Overview

• Hearts is a card game for 4 players, every player for themselves.
• It uses the standard 52-card pack, ranked A (high) to 2 (low), with the figure cards being KQJ high to low.

Setup

The entire deck is dealt, giving each player a hand of 13 cards. After looking at your hand, choose three cards to pass to another player.

The passing rotation is:

• (1st hand) to the player on your left,
• (2nd hand) to the player on your right,
• (3rd hand) to the player across the table,
• (4th hand) no passing.

The rotation repeats until the game ends.

Tricks

• After passing cards, the player holding the 2♣ leads the first trick.
• Each player must follow suit if possible. If you have no cards of the suit led, you may play a card of any suit.
  • Exception: You may not play a ​♥ or the Q♠ on the first trick, even if you have no clubs.
• The highest card of the suit led wins the trick. The winner of a trick starts the next trick.
• Hearts may not be led until a ​♥ has been played (this is called "breaking hearts").
• There is no trump suit.

Scoring

• At the end of each hand, each ​♥ taken by a player counts -1, and the Q♠ counts -13.
• If one player has taken all 13 ​♥s and Q♠ (this is known as "shooting the moon", or "slam"), that player scores 0 and all other players score -26. Warning other players about an attempt to shoot the moon is team play, and a breach of Hearts etiquette.
• When one or more players reach zero, the game ends.
• The player with the highest score wins.

Variants

Initial points

• Start with 50 points
• Start with 75 points
• Start with 100 points

Rule set

• Hearts
• Omnibus Hearts: J♦ is +10
• Black Maria: A♠ is -7, K♠ is -10, no penalty card play limit, always pass right, no shooting the moon, player left of dealer always starts
• Spot Hearts: A♥ is -14, K♥ is -13, Q♥ is -12, J♥ is -11, and other ​♥ are negative their face value
• Custom

Jack of Diamonds bonus

• Disabled
• Enabled (J♦ worth +10)

Penalty card play limit

• Default (no points on first trick, cannot lead ​♥ until they break)
• Points in the first trick (cannot lead ​♥ until they break)
• Disabled

Face value scoring

• Disabled
• Enabled

High Spades scoring

• Disabled
• Enabled

Starter card

• Enabled (2♣ always starts)
• Disabled (player left of dealer always starts)

Shooting the moon

• Default (other players receive -26 points)
• Positive moon scoring (player receives +26 points)
• Disabled

Pass cycle

• Default
• Remove no pass hands
• Always pass right

Skip uneventful final tricks

• Yes
• No