How to Play Hearts
Four players. Thirteen tricks. You want to lose.
Every heart 2♥ costs you 1 point. The queen of spades Q♠ costs you 13. Lowest score wins, so the whole game is dodging cards, not winning them.
Setup
- 4 players, standard 52-card deck, 13 cards each
- No teams. Everyone is on their own
- Game ends when someone hits 100 points. Lowest score at that moment wins
Each round, in order
- Pass 3 cards. Left, right, across, then no pass. The direction rotates each round. Get rid of your dangerous cards.
- 2♣ leads. Whoever holds the two of clubs plays it first.
- Follow suit if you can. Out of that suit? Play anything.
- Highest card of the suit led wins the trick and leads the next one.
- After 13 tricks, count up the penalty cards you were stuck with.
What costs you points
| Card | Points |
|---|---|
| Each heart 3♥ 7♥ K♥ | 1 each |
| Queen of spades Q♠ | 13 |
| Everything else | 0 |
There are 26 points in every round.
Two rules that catch people out
- You can't lead a heart until hearts have been "broken", which means until someone has already discarded one on another suit.
- Nothing painful on the first trick. No hearts and no Q♠ on trick one.
Shooting the moon
Take all 26 points and it flips: everyone else gets 26, and you get zero.
It's rare and it's a gamble. Miss by one card and you've just taken a disastrous score. But watch for it: if one player is hoovering up every heart, someone has to take a point to stop them.
Quick tips
- Dump the Q♠, K♠ and A♠ if you can. Holding high spades means eventually eating the queen.
- Keep low cards. 2♣ and 3♦ lose tricks for you, which is the point.
- Short-suit yourself. Being void in a suit lets you throw hearts away.
- Count the queen. Once Q♠ is gone, high spades are safe again.
Passing well
The pass is the most important decision in the hand, and the most commonly botched. Beginners pass their three highest cards. That's sometimes right and often not.
What you're actually trying to do is fix the shape of your hand, not just remove big cards. A hand with four low spades and nothing else dangerous does not need a pass at all, but you have to pass something, so pass from your longest safe suit rather than breaking up your protection.
Some guidelines that hold up:
- Q♠ is only a problem if you're short in spades. With the queen and four small spades behind it, you can usually duck under the ace and king when they're led. With the queen and one other spade, you'll be forced to play it almost immediately. Count your spades before you decide.
- A♠ and K♠ are more dangerous than the queen for the player who doesn't hold her. They win the trick that the queen gets dropped on.
- Creating a void is powerful but risky. Being void in a suit lets you discard hearts and the queen freely, but if you're void in the suit your left-hand opponent is loading up, you'll be leading into trouble all hand.
- Passing across is different from passing left. The player you pass to is not always the player who plays after you, so the same three cards are worth different amounts depending on the direction.
Playing the hand
The general aim is to lose tricks cheaply while forcing other people to win the ones that matter.
Lead low, and lead the suit you have most of. Leading your longest suit means you'll run out of it last, which keeps you from being forced to win tricks at the end when only penalty cards are left.
Watch the discards. The moment a player throws a heart on a club lead, they are void in clubs. That tells you two things: clubs are now dangerous to lead, and that player can dump the queen on you the next time you win one.
Count the spades. There are thirteen. Once the queen has fallen, high spades are safe and can be used to take control. Before that, every spade lead is a live grenade, and if you hold A♠ or K♠ with few small spades, you are the one most likely to catch her.
The end of the hand decides it. Tricks eleven, twelve and thirteen are where points get eaten, because by then everyone is out of safe cards. A hand that ends holding two low clubs is a hand that got away clean.
Stopping the moon
The moment a single player has taken every penalty card so far, the table has a problem. If they finish the job, everyone else scores 26.
Stopping it usually means someone deliberately taking a trick with a heart in it. Accepting one or two points to save twenty-six. The awkward part is that nobody wants to be the one to do it, and waiting for someone else to volunteer is how tables lose. If you can take a point and you've watched one player sweep the first eight tricks, take the point.
Common variations
Hearts is an old game with plenty of house rules. The ones you're most likely to meet:
| Variation | What changes |
|---|---|
| Jack of diamonds | J♦ is worth −10, so there's a card worth chasing |
| No passing round | Every fourth hand is played as dealt |
| Shoot the sun | Taking all 13 tricks scores −52 instead of giving 26 away |
| Omnibus | Combines the jack of diamonds with a moon variant |
| Play to 50 | A shorter game; the standard is 100 |
The version here is the standard one: pass left, right, across, hold; hearts and the queen only; game to 100.
Frequently asked
Can I play the queen of spades on the first trick? No. The first trick is safe. No hearts and no Q♠. If the queen is the only card you hold in a suit you can't follow, you may play her, but that's the only case.
When can hearts be led? Once hearts are "broken", meaning after someone has discarded a heart on a trick of another suit. If your hand is nothing but hearts, you may lead one regardless.
Does the winner have the most points? No, the fewest. Points are penalties. This trips up almost everyone the first time.
What happens on a tie? The tied players share the win. Some houses play a further hand to break it.
Is passing compulsory? Yes, on the three passing hands. You must pass exactly three cards, and you choose them before seeing what you're given.
Last updated 2026-09-02