How to Play Hearts
Grab a standard deck, a few friends, and some scratch paper., Play "tricks" by attempting to "follow the suit" of the card that led., Avoid taking tricks by trying not to play the highest-ranking card during the trick., Avoid Hearts and the Queen of...
Step-by-Step Guide
-
Step 1: Grab a standard deck
Hearts is a versatile game
- it can be played by 3-7 players, though 4 is the standard number.
Hearts uses a normal 52 card deck (minus Jokers).
Other than your cards, all you'll need is some scratch paper (or something else to write on) and a pen to record your score.
Players are all dealt the same number of cards
- usually by having one player deal in a circle until no cards remain.
The first dealer is either pre-determined or selected via some other method
-- for example, having players draw cards at random, the lowest being the first to deal.
The deal proceeds to the original dealer's left at the start of each hand.
Note that, if you're playing with a number of people other than 4, you may have leftover cards at the end of dealing.
These are called "hole" cards.
Once you're sure everyone has the same number of cards, remove the leftovers from the game without looking at them and shuffle them back into the deck before the next hand. , In Hearts, play proceeds in a circle, each player playing one card from his or her hand at a time, face up.
The cards from one such "cycle" are called a "trick".
In Hearts terminology, whoever plays the first card of a trick is said to "lead" the trick.
This person can play whatever card s/he wants (with exceptions
- see point below).
The players following this leader must play cards of the same suit as the leading card if they have them
- if not, they may play cards of another suit.
The one exception to the lead card being able to be anything is that the lead card cannot be a Heart until Hearts have been "broken".
Hearts are broken when a player is unable to follow the suit of a lead card and plays a Heart instead. , After all players have played a card, the highest-ranking card that matches the suit of the card that led the trick "wins" and the person who played that card takes all the cards in the trick and keeps them face down in a pile in front of him or herself until the end of the hand.
Whoever wins the trick leads the next trick
- play proceeds in this way until all players have no more cards in their hands.
As we'll see below, usually, you don't want to win tricks.
In each suit, the cards are ranked from the Ace (the highest value) on down, with 2 being the lowest value.
For example, the Ace of Clubs is the most powerful Club, followed by the King of Clubs, the Queen, and so on.
So, for example, if the person who led the trick played a Queen of Diamonds and we have an Ace of Diamonds and a Five of Diamonds in our hand, we have to play one of these Diamonds.
The Ace will win the hand for us because it's the highest card of the same suit as the lead card, while the Five won't beat the Queen.
In most cases, since we usually don't want to win hands, we'll probably play the Five. , In Hearts, like in golf, all players want to gain the lowest amount of points possible
- whoever has the fewest points at the end wins.
The cards that are worth points are the Hearts and the Queen of Spades .
These are the only point cards.
All other cards are worth no points, so you may collect these without fear.
Since it's difficult to tell whether another player will play a Heart or the Queen of Spades after you, usually, you want to avoid taking tricks altogether, even if no point cards have been played yet.
There is one important exception to the goal of avoiding points.
If, in a given hand, a player manages to collect ALL the points from that hand (this is called "Shooting the Moon" or "Running"), s/he receives a score of 0 and all other players receive 26 points.
So, if a player is losing badly and has collected every point card in the hand so far, he or she may risk an even-worse score by trying to collect every Heart and the Queen of Spades.
If he or she can do it, he or she will have scored a major victory, but if one of his/her opponents gets just one of the point cards, he or she will be left with a bad score for the hand. , When all players have played their last card, the hand is over.
Players look through the cards from the tricks they took during the hand and calculate a score for the hand based on the number of point-scoring cards they took.
As noted above, each Heart is worth 1 point and the Queen of Spades is worth 13 points.
The players add their score from the most recent hand to their cumulative score from previous hands and, finally, the person to the left of the last dealer deals a new hand.
Play continues in this fashion until one player reaches some agreed-upon number of points (often 100 points).
When one (or more) players reach this point limit, the game stops and whichever player has the fewest points wins. , The rules outlined above constitute the most "basic" version of Hearts.
Though these rules are accurate and perfectly acceptable for play, in reality, many variations on these standard rules exist.
You may or may not want to incorporate these into your game.
Listed below are some of the most common rule variations.
After being dealt cards, each player passes three cards of his choosing to another player.
Usually, in a 4-person game, players pass to the player to the right at the start of the first hand, then to the left on the second hand, then across on the third, then refrain from passing on the fourth, then repeat this cycle.
The player who is dealt the Two of Clubs (or is passed it) starts each hand, rather than the player to the left of the dealer.
This player must lead with the Two of Clubs as her first play of the game.
The "hole" cards leftover after dealing the deck out to a number of players other than 4 are given (face down) to whoever takes the first heart.
On the first trick of each hand, no point card may be played.
In some variations, if a player shoots the moon, he has the option to subtract 26 points from his score rather than adding 26 points to the other players'.
This is a good idea if adding 26 points to everyone else's scores would put one or more players over the score limit, ending the game and causing the shooter to lose. -
Step 2: a few friends
-
Step 3: and some scratch paper.
