Hearts

Objective

Have the lowest score when any player reaches or exceeds 100 points. Hearts is a penalty-avoidance game: you score points for collecting Hearts and the Queen of Spades, and you want to score as few as possible.

The Basics

Hearts is a 4-player trick-taking game with no trump suit. All 52 cards are dealt out (13 each). The goal is to avoid winning tricks that contain Hearts or the Queen of Spades. The exception is Shooting the Moon — if one player collects every single penalty card in a hand, the scoring is inverted.

Setup

Shuffle the full 52-card deck and deal 13 cards to each player. Before the first trick, a Passing Phase occurs.

Passing Phase

Players select 3 cards from their hand and pass them face-down to another player simultaneously:

• Hand 1: Pass left.
• Hand 2: Pass right.
• Hand 3: Pass across (to the player opposite).
• Hand 4: No passing — play with the hand you were dealt. This 4-hand cycle repeats throughout the game.

Always select your cards to pass before looking at what you received.

Leading the First Trick

The player holding the 2 of Clubs leads it to the first trick. All other players must follow suit (clubs) if possible.

Restriction on the first trick: No player may play a Heart or the Queen of Spades on the first trick — unless they have no clubs at all.

Playing Tricks

• Players must follow suit if possible.
• If a player cannot follow suit, they may play any card — including Hearts or the Queen of Spades.
• No trump suit exists.
• The highest card of the led suit wins the trick. The winner leads the next trick.

Breaking Hearts

You cannot lead a Heart until Hearts have been "broken" — meaning at least one Heart (or the Queen of Spades, in some variants) has already been discarded on a previous trick. A player who holds nothing but Hearts may lead a Heart even if they haven't been broken.

Scoring

At the end of each hand:

• Each Heart in your won tricks: 1 penalty point.
• Queen of Spades: 13 penalty points.
• All other cards: 0 points.

There are 26 total penalty points per hand.

Shooting the Moon

If one player wins all 13 Hearts AND the Queen of Spades in a single hand, they have "Shot the Moon." Instead of scoring 26, they score 0 — and every other player adds 26 to their score.

This requires capturing every Heart and the Queen; even a single Heart won by someone else ruins the attempt.

End of Game

The game ends at the conclusion of any hand in which a player's cumulative score reaches or exceeds 100. The player with the lowest score at that point wins.

Key Rules

• You cannot lead Hearts until they are broken.
• You cannot play Hearts or the Queen of Spades on the first trick (unless void in clubs).
• Shooting the Moon is risky — any Heart captured by another player kills the attempt.
• The Queen of Spades can be discarded on any trick where you cannot follow suit (not only the first trick).
• In a 3-player game, remove the 2 of Diamonds before dealing; in a 5-player game, remove the 2 of Clubs.

At the Table

Pass high spades (especially A♠ and K♠) to protect against accidentally winning the Queen. If you hold the Q♠ with no protection, pass it. Watch who's collecting Hearts — if one player looks like they're shooting the moon, start taking tricks to spoil the attempt.