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Hearts Rules in Plain Words

These are the standard published rules, rewritten in plain words. Hearts is a backwards game: points are bad, and the low score wins.

What the game is

Hearts is a trick-taking game where you are trying not to win certain cards. Every heart you take costs you a point, and the Queen of Spades costs you thirteen. The winner is the player with the lowest score when the game ends.

Players: 4 is the classic game (Bicycle's rules also list versions for 3 to 6, with cards removed so the deal comes out even). Ages: 8 and up.

What you need: one standard 52-card deck. Cards rank Ace high down to 2 low. There is no trump suit.

Setting up and the pass

Deal all the cards, one at a time — 13 to each player in the four-player game.
Before play, each player chooses three cards and passes them face down to another player. The direction rotates in a four-hand cycle: first hand pass left, second hand pass right, third hand pass across, fourth hand pass nothing ("hold hand"). Then the cycle starts over.
You must hand over your three cards before you look at the cards passed to you.

How a hand is played

The player holding the 2 of Clubs must lead it to the first trick.
Going clockwise, each player plays one card. You must follow suit — play a card of the suit led — if you have one. If you have none, you may play any card.
The highest card of the suit led takes the trick. That player gathers the cards and leads the next trick.
First trick safety: no heart and not the Queen of Spades may be played on the first trick — unless a player's whole hand is nothing but penalty cards, the rare exception.
Hearts cannot be led until they are "broken" — until some player, unable to follow suit, has thrown a heart onto a trick of another suit. A player who holds only hearts may lead one anyway. The Queen of Spades does not break hearts under the standard rules.

Scoring and winning

At the end of the hand, count the penalty cards you took: each heart = 1 point; the Queen of Spades = 13 points. There are 26 points in every hand. Add them to your running total — remember, points are bad.
Shooting the moon: if one player takes every penalty card — all 13 hearts and the Queen — the hand flips. See the box for the two printed ways of scoring it.
The game ends when a player reaches 100 points (some play to 50). The player with the lowest score wins.

Official rule or house rule?

Shooting the moon — how it is scored: The two standard references print it differently, so here are both, labeled. Bicycle's rules: the shooter scores zero for the hand and each opponent adds 26 points. Britannica's rules: the shooter chooses — either subtract 26 from their own total, or add 26 to everyone else's. Pick your book's version before the game.

Omnibus Hearts — the Jack of Diamonds bonus (labeled variant): In the popular Omnibus variant, the player who takes the Jack of Diamonds scores minus 10 points — a prize instead of a penalty. Britannica notes some tables use the 10 of Diamonds instead of the Jack. Everything else plays the same.

Passing patterns: The left–right–across–hold cycle is the standard. Some computer versions and house games pass left every hand, or drop the hold hand. The printed cycle is the one above.

Does the Queen of Spades break hearts? Not in the standard game — only a heart discarded on another suit breaks them. A few house games count the Queen as breaking hearts too. That is a house rule.

The 2 of Clubs must open: Standard rule, not optional. The first trick is always started with the 2 of Clubs by whoever holds it.

Common questions

Can I lead the Queen of Spades?

Yes. The ban is only on leading hearts before they are broken. Spades, including the Queen, may be led at any time.

I won a trick with hearts in it by accident. Do I have to take the points?

Yes — points in tricks you take are yours, wanted or not. That possibility is the whole game.

What if I take all the hearts but someone else took the Queen?

That is not shooting the moon. You score your 13 hearts and the other player scores the 13 for the Queen, as normal.

Can hearts be played on the first trick if I have only hearts and the Queen?

Yes — the exception. A player whose hand is nothing but penalty cards may play one on the first trick, having no legal alternative.

Sources: Bicycle Cards, "How to Play Hearts" (bicyclecards.com/how-to-play/hearts), and Encyclopaedia Britannica, "Hearts" (britannica.com/topic/hearts-card-game). Read in full and rewritten in our own plain words. Where the two disagree — shooting the moon — both versions are printed above with their sources named.