Editing Black Lady (section)

== Culbertson's rules (1950) ==
The following rules are based on those by American bridge expert, [[Ely Culbertson]], where it is described as a separate game that is "essentially Hearts with the addition of the queen of spades as a minus card, counting thirteen". However, he omitted to mention that it also differed in retaining the discard or passing feature of Black Lady/Discard Hearts. The main change from the earliest rules is a much simplified scoring system. Culbertson includes a [[slam (cards)|slam]], first introduced by Phillips in 1939, but this time no points are scored for it.{{sfn|Culbertson|1950|pp=244–245}}{{efn|When the slam was introduced by [[Hubert Phillips]] in 1939, it incurred a penalty of 26 penalty points for everyone except the slam winner.}}

=== Preliminaries ===
According to Culbertson, black lady may be played by three to seven players, individually, the best number being four. The standard 52-card deck is used and, in order to ensure each player gets the same number of cards, twos are discarded in the order: {{cards|2c}}, {{cards|2d}}, {{cards|2s}} and {{cards|2h}}. Aces are high. Again, players may pass any three cards face down and to the left. As an alternative rule, however, players may pass cards alternately to the left and then right from deal to deal.{{sfn|Culbertson|1950|pp=244–245}}

=== Playing ===
Eldest hand leads to the first trick with any card. Players must follow suit if they can; otherwise may discard any card. A trick is won by the highest card of the led suit and the winner of the trick leads to the next.{{sfn|Culbertson|1950|pp=244–245}}

=== Scoring ===
When all the tricks are played, players total up their scores. Each heart card captured scores one penalty point and the black lady scores thirteen. If one player takes all the penalty cards, no scores are recorded for that deal. When the first player reaches 100 points, the game ends and the winner is the player with the lowest score.{{sfn|Culbertson|1950|pp=244–245}}