With a deck of cards and a paper and pencil for scoring, this strategy game can be played by children of 7 years and older. There must be at least two players and three is better, but if 4 to 6 people play, an extra deck of cards will have to be used.
Addition, reasoning, calculating possibilities, strategic thinking, and number ranking are skills that can be honed by playing Black Maria.
How To Play Black Maria
The game is played in rounds with each player playing a card of the same suit or- if they don’t have a card of that suit in their hand, any other card.
The pile from each round is called a ‘trick’ and is kept by the player who played the highest card of the suit. 2’s are low and aces are high-value cards.
The value of the trick is added up and recorded next to their name on the paper, but these cards have extra penalty scores:
- The Queen of Spades is called Black Maria and carries the highest score of 13
- Each Heart adds 1 point
- The Ace of Spades adds 7 points
- The King of Spades adds 10 points
The strategy of the game is to have the lowest score because all scores count against the person who won the trick. The way to win is to avoid taking tricks with high values or penalty cards.
To start, the 2 of diamonds must be removed from the pack, and then each player is dealt 17 cards. In the first round, each player takes 3 of their least desirable cards from their hand and passes them to the player on their right, who then adds these cards to their hand.
To play, the player on the left of the dealer places a card face up. The next players must play a card of that suit and the highest card of the suit wins the trick. The score is added up and listed under the player’s name.
The first player who reaches 100 points first loses the game and the one with the lowest score is the winner.