Rules for playing King online

King is an engaging game that is rightfully considered one of the variations of Preferans. England is considered the homeland of King, from where it came to us in the mid-19th century. Sometimes it is called "ladies' Preferans" due to its similarity to traditional Preferans in terms of trick-taking rules and game logic. Unlike Preferans, learning to play King is quite simple. The game is popular in many European countries. The French have a similar card game, the name of which translates as "Beard." It is also known in the former Soviet Union countries.

Three or four players can participate in the match. With four players, a deck of 32 cards from 7 to Ace is used, dealing 8 cards each. With three players, a deck of 30 cards can be used, excluding the spade and club sevens beforehand. In this case, dealing 10 cards each.

Game Essence

The game consists of 2 stages: in the first one, participants receive penalty points, and in the second one, they play them off. Each stage includes several deals. The player sitting to the left of the dealer starts the game. In each subsequent round, the first move goes to the next player in turn.

Gameplay

The game of King includes:

• a penalty round;
• a play-off;
• results calculation - the computer does this automatically.

Penalty Round

In this round, it is not allowed to take any tricks or tricks that include specific cards for which penalty points are awarded. It is necessary to play in suit. If the required suit is not available, any card can be discarded. There are no trumps.

Penalty rounds:

• "No Tricks". The task is not to take any tricks. For example, the first player leads with a diamond, and the others discard any diamonds they have. If diamonds are absent, any card of any suit can be discarded. The trick is taken by the participant who played the highest card of the led suit. A penalty of 5 points per trick is applied when playing with four players and 4 points when playing with three players.
• "No Hearts". The goal at this stage is not to take tricks containing heart cards. Each heart card is worth minus 5 points. Playing hearts is prohibited if other suits are available.
• "No Jacks". For each Jack taken in a trick, the player incurs a penalty of 10 points on their score.
• "No Queens". For each Queen, the player incurs a penalty of 10 points on their score.
• "No King". In this round, playing heart cards when another suit is available is prohibited. For the King of Hearts, the player incurs a penalty of 40 points.
• "No Last 2 Tricks". For each trick taken out of the last two, the player incurs a penalty of minus 20 points.
• "Negative Eralash". Also known as "Pun". It is a combination of all the above rounds, and the points for this round amount to 240. The presence of "Eralash" in King is a parameter that can be changed when creating the game.

The sum of all negative points is 480.

Play-Off

During this stage, players can play off, offsetting the negative points with positive ones. Everything that couldn't be taken in the penalty round must be taken in the play-off. This includes taking all tricks, taking hearts, taking jacks, taking queens, and so on.

Points are awarded in the play-off similarly to the penalty round, but with a positive sign.

If you selected the "Trump Order" parameter when creating the game application, the play-off stage changes. Instead of a mirrored play-off, each player in turn is offered to either declare a trump suit or play without trumps and take the maximum number of tricks.

A player can declare a trump suit with only three cards in hand. Additionally, you can declare a misere without trumps, where the ranking of the cards changes to the opposite, or sell the right to declare trumps to another player. If it's difficult to choose a trump suit with three cards, you can declare the trump based on the last dealt card.

Each trick taken is valued at 8 points.

Final Results

After completing all stages of the game, the total sum of both negative and positive points scored by the players is recorded in the final table. The difference between negative and positive points determines each player's result in the match.

The winner is the player who has accumulated the highest number of points in the game.