Why do I have to login with Facebook to play?

Using Facebook provides several benefits. Firstly it allows you to login without remembering an additional password and username making the process of signing up as simple as 1 click.

Secondly, Ultimate Black Queen is far more fun with friends. By logging in with Facebook, you are automatically connected with your friends. Invite them for a game and see how you rank against them.

Can I play if I don't have a Facebook account?

Unfortunately, at this time only users with a Facebook account can play Ultimate Black Queen

What private information do you store?

We have put in extra effort to ensure we respect your privacy. Therefore we aim to store the minimum amount of information possible.

We save your name, your email address, a thumbnail version of your photo and your Ultimate Black Queen gaming history. We do not save your friends lists from facebook or any other information such as age, date of birth, etc. Nor do we share or disclose this information with any third parties.

Still feeling uncomfortable? Send us a message and you can request that we delete your account information. However, this does mean that you can no longer play Ultimate Black Queen without providing this information again.

Do you post anything on facebook?

No. As much as we would love for you to share Ultimate Black Queen with your friends and show off how awesome you are at the game, we do not share anything to Facebook.

How do you play Ultimate Black Queen?

The game is played with a minimum of 4 players with a standard deck of cards. Each players gets 13 cards (excess cards are removed by starting with the lowest non-point cards - so first the 2s, then the 3s, etc.). Ace is the highest!

Some cards are assigned points, as follows:

• All aces: 15 points each
• All tens: 10 points each
• All fives: 5 points each
• Queen of Spades: 30 points
• All other cards have 0 points (doesn't matter that the King is of a higher rank than a 10)

Each deck of cards has a total of 150 points

Bidding:

The game starts off with a bidding round - each player bids the amount of points that they think that their team can make (which hasn’t been decided yet) can make, without discussing it with others. Bidding ends when either there is only 1 player left and all other players have passed, or a bidder reaches the maximum number of points available

The highest bidder then decides which suit is the Power Suit (either ♠, ♦, ♣ or ♥) and announces a Partner Card

All players with the Partner Card belong on the same team, "The Partners". However Partners do not immediately reveal themselves as partners infront of anyone. Every player (including the player who won the bid) will only find out who the Partners are when a Partner plays the Partner Card.

A winning bidder can choose a Partner Card that they have as well. This could result in them being a double or triple partner. If they then win, they win 2 or 3 times the points they would have otherwise won. But beware, if they then lose, they will lose 2 or 3 times the points they would have otherwise lose

Game Start

The game starts with the winning bidder placing the first card down. All players have to then place a card with the same suit. If they don’t have the a card with the same suit they can place a card from another suit

The winner of the round is the player with the highest ranked card (with an Ace being the highest card of the suit). If a Power Suit card is played, that card then ranks ahead of all other suits. So if the Power Suit is the ♠, and the first card is a ♦, a 2 of ♠ will rank higher than an Ace of ♦. If the suit of a played card is not a Power Suit or the first suit played (e.g. a ♣ or ♥ in the previous example), then the card cannot wink regardless of the rank.

Points

Once all 13 cards are played, the Partners tally up their points. If they have collectively gained more points than the highest bidder bid, they win the round and each of them get the number of points bid (not the number of points actually won!). If however they have failed to reach this target, then each of them get negative points equal to the bid.

If someone is a double or triple partner, then they win or lose double or triple the bid!

Irrespective of whether the Partners have won or lost, non-Partners do not gain or lose any points

How many decks are used in the game?

Each player must receive 13 cards. Therefore for a game with 4 people, 1 deck is used. For a game up to 8 people 2 decks are used.

The unused cards are not randomly removed from the deck. The lowest value cards which do not carry points are removed first. Therefore for a game with 7 people, 2 decks are used (providing 104 cards) but only 7 x 13 = 91 cards are required. Therefore 13 cards must be removed from the deck. To do this first all the 2s are removed (8 2s in two decks) and then 5 3s are removed.

How many Partners are there in every game?

Partners are chosen based on a card. So the player that bids can choose the partner card, e.g. A ♠. If there are 4 players in the game, there is one deck of cards. Therefore there are two partners, the player who won the bid themselves and the player with the Partner Card. If there are 2 decks used (as found in a game of 5-8 players) there are 3 partners; the bid winner, and 2 players with the Partner Card

Can I make myself a Partner?

Yes. This is called being a double (or triple) partner. When you are a double partner (or triple partner) when the partners win you win double the points (or triple the points). However, when the partners lose, you lose double the points (or triple the points).

Who starts bidding?

The person to the left of the dealer is given the compulsory minimum bid of 75 points for a 1 deck game and 150 points for a 2 deck game. The person to the left of them then can choose whether to bid higher or pass. The bidding process continues until either there is only one player left who hasn't bid OR a players bid has reached the maximum number of points available

The dealer rotates clockwise every game.

What is the maximum I can bid in a game?

In 1 deck the maximum number of points is 150. In 2 decks the maximum number of points is 300

Which cards have a point value?

ALL 5s, 10s and Aces are worth points. The 5s are worth 5 points, the 10s are worth 10 points and the Aces are worth 15 points. The Queen of spades, Q ♠, is worth 30 points!