-
Step 4: Play "tricks" by attempting to "follow the suit" of the card that led.
-
Step 5: Avoid taking tricks by trying not to play the highest-ranking card during the trick.
-
Step 6: Avoid Hearts and the Queen of Spades.
-
Step 7: Calculate your score at the end of each hand.
-
Step 8: Be aware of common rule variations.
Detailed Guide
Hearts is a versatile game
- it can be played by 3-7 players, though 4 is the standard number.
Hearts uses a normal 52 card deck (minus Jokers).
Other than your cards, all you'll need is some scratch paper (or something else to write on) and a pen to record your score.
Players are all dealt the same number of cards
- usually by having one player deal in a circle until no cards remain.
The first dealer is either pre-determined or selected via some other method
-- for example, having players draw cards at random, the lowest being the first to deal.
The deal proceeds to the original dealer's left at the start of each hand.
Note that, if you're playing with a number of people other than 4, you may have leftover cards at the end of dealing.
These are called "hole" cards.
Once you're sure everyone has the same number of cards, remove the leftovers from the game without looking at them and shuffle them back into the deck before the next hand. , In Hearts, play proceeds in a circle, each player playing one card from his or her hand at a time, face up.
The cards from one such "cycle" are called a "trick".
In Hearts terminology, whoever plays the first card of a trick is said to "lead" the trick.
This person can play whatever card s/he wants (with exceptions
- see point below).
The players following this leader must play cards of the same suit as the leading card if they have them
- if not, they may play cards of another suit.
The one exception to the lead card being able to be anything is that the lead card cannot be a Heart until Hearts have been "broken".
Hearts are broken when a player is unable to follow the suit of a lead card and plays a Heart instead. , After all players have played a card, the highest-ranking card that matches the suit of the card that led the trick "wins" and the person who played that card takes all the cards in the trick and keeps them face down in a pile in front of him or herself until the end of the hand.
Whoever wins the trick leads the next trick
- play proceeds in this way until all players have no more cards in their hands.
As we'll see below, usually, you don't want to win tricks.
In each suit, the cards are ranked from the Ace (the highest value) on down, with 2 being the lowest value.
For example, the Ace of Clubs is the most powerful Club, followed by the King of Clubs, the Queen, and so on.
So, for example, if the person who led the trick played a Queen of Diamonds and we have an Ace of Diamonds and a Five of Diamonds in our hand, we have to play one of these Diamonds.
The Ace will win the hand for us because it's the highest card of the same suit as the lead card, while the Five won't beat the Queen.
In most cases, since we usually don't want to win hands, we'll probably play the Five. , In Hearts, like in golf, all players want to gain the lowest amount of points possible
- whoever has the fewest points at the end wins.
The cards that are worth points are the Hearts and the Queen of Spades .
These are the only point cards.
All other cards are worth no points, so you may collect these without fear.
Since it's difficult to tell whether another player will play a Heart or the Queen of Spades after you, usually, you want to avoid taking tricks altogether, even if no point cards have been played yet.
There is one important exception to the goal of avoiding points.
If, in a given hand, a player manages to collect ALL the points from that hand (this is called "Shooting the Moon" or "Running"), s/he receives a score of 0 and all other players receive 26 points.
So, if a player is losing badly and has collected every point card in the hand so far, he or she may risk an even-worse score by trying to collect every Heart and the Queen of Spades.
If he or she can do it, he or she will have scored a major victory, but if one of his/her opponents gets just one of the point cards, he or she will be left with a bad score for the hand. , When all players have played their last card, the hand is over.
Players look through the cards from the tricks they took during the hand and calculate a score for the hand based on the number of point-scoring cards they took.
As noted above, each Heart is worth 1 point and the Queen of Spades is worth 13 points.
The players add their score from the most recent hand to their cumulative score from previous hands and, finally, the person to the left of the last dealer deals a new hand.
Play continues in this fashion until one player reaches some agreed-upon number of points (often 100 points).
When one (or more) players reach this point limit, the game stops and whichever player has the fewest points wins. , The rules outlined above constitute the most "basic" version of Hearts.
Though these rules are accurate and perfectly acceptable for play, in reality, many variations on these standard rules exist.
You may or may not want to incorporate these into your game.
Listed below are some of the most common rule variations.
After being dealt cards, each player passes three cards of his choosing to another player.
Usually, in a 4-person game, players pass to the player to the right at the start of the first hand, then to the left on the second hand, then across on the third, then refrain from passing on the fourth, then repeat this cycle.
The player who is dealt the Two of Clubs (or is passed it) starts each hand, rather than the player to the left of the dealer.
This player must lead with the Two of Clubs as her first play of the game.
The "hole" cards leftover after dealing the deck out to a number of players other than 4 are given (face down) to whoever takes the first heart.
On the first trick of each hand, no point card may be played.
In some variations, if a player shoots the moon, he has the option to subtract 26 points from his score rather than adding 26 points to the other players'.
This is a good idea if adding 26 points to everyone else's scores would put one or more players over the score limit, ending the game and causing the shooter to lose.
About the Author
Nicholas Campbell
Experienced content creator specializing in hobbies guides and tutorials.
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