Hearts Card Game Rules: Passing, Scoring and Shooting the Moon

In most trick-taking games you fight to win tricks. Hearts flips that around: you want to avoid them, or at least avoid the ones holding hearts and the dreaded Queen of Spades. The lowest score wins, and one daring move called shooting the moon can turn a disaster into a triumph. Here's how to play.

Setup

• 4 players, each playing alone (3–6 is possible with small changes).
• A standard 52-card deck; aces are high.
• Each player gets 13 cards.
• There is no trump suit.

Passing cards

Before each hand, every player chooses 3 cards to pass. The direction rotates:

1. Pass left
2. Pass right
3. Pass across
4. No pass (keep your hand)

Then the cycle repeats. Passing is where good players get rid of dangerous cards like the Queen, King or Ace of Spades, or high hearts.

Playing tricks

1. In the most common rules, whoever holds the 2♣ leads it to the first trick.
2. You must follow suit if you can. If you can't, you may play any card. This is how you dump penalty cards on other players.
3. The highest card of the suit led wins the trick. With no trumps, off-suit cards never win.
4. No points on the first trick: most rules say you can't play a heart or the Q♠ on the opening trick.
5. Breaking hearts: you can't lead a heart until hearts have been "broken" (someone discarded one) or you have nothing else.

Scoring

Some versions also include a bonus card, usually the jack of diamonds (sometimes the ten), which subtracts 10 points from whoever wins it. Our Card Hero app plays with the jack of diamonds as a bonus.

The game ends when someone reaches 100 points. The player with the lowest score wins.

Shooting the moon

If you win every heart and the Queen of Spades in a single hand (all 26 points), you've "shot the moon". Instead of taking 26, every other player takes 26 (or, under some rules, you subtract 26 from your own score). It's risky: fall one heart short and you've taken a huge penalty yourself.

7 Hearts strategy tips

1. Pass the Q♠ unless you hold plenty of spades. With four or more low spades you can often protect her safely.
2. Void a suit when passing. Getting rid of all your clubs or diamonds lets you dump hearts later.
3. Lead low spades to "smoke out" the Queen if you don't have her.
4. Keep low hearts. They let you duck under other players' hearts later in the hand.
5. Watch for a moon attempt. If one player is taking every point, make sure someone else wins one heart.
6. Count the spades. Once the Ace and King of Spades have gone, the Queen is much harder to hide.
7. Don't win tricks late with high cards. The last tricks often carry the most hearts.

Related games

Hearts is part of the same family as Spades and Callbreak, but with the goal reversed. The version with the Q♠ is traditionally called Black Lady; see Wikipedia's Black Lady article for the variants.

Play Hearts offline

Practise passing and moon-shooting against smart computer players in Card Hero or Card Adda, free and fully offline.

FAQ

What is the goal of Hearts?

To have the lowest score when someone reaches 100 points, by avoiding tricks that contain hearts and the Queen of Spades.

How many points is the Queen of Spades in Hearts?

The Queen of Spades is worth 13 penalty points; each heart is worth 1.

What does shooting the moon mean?

Winning all 13 hearts and the Queen of Spades in one hand. Instead of scoring 26 yourself, each opponent scores 26.

Who leads first in Hearts?

In most rules the player holding the two of clubs leads it to start the first trick.

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