Hearts

Objective

Take as few penalty cards as possible. Each heart costs 1 point, the Queen of Spades costs 13 — and the lowest score when someone hits 100 wins.

The deal

Hearts is built for four players, each getting 13 cards. Deal one at a time, face down, clockwise.

Aces are high. There is no trump suit — spades are dangerous because of one specific card, not because they beat anything.

The pass

Before a single card is played, you hand three problems to someone else.

After the deal, every player chooses three cards to pass. The direction rotates every hand:

1. Hand 1 — pass left
2. Hand 2 — pass right
3. Hand 3 — pass across (to the player opposite)
4. Hand 4 — hold. No passing at all. Often called a keeper hand.

Then the cycle repeats from the top.

Playing a trick

The player holding the 2♣ leads it — always, every hand. In the five-player game the 2♣ has been removed, so the 3♣ leads instead.

1. Going clockwise, each player plays one card.
2. You must follow suit if you have that suit. If you have none, you may play anything (with one exception, below).
3. The highest card of the suit led wins the trick. There is no trump.
4. The winner collects the trick face down in front of them and leads the next one.

Breaking hearts: you may not lead a heart until hearts have been "broken" — that is, until someone has discarded a heart or the Q♠ on an earlier trick. You may always follow with a heart when you cannot follow suit. The Q♠ may be led at any time.

Scoring

That is 26 points on the table every hand. After all 13 tricks, each player counts the penalty cards they took and adds them to a running total.

The game ends the moment any player reaches or passes 100 points. The player with the lowest total at that point wins. Some groups play to 50 for a shorter game.

Shooting the moon

If you take all 13 hearts and the Queen of Spades in a single hand, you have shot the moon. Instead of 26 points, you choose one of:

• Score 0 yourself, and add 26 points to every other player.
• Subtract 26 points from your own total, leaving everyone else untouched.

Take the second option when you are near 100 and need breathing room; take the first when you are comfortably ahead and want to end the game.

Card library

Only two things score, and you are trying to avoid both of them.

Short drills on the rules people get wrong. Nothing is saved anywhere but this browser.

House rules & variations

Every table plays a little differently. These are the common variants — agree on them before you deal.

Strategy hints

1. Void yourself in a suit early. Having no diamonds means you can dump the Q♠ or a fistful of hearts the moment diamonds are led.

2. Passing the Q♠ away is often correct, but passing A♠ and K♠ is usually better — they are the cards that get forced into taking the Queen.

3. If you keep the Q♠, keep low spades with it. You want to duck under spade leads until you can drop the Queen on someone else.

4. Lead low in long suits and high in short suits. You want to lose tricks in suits everyone still holds, and win them only when you must.

5. Count the spades. Once the Q♠ has gone, spades become the safest suit in the deck and leading them is nearly free.

6. Watch for a moon shot. If one player has taken every heart so far, throw them a heart at the first opportunity — even if it means eating a trick yourself.

7. On the "hold" hand you cannot fix a bad hand, so play defensively from the first trick. Aim to take a handful of hearts rather than gambling on zero.

Frequently asked