How to Play Hearts Card Game: Step-by-Step Rules

Hearts is the trick-taking game where you try not to win tricks — or at least not the ones with hearts in them. Every heart costs a point, the Queen of Spades costs thirteen, and the lowest score wins.

Setup

• Four players is the classic game, each playing alone.
• One 52-card deck, no jokers. Aces high.
• Deal all the cards: 13 each.

Passing

Before each hand, every player chooses three cards to pass, face down:

1. First hand: pass to the left.
2. Second hand: pass to the right.
3. Third hand: pass across.
4. Fourth hand: no pass.

Then the cycle starts again. Passing is your chance to dump dangerous cards — the Queen of Spades, high hearts, the Ace and King of spades.

Playing the tricks

1. Whoever holds the 2 of clubs leads it to the first trick.
2. Everyone must follow suit if they can. If not, play anything — except that on the first trick, most rules forbid hearts and the Queen of Spades.
3. The highest card of the suit led wins the trick. There are no trumps.
4. The winner leads next.

Breaking hearts: you cannot lead a heart until a heart has been discarded on an earlier trick — unless you have nothing but hearts.

Scoring

At the end of each hand, count the cards in the tricks you took:

• Each heart: 1 point
• Queen of Spades: 13 points

That is 26 points in every hand.

Shooting the moon

Take all thirteen hearts and the Queen of Spades and you have shot the moon: you score 0, and every other player scores 26. (Some play it as subtracting 26 from your own score instead.) It is a gamble — fail by one heart and you have taken a huge score yourself.

Ending the game

The game ends when any player reaches 100 points. The player with the lowest score wins.

Hearts with 3 players

Remove the 2 of diamonds and deal 17 cards each. Pass three cards: left, then right, then no pass. Otherwise the rules are the same. (Some players instead deal 16 each and give the leftover card to whoever wins the first trick.)

Hearts with 2 players

There is no single standard two-player game. A common version: deal 13 each and leave the rest as a face-down stock. After each trick, the winner draws the top card of the stock and the loser the next, so both hands stay at 13 until the stock runs out. Play continues until the hands are empty. It plays more like a duel than the real thing — for two, gin rummy or cribbage usually suits better.

Tips

• Get rid of high spades if you don't hold the Queen — otherwise someone will happily drop her on your King.
• Void a suit through the pass. With no clubs at all, you can discard hearts on every club trick.
• Watch for a moon shot. If one player is taking every heart, someone needs to take one.

Thirteen cards is a full hand to hold for an hour. Card holders on the table let players see everything at once and keep their hands free.