Gongzhu - All you need to know about it.

Gongzhu is a Chinese version of Hearts. In the game, the queen of spades is a penalty card, known as the pig - players may try to drive out the queen of spades by leading spades.

The game is for four players using a standard 52 card pack. The cards in each suit rank from high to low: A K Q J 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2. At the beginning of the hand all the cards are dealt out equally to the players.

But, how do you play Gongzhu?

The play is in tricks. There are no trumps. In the first hand the holder of the two of spades leads to the first trick. Subsequent hands, the player who took the queen of spades on the previous hand leads to the first trick.

Any card may be led. Players must follow suit if possible. If you cannot follow suit you may play any card. The trick is won by the highest card of the suit led. The winner of a trick leads to the next.

Here are the scoring points of Gongzhu.

* Keep a cumulative total of each player's score - positive or negative.

In addition the ten of clubs counts +50 if the player who takes it takes no other scoring cards. If the player does take other scoring cards, the ten of clubs counts nothing in itself, but doubles the value of all other scoring cards taken

Note that the 4, 3 and 2 of hearts are scoring cards, even though they score zero, so the ten of clubs plus the three of hearts score twice zero which is zero.

If one player takes all the hearts, they score +200 instead of -200. Note that it is necessary to take the 4, 3 and 2 of hearts to get this plus score, but you don't need the queen of spades. If a player takes all the hearts and the queen of spades as well, then the score for the pig becomes +100, making a total of +300. The jack of diamonds is still worth a further +100 to a player who takes all the hearts.