RULES FOR HEARTS: Players and Cards Hearts is most commonly played by 4 people. There are no formal partnerships, though there are times when players will find it in their interest to help each other. A standard 52 card deck is used, with the cards in each suit ranking as usual from ace (high) down to two (low). There is no trump suit. Each heart is worth one penalty point and the queen of spades is worth 13 penalty points. The other cards have no value. Object of Game The object is to avoid scoring points. The game is ended by someone reaching or going over 100 points, and the winner is the player with the lowest score at this point. Deal and Passing Deal and play are clockwise. All the cards are dealt out one at a time, so that everyone has 13. On the first hand, after the deal, each player passes any three cards face-down to the player to their left. When passing cards, you must first select the cards to be passed and place them face-down, ready to be picked up by the receiving player; only then may you they pick up the cards passed to you, look at them and add them to your hand. On the second hand each player passes three cards to the player to their right, in the same way. On the third hand each player passes three cards to the player sitting opposite. On the fourth hand no cards are passed at all. The cycle then repeats until the end of the game. The Play of the Hand The person who holds the 2 of clubs must lead it to the first trick. The other players, in clockwise order, must play a card of the suit which was led if possible. If they do not have a card of that suit, they may play any card. The person who played the highest card of the suit led wins the trick and leads to the next trick. It is illegal to lead a heart until after a heart has been played (as a discard) to another trick, unless your hand contains nothing but hearts. Discarding a heart, thus allowing hearts to be led in future, is called breaking hearts. In general, discarding a penalty card on a trick is called painting the trick. A player whose hand consists entirely of hearts may lead any heart, even if hearts have not yet been broken. Although it is illegal to lead hearts until they are broken, players are permitted to lead spades. In fact it is a normal tactic to lead lower spades to try to drive out the queen. This is sometimes known as smoking out the queen. Scoring Normally, each player scores penalty points for cards in the tricks which they won. Each heart scores one point, and the queen of spades scores 13 points. However, if you manage to win all the scoring cards (which is known as a slam or shooting the moon), your score is reduced by 26 points, or you may choose instead to have all other players' scores increased by 26 points. The game continues until one player has reached or exceeded 100 points at the conclusion of a hand. The person with the lowest score is then the winner. Variations Passing Different passing cycles may be used, for example: pass left, pass right, pass across, then repeat (no hold hand); scatter instead of hold (players pass one card to every other player); both scatter and hold hands are played (the cycle is left, right, across, scatter, then hold). Some play that players are not required to pass any cards if they do not wish to. They simply pass on the cards that were passed to them without looking at them. This could result in a player getting their own cards back. Play of the Hand Some players allow hearts to be led at any time. This was the original rule, but in the USA nearly everyone now plays that heart leads are forbidden unless hearts have been broken. The original rule was that player to the left of the dealer always leads to the first trick (rather than the holder of the 2 of clubs leading it), and may lead any card. Some people still play that way. If you play with the now usual restriction on leading hearts then the opening lead can be anything but a heart. Some play that is illegal to play points on the very first trick, unless of course you have you have nothing but penalty cards in your hand. Some play that the Queen of Spades breaks hearts. In other words, hearts may be led anytime after the Queen of Spades or any heart has been played. If hearts have not been played and a player is on lead holding nothing but hearts and the Queen of Spades, many people allow hearts to be led, instead of forcing the player to lead the Queen of Spades. Some players insist that you must play the Queen of Spades as soon as it is safe to do so. This could be when you are void in the suit led or to a spade trick when the Ace or King of Spades has already been played. Scoring Many people play that the Jack of Diamonds (or sometimes the Ten of Diamonds) is a bonus card, counting minus 10 points for the person taking it. With this form of scoring, the game is known as Omnibus Hearts. To shoot the moon, you need all the hearts and the Q, and as usual you can choose to have 26 points deducted from your score or added to everyone else's; in addition to this, 10 points are deducted from the score of the player who took the Jack of Diamonds (who may be the same player as the shooter). Shooting the sun is taking all the tricks (as opposed to taking all points). Some score this as 52 points with the scoring handled in the same as shooting the moon. There are variations on the choice of scores for shooting the moon. Possibilities are: the shooter always has 26 points deducted; all the other players always have 26 points added; all the other players always have 26 points added unless this would cause one of them to win, in which case the shooter has 26 points deducted. For some people, reaching certain scores has a special effect. For example if your score is exactly 100 points at the end of a hand, it is reduced to 50 (or zero). If a player reaches or exceeds 100 points and there is a tie for low score, additional hands may be played until there is a clear winner. Partnership Hearts There are two ways that four players can play hearts in fixed partnerships, partners sitting opposite each other. Partners keep their tricks together. On each hand your team scores the total number of penalty points you have taken in your tricks. A slam occurs if one team takes all 14 penalty cards in a hand, they can choose give the opponents 26 penalty points or to subtract 26 penalty points from their own score. Each player keeps an individual score, and in order to "shoot the moon", an individual player has to win all the penalty cards. The game continues until an individual player's score reaches 100 or more; then the scores of the partners are totalled and the partnership with fewer points wins. Thus it is possible for your team to win even if it is you who go over 100. For example you have 105, your partner has 34, and your opponents have 78 and 69, then your team wins by 139 points to 147. Other Numbers of Players The game may be played with either three or five players. There are various ways of coping with the fact that the cards cannot all be dealt out equally to the players: Deal the cards out as far as they will go evenly. There will be one or two cards left over. These cards are called the kitty; they are placed in the middle of the table face down. The player who takes the first trick (or alternatively, the first penalty point) takes these cards and places them with their captured cards (they may look at them first). If it happens that the 2 is in the kitty, the holder of the lowest club not in the kitty must lead it (if no one has the 2, ask if anyone has the 3, then the 4, and so on). As in method 1 above, but the person who takes the first point or trick adds these extra cards to their hand and discards an equal number of cards face down into their tricks. With three players, remove the 2 from the deck, leaving 51 cards. With five players also remove the 2, and the holder of the 3 leads it to the first trick. In the 3 player game, the passing may follow any one of these patterns: Left, right, hold, repeat. Left, right, repeat. If you pass 4 cards instead of 3 you can also scatter by passing 2 cards to each other player. You could then include scattering in either of the above rotations. In the 5 player game, the passing could follow any of these patterns: Left, right, hold, repeat. Left, right, repeat. Left, right, 2nd person to the left, 2nd person to the right, hold, repeat. Left, right, 2nd to the left, hold, left, right, 2nd to the right, hold, repeat.