearts being "broken").
6. Win the trick. The highest card of the suit led takes the trick. Whoever wins it collects the cards — including any penalty points they contain — and leads the next trick.
7. Play out the hand. Keep going until all thirteen tricks are played and every card is gone, then tally the penalty points each player collected.
8. Repeat until someone reaches the target. Deal again and keep playing hands until a player's running total reaches the agreed finishing score, commonly 100. The player with the lowest score at that point wins the game.

Scoring

• Each heart captured — 1 penalty point
• Queen of Spades ("Rickety Kate") — 13 penalty points
• All other cards — 0 points

That puts 26 penalty points in every deck — thirteen for the hearts, thirteen for the Queen of Spades. Most hands see those points scattered across the table, but a player who manages to capture every heart and the Queen of Spades in the same hand pulls off "shooting the moon": instead of taking 26 points themselves, they score zero and every other player takes 26 points instead — a dramatic swing that can turn a losing hand into a huge lead.

Strategy Tips

• Pass your highest spades and hearts. The Queen of Spades and any high hearts are the most dangerous cards in your hand — get rid of them early if you're not planning to chase the moon.
• Watch who's still collecting hearts late in the hand. A player who keeps winning tricks and hasn't discarded any penalty cards may be going for the moon — it's often worth deliberately taking a trick yourself to stop them.
• Don't lead the Queen of Spades into an unknown hand. If nobody has shown they're void in spades, leading a middling spade can hand someone else the Queen for free.
• Keep a low card in every suit if you can. Having an escape card means you're never forced to take a trick you don't want.

Frequently Asked Questions

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