The family-PC classic — now every trick is a chord
DIL
दिल · Hearts, sweet and sourGood old Hearts for four. Every trick's four cards sound together as a chord: clubs, diamonds and spades are sweet notes of G major, every heart rubs against it, and the Queen of Spades is the tritone. Take a trick and hear how sour it is.
Hear it:
Who is playing
People
One phone, hidden hands: pass it on when the screen says so. The computer fills the empty chairs.
Open a room and send its word. Two to four of you, each on your own phone, each seeing only your own hand. The computer fills any empty chair.
Got a word from a friend?
How you play
How to play
- The classic rules. Four players, thirteen cards each. Before each hand, pass three cards — left, then right, then across, then keep them. The 2♣ leads. Follow suit if you can; the highest card of the suit led takes the trick. No hearts or Queen of Spades on the first trick, and no leading hearts until one has been played. Each heart you take is a point, the Queen of Spades is thirteen. Take all 26 and you shoot the moon: everyone else gets 26. When someone reaches 100, the lowest score wins.
- The music. The table hums G major — G, B and D. Clubs, diamonds and spades are those notes, higher as the cards get higher: sweet. Every heart is a note a semitone away — Ab or F# against G, Bb or C against B, Eb against D: it rubs. The Queen of Spades is C#, a tritone from G — the most restless sound there is. So the four cards of a trick sound as a chord, and its points are how sour it is.
- Ears · the listening table. Level 1: two cards sound — smooth or clashing? Level 2: octave, fifth, third or second? Level 3: add the seventh and the tritone. Level 4: a whole trick sounds — which card clashes?
- Who. Just me, against three computer players. Same device: up to four people pass the phone — every hand stays hidden. Online room: two to four people on their own phones, and the computer fills the empty chairs.