The King of Hearts has Five Sons is a fun deduction type game for four or five players. The object of the game is to determine the identify of two secret cards removed from the playing deck before the start of play. This game plays much like the newer game "Mystery Hand" but is unrelated to that game. This American game is rarely encountered, but was more popular in the years prior to World War II. It is thought this game is a direct ancestor to several very popular card games which introduce a similar mechanism to deduce the identify of missing cards, although it is also possible that this game could have arose from the concepts explored in those board games as well.
The game uses a special deck which is comprised of a sub-set of 22 cards from a standard 52 card deck. Thus the deck consists of all the face cards from one standard deck
(King, Queen, and Jack in each of the four suits) as well as the cards of rank Ace, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10 in the suit of Hearts. The remainder of the deck is set aside and is not used in play. Seating positions and the first dealer can be determined using a variety of methods, with draw for high cards from the full deck a common method. The players would thus each draw one card from the shuffled deck, taking seats at the table in order of the card ranks drawn. The player drawing the highest ranked card of all would also be set as the first dealer. Thereafter, for each subsequent hand, the role of dealing would rotate in a clockwise direction around the table.
To begin, the cards used for this game should be split into two shuffled piles. One such pile would contain all the face cards, and the other pile would contain the Ace to 10 of Hearts. After this the two piles are individually shuffled, and one card is removed from each pile and set face down, off to the side. These are the cards of which the identify the players will attempt to deduce. After these two cards are removed, the two piles are then thoroughly shuffled together. The dealer then begins dealing these cards, one by one and face down the players, starting with the player to his immediate left. He continues dealing in a clockwise direction around the table until all these remaining cards have been dealt. With four players, each player will receive 5 cards and with five players each player will receive 4. The player to the immediate left of the dealer has the first turn.
A player's turn consists of that player then asking specific questions to attempt to decipher information regarding the identity of those cards. This question is directed to any one other player. The questioner asks for one face card and one numbered card on his turn. He words his question more as a statement, and in a specific manner, stating a phrase such as "The Queen of Clubs has eight sons", indicating a request to know if that specific player has the Queen of Clubs and Eight of Hearts. The card in the rank of Ace is considered a one for purpose of asking these questions.
The player who was asked the question then must respond based on whether he has one, either or neither of the cards indicated.
- If the player has in his hand, both cards as requested in the statement, he must show the player one of these two cards from his hand, selecting either of his choice.
- If the player has in his hand one of the cards requested, he must show the questioner this card.
- If the player has neither of the cards requested, he simply states this, showing no card to the questioner.
After a player has taken his turn and before the next player has his own turn, any player (whether it is currently his turn or not) may state that they have the solution. If multiple players state this, the players may suggest the solutions in the order spoken. To suggest a solution, a player writes on a slip of paper what he believes to be the exact identities of the two cards in the center of the table. He then looks at the cards. If the cards are as written, the player shows the cards and his written solution, instantly winning the game. However, if his suggestion is incorrect, he replaces the cards on the table. This player may no longer ask further questions and may not make further solution suggestions, but he does remain in the game so as to answer any questions that might be posed to him by other players.
Each player is usually provided a pencil and a notepad or a few slips of paper to keep notes as to what cards are found in other player's hands. However, in some games, players prefer to require that each player plays completely from memory, which can make for a more complex version of the game. Each hand is usually considered a full game.