Hearts

👥 2–6 players 📍 Indoor📍 Anywhere ⚡ Calm 🧩 Moderate ⏱ 20-45 minutes 🎂 Ages 8+

Quick Pitch

Hearts is a trick-taking card game where you're trying to avoid winning — every heart scores a penalty point, and the dreaded Queen of Spades is worth thirteen.

Hook

In most card games, winning tricks is the goal. In Hearts, they're a trap. You want to avoid picking up hearts (one point each) and especially the Queen of Spades (thirteen points). But there's a twist: if one daring player manages to collect every single heart AND the Queen of Spades, they "shoot the moon" — scoring zero while everyone else gets twenty-six points. The threat of the moon shot makes everyone nervous, and deciding when to block it versus let it fly is where the real game lives.

Equipment Needed

  • One standard 52-card deck
  • Paper and pencil for score tracking

Setup

  1. Use a standard 52-card deck (no cards removed)
  2. Shuffle and deal all cards as equally as possible: 13 cards each to 4 players (standard), or adjust for 3/5/6 players
  3. For 3 players: remove the 2 of Diamonds, deal 17 cards each
  4. Establish play order (clockwise)

Rules

Objective

Be the player with the lowest score at the end of the game. Accumulate the fewest penalty points across multiple rounds.

Card Passing (First Three Rounds)

Before play begins, each player must pass three cards to another player:

  • Round 1: Pass to the left
  • Round 2: Pass to the right
  • Round 3: Pass across the table
  • Round 4 (if played): No pass
  • Pattern repeats

Each player selects three cards they wish to pass to the designated player before looking at cards received.

Gameplay

  1. Starting hand: After passing, the player holding the 2 of Clubs leads the first trick
  2. Following suit: Players must follow suit if able. If unable, any card may be played
  3. Trick winner: Highest card of the suit led wins the trick
  4. Breaking hearts: Hearts cannot be led until a heart has been played on a previous trick (in breaking hearts). The Queen of Spades can be led anytime
  5. Collecting tricks: Winner takes the trick and leads the next trick

Scoring

Penalty points:

  • Each heart: 1 point
  • Queen of Spades: 13 points

Special condition — "Shooting the Moon": If a single player wins all 13 hearts and the Queen of Spades (26 total points), that player scores 0 points, and all other players score 26 points instead. This is a high-risk, high-reward strategy.

Game end: The game ends when a player reaches a predetermined score (typically 100 points), or after a set number of hands. The player with the lowest final score wins.

Expert Player

Tips

  1. Card passing: Early rounds, pass dangerous cards (K♥, Q♠, low hearts, high spades)
  2. Avoid the Queen of Spades: Guard against winning tricks where the Queen might fall
  3. Low cards are valuable: Avoid running out of low cards in a suit (forces high card play)
  4. Leading: Lead low cards to avoid winning unwanted tricks. Force opponents to play dangerous cards
  5. Shooting the moon: Requires careful planning. Win low tricks early to establish a pattern, then take all point cards at the end. Risky but rewarding
  6. Counting: Track which cards have been played, especially hearts and the Queen of Spades
  7. Late game: When few cards remain, you know more clearly what opponents hold

Variations

  • No passing version: Simpler variant; skip the passing phase entirely
  • Omnibus/Shooting (Moon variant): The 10 of Diamonds is worth -10 (reduces score). Shooting the moon now includes 10 of Diamonds and awards -10 additional
  • Common man variation: 3 of Clubs worth -5 points (reverses penalty)
  • Joker variant: Include jokers as special cards with variable values
  • Spot Heart variation: Hearts vary in value (e.g., A♥ = 5 points, K♥ = 3 points, etc.)
Learn More — History & Origins

History & Origins

Hearts descends from the Spanish game Reversis, which was popular in Europe in the 18th century and introduced the key concept of "reverse" scoring — making penalty cards something to avoid rather than collect. The game arrived in North America through European immigrants and gradually evolved through the 19th century, with various American variants adding and removing scoring elements. The modern form with the Queen of Spades as a 13-point penalty card became standardized in the early 20th century and is now the most widely played version.

Cultural Context

Hearts became one of the defining digital games of the personal computing era. Microsoft included a digital version of Hearts with Windows 3.1 in 1992, and for millions of people in the 1990s, it was among the first games they ever played on a computer — an approachable introduction to both card games and computer gaming. The Microsoft Hearts program became so familiar that it's part of many people's earliest memories of using a personal computer, and its removal from later Windows versions was genuinely mourned.

The game's appeal is its combination of simplicity and social tension. The rules are easy to explain, but the presence of the moon-shot option creates constant uncertainty: should you take that risky trick to prevent a potential shoot? Or is your opponent not shooting at all, and you've just sabotaged your own position? Hearts is unusual in that the best strategic move and the safest strategic move are often opposites, which keeps experienced players engaged long after they've mastered the basics.

See Also