Hearts Card Game Rules

Overview

Hearts is a classic trick-avoidance card game for 4 players. The objective is to avoid taking hearts and the Queen of Spades. The player with the lowest score when someone reaches 100 points wins.

The Deck

Hearts uses a standard 52-card deck. Each player receives 13 cards per round.

Dealing

The entire deck is dealt evenly to all 4 players, giving each player 13 cards.

Card Passing

Before play begins each round, players select 3 cards to pass to another player. The pass direction rotates each round:

• Round 1: Pass 3 cards to the left
• Round 2: Pass 3 cards to the right
• Round 3: Pass 3 cards across (to the opposite player)
• Round 4: No pass (hold your hand) — then the cycle repeats

Card Rankings

Cards rank from highest to lowest within each suit. There is no trump suit in Hearts.

A > K > Q > J > 10 > 9 > 8 > 7 > 6 > 5 > 4 > 3 > 2

Trick Play

Play proceeds in tricks of 4 cards:

1. The player with the 2♣ leads the first trick.
2. Players must follow the led suit if possible.
3. If you cannot follow suit, you may play any card — except on the first trick, where you cannot play hearts or the Q♠.
4. The highest card of the led suit wins the trick. There is no trump.

Breaking Hearts

Hearts cannot be led until a heart has been played on a previous trick (discarded when void in the led suit). Once this happens, hearts are considered "broken" and can be led freely. If your hand is entirely hearts, you may lead a heart even if hearts are not broken.

Scoring

Points are penalty points — you want to avoid them:

Shooting the Moon

If one player captures ALL 26 penalty points in a single round (all 13 hearts plus the Q♠), they "shoot the moon." Instead of receiving 26 points, they score 0 and every other player receives 26 points. This is a high-risk, high-reward strategy.

Winning the Game

The game continues round by round until any player reaches 100 points (or 50 in a short game). At that point, the player with the lowest cumulative score wins.