Hearts

What you need & setup

1. Grab a standard 52-card deck and remove the jokers.
2. With 4 players, deal all 52 cards so everyone has 13. With 3 players, remove the 2♦ and deal 17 each; with 5, remove the 2♦ and 2♣ and deal 10 each.
3. Have every player pick 3 cards to pass face down (left on the first hand, right on the second, across on the third, no pass on the fourth — then the cycle repeats).
4. Pick up the 3 cards passed to you and add them to your hand.
5. The player holding the 2♣ leads it to start the first trick.

Turn sequence

1. The player holding the 2♣ must lead it to the very first trick.
2. Going clockwise, each player must follow suit if they can — if clubs are led and you have a club, you must play one.
3. If you cannot follow suit, you may play any card, including a heart or the Q♠ (with one exception: no penalty cards on the first trick unless you have no choice).
4. The highest card of the suit that was led wins the trick; there is no trump in Hearts.
5. The trick winner gathers the cards, keeps them face down, and leads the next trick.
6. Hearts cannot be led until a heart has been played on an earlier trick (called "breaking hearts"), unless your hand is all hearts.
7. When all cards are played, count penalty points and start the next hand.

Passing Cards

Before play starts, every player chooses 3 cards from their hand and passes them face down to another player. The direction rotates each hand: left, then right, then across, then a hold hand where nobody passes.

Passing is your chance to unload danger. High spades like the A♠ and K♠ are risky because they can win a trick containing the Q♠, and high hearts are obvious point-grabbers.

You must choose your 3 pass cards before looking at the cards being passed to you.

Following Suit

Whatever suit is led, you must play a card of that suit if you have one. If hearts are led and you hold the 10♥, you must play a heart — you cannot save it.

Only when you are out of the led suit (called being "void") may you play a card from another suit. A card from another suit can never win the trick, which makes voids the perfect moment to dump the Q♠ or a high heart on someone else.

On the very first trick (led with the 2♣), you may not play a heart or the Q♠ unless your hand leaves you no other legal option.

Winning a Trick

Each trick is won by the highest card of the suit that was led. Aces are high, so if clubs are led, the A♣ beats everything else in the trick.

There is no trump suit in Hearts. A giant card in the wrong suit — say the A♦ when spades were led — wins nothing.

The winner of a trick collects the four cards, places them face down in front of them, and leads any legal card to the next trick.

Penalty Cards and Breaking Hearts

Every heart in a trick you win is worth 1 penalty point, and the Queen of Spades is worth 13 penalty points on her own. All other cards are worth nothing.

A player may not lead a heart until at least one heart has been discarded on an earlier trick. That first discard is called breaking hearts.

Once hearts are broken, they can be led freely. If your hand contains nothing but hearts, you may lead one even if hearts are unbroken.

Shooting the Moon

If one player manages to win all 13 hearts and the Queen of Spades in a single hand, they have "shot the moon."

Instead of taking 26 penalty points, the shooter gives 26 points to every other player (in some groups, the shooter may instead subtract 26 from their own score).

Shooting the moon is high risk: if even a single heart escapes to another player, you are stuck with a huge pile of points.

Ending the Game

Hands are played until at least one player reaches 100 points or more at the end of a hand.

When that happens, the game ends immediately and the player with the lowest total score wins.

If there is a tie for lowest, many groups simply play another hand to break it.

Scoring & how the game ends

• Each heart taken in tricks: 1 penalty point (13 points of hearts in the deck).
• Queen of Spades taken in a trick: 13 penalty points.
• A perfect hand of 0 points is the best possible result.
• Shooting the moon (taking all hearts plus the Q♠): 26 points to every opponent instead of to you.
• The game ends when any player reaches 100 points; lowest score wins.

Winning: Have the lowest total score when any player reaches 100 penalty points.

Common variations

These are genuine regional and house-rule differences — none of them is “the one true way” to play. Agree with your table before starting.

• Jack of Diamonds

  Winning the J♦ in a trick scores minus 10 points, adding a card worth chasing to an otherwise pure avoidance game.

  Common: Popular in many casual groups and some computer versions.

• No passing

  All hands are played as dealt, with no passing phase at all — a simpler game that speeds up play for new players.

  Common: Common when teaching beginners.

• Fixed-direction passing

  Cards are always passed the same direction (usually left) every hand instead of rotating left, right, across, and hold.

• Moon shooter subtracts 26

  A player who shoots the moon subtracts 26 points from their own score instead of adding 26 to everyone else, which can matter near the 100-point finish line.

  Common: A common house rule; some groups let the shooter choose.

A little history

Hearts is generally traced to a family of European avoidance games, and by most accounts it grew out of the older game Reversis.

The now-standard penalty for the Queen of Spades appears to have been added later, giving rise to names like Black Lady.