Hearts rules and scoring

• Passing
• Playing a hand
• Scoring
• Shooting the moon
• Other player counts
• Score sheet

Hearts is a trick-taking game where you want to lose tricks. Every heart you take is a point against you, and the Queen of Spades is 13. Fewest points wins, and the game ends the moment anyone reaches 100. Take every heart and the Queen yourself, though, and it flips — everyone else takes the points instead.

Dealing and passing

• With four players, deal the whole deck: 13 cards each.
• After looking at your cards, pass three of them face down to another player. The direction rotates each hand: left, right, across, then no pass — and repeat.

Playing a hand

• Whoever holds the 2♣ leads it to the first trick.
• You must follow the suit led if you can. If you can't, you may play any card.
• On the first trick, nobody may play a heart or the Queen of Spades — unless their hand is nothing but point cards.
• The highest card of the suit led takes the trick, and the winner leads the next one.
• Hearts can't be led until they're broken — until a heart has been discarded on another suit — unless hearts are all you have left. The Queen of Spades is just a spade for leading purposes: once the first trick is done, it can be led like any other spade.
• Tricks you take go face down in your own pile, and nobody can look back through them.

How scoring works

Tricks are worth nothing in themselves — only the cards in them count. Each hand adds up to 26.

Card	Points
Each heart ♥	1
Queen of Spades Q♠	13
Shoot the moonTake all 13 hearts and the Q♠ in one hand.	+26 to others

Shooting the moon

If one player takes every heart and the Queen of Spades in a single hand, they score 0 and every other player takes 26. It's a gamble: miss a single heart and you're stuck with most of the 26 yourself.

Some tables score it the other way — the shooter takes −26 and nobody else scores — or let the shooter choose, which matters when +26 would push someone else to 100.

How it ends

The game ends the moment anyone reaches 100 at the end of a hand. The lowest score wins, and the player who crossed 100 finishes last.

Common variants

• Omnibus: the Jack of Diamonds J♦ is worth −10 to whoever takes it, so a hand totals 16. It isn't part of shooting the moon.
• Shorter game: some groups play to 50 instead of 100.

Playing with other counts

The deck has to divide evenly, so with other player counts a few low cards come out before dealing:

Three players	17 cards each
Four players	13 cards each
Five players	10 cards each
Six players	8 cards each

With three players the 2♦ usually comes out, and with five the 2♣ (so the 3♣ leads). There's no standard six-player deal; dropping four low cards to deal 8 each is one way to do it. Agree which cards come out and how passing rotates before you start.

Quick answers

Can you lead the Queen of Spades before hearts are broken?

Yes. Only hearts need breaking, and the Queen is a spade, so it can be led on any trick after the first. Rule sets differ on one point: Bicycle's printed rules also count the Queen, discarded on another suit, as breaking hearts; Pagat's standard rules count only a heart.

Can you play a heart on the first trick?

No — not even if you're out of clubs. The only exception is a hand of nothing but hearts and the Queen.

Do you have to pass every hand?

With four players, every fourth hand is a “hold” hand with no passing at all.