strategy for Black Maria please
norcliff
the finer points and we would welcome help to beat him in the future.
We play it with the 2 of clubs out, and pass 3 cards on. Queen of Spades
is 13, King 10 and Ace 7. All hearts are 1.
How do we decide which cards to pass on? Which suit to lead? When to
play the lowest card?
If anyone knows a book that has these sort of tips for black maria would
appreciate the name etc Thanks Norman Clifford
Mark S. Bassett
>
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> If anyone knows a book that has these sort of tips for black maria would
> appreciate the name etc Thanks Norman Clifford
I learnt Black Maria from the Pan book of Card Games by (I think) Hubert
Phillips. That has a big section on Black Maria, which I think is
an excellent game.
Here are some very general tips, you may well know these already. I use
these when introducing the game to beginners, as in my experience people
new to this kind of game always overestimate the danger of holding a
penalty card. My view is, if the Queen of Spades is in my hand I have
much more control over who ends up with it than if it's with one of my
opponents!
Never pass on any Spades.
Never pass on Hearts either!
You can safely try to win the first two Club (or Diamond) tricks.
In the first half of the game you should discard high cards, not
penaltys.
It's much better to take three Hearts at the beginning of the game,
than be stuck with the lead at the end.
Obviously none of these rules is always right, but the idea is to start
by assuming they are, and then use experience as a guide to knowing when
to break them. I've found this gets people into the game quite quickly,
as opposed to the approach which I would characterise as "Don't take
any tricks at all, unless I really have to.", which is quite hard to get
right.
Regards,
Mark Bassett
norcliff
indeed Norman Clifford
Mark S. Bassett wrote in message <38C383...@iisc.co.uk>...