How to Play Hearts
Hearts is the opposite of most card games — you’re trying to avoid winning certain cards. Every heart you collect is a penalty point, and the Queen of Spades is the worst card in the game. The player with the fewest points wins.
The Basics
- 4 players, standard 52-card deck
- Each player gets 13 cards
- There is no trump in Hearts — no suit is more powerful than another
Card Order (weakest to strongest)
2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, Jack, Queen, King, Ace
Step 1: Pass Cards
Before playing, you pick 3 cards from your hand to give away. You want to get rid of dangerous cards (like high spades) and keep safe ones.
The direction you pass changes each game:
| Game | You pass to… |
|---|---|
| 1st | The player on your left |
| 2nd | The player on your right |
| 3rd | The player across from you |
| 4th | No passing (keep your hand as-is) |
Then the cycle repeats.
Step 2: Play Tricks
The game has 13 tricks. A trick is one turn where everyone plays a card into the middle — whoever plays the strongest card wins that pile.
How each trick works
- Someone leads — The player with the 2 of Clubs leads the very first trick (they must play it). After that, whoever won the last trick leads
- Follow suit — If the leader plays a club, you must play a club too (if you have one)
- No matching suit? — If you don’t have any cards in that suit, play any card. This is how you dump hearts and the Queen of Spades onto other players
- Highest card wins — The highest card of the suit that was led wins the trick and collects all the cards
Two important rules
First trick protection: On the very first trick, you cannot play hearts or the Queen of Spades (unless your entire hand is penalty cards).
Hearts must be “broken” first: You can’t start a trick by playing a heart until someone has already been forced to play a heart in a previous trick (because they didn’t have the led suit). Once that happens, hearts are “broken” and can be led freely.
Scoring
After all 13 tricks, count the penalty cards you collected:
| Card | Penalty |
|---|---|
| Any Heart | 1 point each |
| Queen of Spades | 13 points |
The maximum penalty in one game is 26 points (all 13 hearts + the Queen). Lowest score wins.
Shooting the Moon (the big gamble)
If one player manages to collect ALL the penalty cards (every heart + the Queen of Spades), something amazing happens:
- That player gets 0 points instead of 26
- Every other player gets 26 points
This completely flips the game. But it’s very hard to pull off — if you miss even one heart, you’re stuck with a huge penalty.
Playing Multiple Games
Scores add up across games. The player with the lowest total at the end wins the session.
Tips for Beginners
- Pass away high spades — The Ace, King, and Queen of Spades are dangerous. If you have them, consider passing them
- Empty out a suit — If you can get rid of all cards in one suit, you’ll be able to dump penalty cards whenever that suit is led
- Track the Queen — Always pay attention to whether the Queen of Spades has been played. If it hasn’t, be very careful about playing high spades
- Don’t lead with big cards — Playing aces and kings first makes you win tricks, and those tricks might have penalty cards in them
- Don’t try to shoot the moon unless your hand is incredible — failing halfway is devastating