How to Play Lekha

Setting up the game

Gather Your Players. Find four players for the traditional game experience.

Choose a Standard 52-Card Deck. Remove all jokers and other non-standard cards, using only the 52 standard cards.

Determine the First Dealer. Draw cards to see who gets the highest number. The player with the highest card becomes the first dealer. The one who wins the Queen of Spades will be the dealer moving forward, which can change every hand again depending on who wins the trick with the Queen of spades in it.

Deal the Cards. The dealer shuffles the deck after the player on his left cuts/splits the deck and then deals the cards one at a time, counter clockwise, until each player has the same number of cards (13 cards each in a 4-player game).

Choose one of the players to keep score and supply them with paper and writing utensil.

Understanding the Rules

Know the Card Values. Cards have no intrinsic value except for the Queen of Spades (13 points), Ten of Diamonds (10) and each Heart card (1 point each).

Avoid Scoring Points. The goal is to avoid winning tricks containing Hearts, Ten of Diamonds(10 points), or the Queen of Spades.

Understand the Role of the Hearts. Each individual heart is worth one point.

Understand the Role of the Queen of Spades. This card is particularly to be avoided as it carries 13 penalty points and makes the one who wins the trick with the Queen of Spades the dealer.

Understand the Role of the Ten of Diamonds. This card is also to be avoided as it carries 10 penalty points.

Playing the Game

Deal. One card at a time until each are dealt and totaling 13 cards starting with the person on your right.

Organize cards. Organize the cards in your hands with like suits next to each other and do not show them to anyone.

Pass Three Cards. Select three cards from your hand to pass to the player to your right, for each player and before the game begins. Only look at the cards passed on to you after you have passed three cards to the player on your right.

Start the Game. The player to the right of the dealer starts the game by playing any card.

Follow Suit. Players must follow suit of the first card played in each trick if possible. If they cannot follow suit, they first must play the Queen of spades or the Ten of Diamonds if they have it and if not then they may play any card.

Win a Trick. The highest card of the lead suit wins the trick which may involve winning penalty points.

Lekha & Cards to Avoid. Hearts are each worth one penalty point. Queen of Spades (13 penalty points) and Ten of Diamonds (10 penalty points) are called the Lekha. You must play the Lekha if you have one in your dealt cards and can not follow suit, which is good for you since someone else will be winning the penalty points.

Review some Example play. In the images below, Someone played the king and the one with the queen of spades had to play it and saved himself (13 penalty points given to the one who played the king). In the second image, the initial suit was the diamond, so whomever does not have diamonds can get rid of cards they don't want or give hearts to cause damage to the following player, the player who played the Ace received only one penalty point. In the third picture a similar instance hearts was played and not having heart that player played the jack of spades, the one who played the king of hearts made 3 penalty points.

Scoring and Winning

Understand Scoring. After all 13 tricks have been played, players count the number of penalty points (Hearts (1 point each), Ten of Diamonds (10 points), and Queen of Spades (13 points) they have won in tricks. The scorekeeper records everyone's points, play another hand and keep adding to each players previous score until someone reaches 101 points. If in the last hand more than one person has reached 101 then the one with the most points will lose.

Continue the Game. Shuffle, re-deal, and play again. The game continues until a player reaches or exceeds 101 points (or the predetermined score(151)).

Determine the Winner. The player with the lowest score at the end of the game is the winner.