Hearts

1 Overview

Hearts is a classic trick-taking card game where the goal is inverted: instead of winning tricks, you're trying to avoid winning the wrong ones. Hearts and the Queen of Spades are penalty cards. But there's a brilliant twist - if you manage to take ALL the penalty cards in a single hand (called "Shooting the Moon"), you instead award 26 points to every other player. This one mechanic transforms Hearts from a simple avoidance game into a tense calculation of risk and bluff.

2 What You Need

• 1 standard deck of 52 cards (no jokers)
• Score pad
• Pencil

3 Setup

1. Deal all 52 cards evenly - 13 cards each to 4 players.
2. Passing: Before play, each player selects 3 cards from their hand and passes them to another player. Direction rotates: left, right, across, and then no passing on the 4th round.
3. The player holding the 2 of Clubs leads the first trick.

4 How to Play

1. The player who leads plays any card (except you cannot lead Hearts until Hearts have been broken).
2. All other players must follow suit if they can. If they cannot follow suit, they may play any card.
3. The highest card of the led suit wins the trick. The winner collects the trick and leads next.
4. Hearts are broken when a Heart is played on any trick (because a player couldn't follow suit). After Hearts are broken, Hearts can be led.

Penalty Cards

• Each Heart = 1 point (you want ZERO)
• Queen of Spades = 13 points (avoid this at nearly any cost)

Shooting the Moon

If you take ALL 13 Hearts plus the Queen of Spades in a single hand, you Shoot the Moon. Instead of taking 26 points, you give 26 points to every other player (or subtract 26 from your own score - some editions let you choose).

5 Winning

The game ends when any player reaches 100 points. At that point, the player with the lowest total score wins. Ties are broken by the most recent hand scores.

6 Tips

• Unload the Queen early via passing. If you have the Queen of Spades and low spades that might not win tricks, pass the Queen immediately. Don't hold her hoping to block - it rarely works.
• Watch the passing direction. On a "pass right" round, don't pass good cards thinking you're helping an enemy - you're passing to a potential ally.
• Sniff out Moon shooters. If someone is taking all the Hearts suspiciously and hasn't complained, they might be attempting to Shoot the Moon. One well-timed Ace of Hearts can ruin their plan.
• The 2 of Clubs is a liability. You must lead it on trick 1. If it wins (it usually does), you lead trick 2 with unknown information about everyone's hands.
• Use the Jack of Diamonds if playing with the "Bonus Jack" variant: Taking it earns you -10 points.