How to play
King is a Turkish trick-taking game for four players with a standard deck; aces are high and each player gets 13 cards. You sit at the bottom against three computer players, and play goes counterclockwise. A match has 20 hands. In each hand one player chooses which game to play and leads the first trick; the choice passes to the right every hand, so everyone chooses five times.
The games. There are six penalty games, in which you try to avoid certain cards or tricks, and the trump game, in which you try to take tricks:
| Game | Penalty |
|---|---|
| No tricks | -50 for every trick you take |
| No hearts | -30 for every heart you take |
| No kings or jacks | -60 for every king and jack you take |
| No queens | -100 for every queen you take |
| No king of hearts | -320 for taking the king of hearts |
| No last two | -180 for each of the last two tricks |
| Trumps | +50 for every trick you take |
Over the match each penalty game is played exactly twice, and each player chooses three penalty games and two trump games. The choice panel shows how many of each game are left and greys out the ones you can’t choose.
Playing a trick. The highest card of the suit led wins, unless a trump was played in a trump game. The winner leads next. The game highlights the cards you may play:
- Always follow suit if you can.
- In a penalty game, if you can’t follow suit, you must throw a penalty card if you have one: a heart in No hearts, a king or jack in No kings or jacks, a queen in No queens, the king of hearts in No king of hearts.
- In No hearts and No king of hearts, you can’t lead a heart until hearts have been played, unless you only have hearts.
- In a trump game, you must also play higher than the best card of the suit led if you can; if you can’t follow suit, you must trump, and play a higher trump if one is already down. Trumps can’t be led until a trump has been played.
A penalty hand ends early once all its penalty cards have been taken (No tricks and No last two are always played to the end).
Scoring
Scores carry over from hand to hand. The penalties add up to exactly what the trump games give, so the four scores always add up to zero at the end of the match. The player with the highest total after 20 hands wins; players tied for the highest total share the win.
Strategy
- Choose to fit your hand. With low cards in every suit, a penalty game like No tricks is safe; with several queens but short suits, avoid No queens. A long, strong suit is a good trump game.
- Get rid of high cards early in penalty games. When you can’t win a trick anyway, throw your highest card of the suit. Aces and kings become dangerous late in the hand.
- Short suits help you dump penalty cards. Once you’re out of a suit, you must throw a penalty card, and the trick goes to someone else.
- Save your trump games. You must choose two over the match; keep them for hands with a long trump suit.
If you enjoy King, try Klondike Solitaire or Konken next.
