Hearts Rules

Quick Facts

Objective

Avoid taking hearts and the queen of spades.

The best way to teach Hearts is to start with that objective, then explain what players are allowed to do on a turn. New players do not need every rare penalty before the first card is dealt. They need the goal, the setup, the turn shape, and one scoring example. The edge cases below are there for the second pass, once everyone understands the basic flow.

In Hearts, every trick carries information. Watch who can follow the led suit, who discards, and who spends trump or a high card. Those signals tell you which suits are becoming dangerous before the score is counted.

Setup

Deal 13 cards to each player. The two of clubs leads the first trick.

Before play begins, agree on the house rules that affect scoring or legal moves. For example, some shedding games vary on how many cards you draw, and solitaire variants often vary on redeals or rank wrapping. State the version up front so that every later decision is judged against the same rule set.

A clean setup also makes the rules easier to audit. Count the players, confirm the deck or layout, and make sure the first player is known before anyone makes a strategic choice. If you are using this page to settle a dispute, reset to the setup step and confirm that the table is playing the same version described here.

Turn Order

Follow suit if possible. Highest card in the led suit wins the trick and leads next.

Example turn

In a teaching round of Hearts, pause after the first legal move and ask why that move was legal. That habit reveals the core rule faster than reading a paragraph twice. If the game uses suit-following, point to the led suit. If it uses matching, point to the rank or suit match. If it uses tableau movement, point to the rank direction and any color or suit limit.

A helpful table habit is to separate "whose turn is it?" from "what can that player do?" The first question is answered by the turn order. The second question is answered by the legal-move rule. Keeping those questions separate prevents most arguments in Hearts, especially after a draw, trick, discard, redeal, or completed scoring action changes the table state.

Scoring

Each heart is one point and the queen of spades is 13. Low score wins.

Scoring is where many card game rules become fuzzy, so separate the score from the legal move. First decide whether the move was legal. Then count only the points created by that move, trick, hand, or completed layout. This keeps Hearts fair even when players disagree about strategy.

When teaching, count one example in public even if the math is simple. Say which cards, tricks, books, runs, or layout events created the score. That turns scoring from a number announced at the end into a rule players can use while deciding what to do next.

The Deal, the Pass, and the Lead

Hearts is a four-player game with no partnerships and no trump. The whole deck is dealt out, thirteen cards each. Before every hand except one, you choose three cards to pass: left on the first hand, right on the second, across on the third, and no pass on the fourth, then the cycle repeats. Passing is a real decision, since you are trying to shed dangerous cards like the queen of spades or a lone high heart without handing an opponent a weapon.

Whoever holds the two of clubs leads it to the first trick; there is no choice about that opening card. Everyone must follow the led suit if able, and the highest card of the led suit wins the trick, because Hearts has no trump. The winner of each trick leads the next. On that first trick you may not dump point cards if you can avoid it, so the queen of spades and hearts stay in hand until later.

Scoring and the Queen

Every heart is worth one penalty point and the queen of spades is worth thirteen, as much as every heart combined, which is why the Black Lady dominates the game. You want the lowest score, not the highest. A sample hand: you take four hearts and the queen of spades and score seventeen points, a disaster, while an opponent who ducked every trick with point cards scores zero. Hearts cannot be led until they have been broken by being played on an earlier trick.

The exception that flips the whole game is shooting the moon. If a single player captures all thirteen hearts and the queen of spades, all twenty-six points, they score zero and each opponent is charged twenty-six instead. Play continues hand after hand until someone crosses one hundred points, and then the player with the lowest total wins. That target makes one reckless hand, or a failed moon shot, enough to lose an entire game.

Variants

Hearts has many named forms. The standard modern game is sometimes called Black Lady. Omnibus Hearts adds the jack of diamonds as a bonus card worth minus ten, rewarding the player who captures it, and tables disagree about whether a moon shot must also include that jack. Spot Hearts scores each heart at its face value, with the queen of spades worth twenty-five, and often plays all the way to five hundred.

The three-player form, Black Maria, removes the two of clubs so each player gets seventeen cards, and some tables add penalties on the ace and king of spades. There are two- and five-player adaptations too, and passing itself varies between always-left, scatter passing, or none. Whatever the table, the queen of spades stays the card that decides most hands, so tracking who might still hold her is the core skill.

Edge Cases

• Hearts cannot usually be led until broken.
• Point cards cannot be dumped on the first trick if avoidable.
• Taking all points is shooting the moon.

Edge cases are easiest to handle when the table agrees on them before they matter. If your group uses a different family rule, write it down for the session and apply it consistently. The version here is designed to match the linked online game and to be clear enough for a new player to follow without memorizing several variants at once.

Teaching Notes

When teaching Hearts, keep the first explanation practical. Say who plays, what the board or hand looks like, what counts as a legal move, and how someone wins. Then play one sample turn slowly. Most confusion comes from mixing legal-play questions with scoring questions, so answer those separately.

For a trick-avoidance game, the first strategic lesson should match the objective: avoid taking hearts and the queen of spades. New players improve faster when they can connect every rule back to that goal. If a rule does not change the next decision, save it until after the first round.

Common Mistakes

The most common mistake is playing from memory of a related game. Similar games often differ on one small rule: whether a suit must be followed, whether aces are high or low, whether a stock can be redealt, or whether extra tricks help or hurt. Read the setup and turn order for Hearts before assuming a rule carries over.

The second mistake is ignoring scoring until the end. Scoring changes incentives. InHearts, remember this scoring rule while you play: Each heart is one point and the queen of spades is 13. Low score wins. A move that is legal can still be strategically poor if it gives away the scoring goal.

Do not treat every high card as an automatic winner. In trick-taking games, table position, trump, and whether players can follow suit matter as much as raw rank.

Practice Example

To practice Hearts, take the first meaningful decision of a round and explain it in three parts: the current table state, the legal options, and the scoring consequence. For this ruleset, the turn rule says: Follow suit if possible. Highest card in the led suit wins the trick and leads next. The scoring rule says: Each heart is one point and the queen of spades is 13. Low score wins. A good example should connect those two sentences so players understand not only what they may do, but why one legal option is better than another.

For a first practice hand, play slowly enough to name the led suit out loud. That habit prevents most illegal plays and makes later strategy much easier to understand.

House Rules to Confirm

Card games travel through families, apps, and regional tables, so the name Hearts can hide small differences. Confirm player count, card rank, draw or deal behavior, scoring target, and tie handling before the first competitive round. If someone learned a different version, compare it to the setup and edge cases on this page instead of mixing rules mid-hand.

For online play, the linked site uses one consistent ruleset. That makes it useful as a reference when teaching because the game enforces legal moves and score timing automatically. For tabletop play, use the same sequence every time: setup, legal turn, scoring, edge case.

Related Game Context

If Hearts feels close to another card game, compare the objective first. Related games may share a deck, a trick structure, or a matching mechanic while rewarding a completely different decision. The related rules below are useful when players ask whether a rule from one game carries over to another.

Online Play

The dedicated play site for this rule set is Play Hearts Online Free. Use the rules page here as the reference, then open the play link when you want to practice decisions without shuffling, dealing, or scoring by hand.

FAQ