How to Play Hearts

Hearts is a trick-taking game in which the object is to accumulate as few points as possible. It is most commonly played with four players. Any heart is worth one penalty point, and the queen of spades is worth 13 penalty points.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Card Tables
• Pencils
• Notebooks
• Pencils
• Playing Cards
• Pencils
• Notebooks

1. Shuffle and deal in a clockwise direction a standard deck of 52 playing cards with no jokers.

2. Deal out all the cards until each player has 13.

3. Take three cards from your hand and lay them facedown on the table before the first hand is played. Pass them to the player on your left.

4. Pick up the three cards that were passed to you by the person on your right.

5. Lead the 2 of clubs if you're holding it. Otherwise, play a club when it's your turn, going clockwise around the table.

6. Pick up the trick if your card was the highest-numbered card in the suit that was led - which means that you won the trick.

7. Lead the next trick if you won the first one. This time, you can lead with any suit.

8. Follow suit if you didn't win the first trick. That is, play the suit that someone else leads.

9. Play a heart (or another card of a different suit) only if a player leads a suit that you don't have.

10. Lead with a heart only after someone plays a heart because he or she couldn't follow suit.

11. Continue playing until all 13 tricks have been played.

12. Count up the points - 1 for each heart and 13 for the queen of spades - from the tricks you took.

13. Write your score and the other players' scores on a notepad.

14. Let the person to your left deal the next hand.

15. Repeat Steps 3 through 13.

16. End the game when one person has reached or exceeded 100 points. The player with the lowest score at that point wins.

Tips & Warnings

• There is no trump in hearts. Aces are ranked highest and 2s are ranked lowest.
• "Shoot the moon" - win all the hearts and the queen of spades - and all the other players get 26 penalty points apiece and you get zero.
• Variations of the game generally concern the manner of passing the three cards before each hand is played - alternating passing the cards to your left, across from you and to your right and keeping them yourself.
• A heart cannot lead a round until another heart has been discarded. Discard a heart only if you do not have the suit that was led.

[abigail]

on 6/6/2007 Excellent article - I love Hearts! Thanks!

[Frustrated2007]

on 2/7/2007 Can someone please tell me how to go about shooting the moon in Hearts?

on 11/22/2005 Pass a low - mid heart and make sure you have one higher. By doing this you make it nearly impossible for someone to Shoot the Moon, and while you may take that one trick with the higher heart, that's only 4 points as opposed to 26 for the person shooting the moon!

Example: if you have 2,3,10,J of hearts, pass your 10, save your Jack to cover that 10 in case they do try to Shoot the Moon. That's known as a poison pill.

on 11/22/2005 Consider passing out of clubs if you can and if it would be helpful. Having no clubs allows you to throw bad cards (Ace or King of spades for example) on the first trick.

on 11/22/2005 If you've got a lot of spades (or if you've got the king, ace, and two other spades) hang onto (or try to get) the queen of spades. Oftentimes, you'll be able to choose when you play the queen of spades and you may be able to give it to the person with the fewest points (or the person closest to you, if you have the fewest points).