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.

Quick version: Don’t win Hearts or the Queen of Spades. Lowest score wins.

What You Need to Know First

• 4 players, standard 52-card deck
• Each player gets 13 cards
• There is no trump — no suit is more powerful than another

The Danger Cards

A K Q J 10 ... 2

Each Heart = 1 penalty point (13 Hearts = 13 points)

Q

The Queen of Spades = 13 penalty points (the worst card in the game!)

Step 1: Pass Cards

Before playing, you pick 3 cards from your hand to give away. You want to dump dangerous cards and keep safe ones.

The direction you pass rotates each game:

Then it repeats.

Step 2: Play Tricks

The game has 13 tricks. Each trick goes like this:

1. First trick: The player with the 2 must play it to start
2. Follow suit — if Clubs were led, you must play a Club (if you have one)
3. No matching suit? — play any card. This is how you dump Hearts and the Queen of Spades onto other players!
4. Highest card of the led suit wins the trick

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 leading a Heart until someone has been forced to play a Heart in an earlier trick. Once that happens, Hearts are “broken” and can be led freely.

Example Trick

Example (Clubs led):

Player 1 leads J

Player 2 3

Player 3 Q ← no clubs, dumps a Heart!

Player 4 A ← wins (highest Club)

Player 4 wins the trick... and gets 1 penalty point from the Heart!

Scoring

After all 13 tricks, count the penalty cards you collected:

Maximum penalty per game: 26 points (all 13 Hearts + the Queen). Lowest score wins.

Shooting the Moon (the big gamble)

If one player collects ALL 26 penalty points (every Heart + the Queen of Spades):

• That player gets 0 points instead of 26
• Every other player gets 26 points

This completely flips the game — but if you miss even one Heart, you’re stuck with a massive penalty.

Tips for Beginners

• Pass away high Spades — The Ace, King, and Queen of Spades are dangerous
• Empty out a suit — If you get rid of all cards in one suit, you can dump Hearts whenever that suit is led
• Track the Queen of Spades — Always watch whether she’s been played yet
• Don’t lead with big cards — Aces and Kings win tricks, and those tricks might have penalties in them
• Don’t try Shooting the Moon unless your hand is incredible