Hearts Rules

Hearts is a four-player trick game with no trump, where the goal is to avoid winning tricks that hold penalty cards: every heart and, above all, the Queen of Spades (the "Black Lady" or "Black Maria").

♥ Play it now: open Hearts against three computer players.

Players and cards

• 4 players, each for themselves. (Variants exist for 3 to 6.)
• A standard 52-card pack, A high to 2 low. There is no trump suit.
• All cards are dealt, 13 each. Play goes clockwise.

Passing

After looking at your cards, choose three to pass, face down:

The cycle then repeats. You must choose your cards before looking at the ones passed to you.

Playing

• The player holding the 2♣ leads it to the first trick.
• Follow suit if you can; otherwise play any card. The highest card of the suit led wins the trick, and the winner leads next.
• First trick: no hearts and no Q♠ may be played on it, unless a player has nothing else.
• Breaking hearts: hearts may not be led until a heart has been played on another suit, unless the leader has only hearts.

Scoring

Shooting the moon: a player who takes all 13 hearts and the Q♠ scores 0, and every other player scores 26.

The game ends when someone reaches 100 points (or 50 for a short game). The player with the lowest score wins.

Common variants

• Jack of Diamonds: taking the J♦ is worth −10.
• Some allow the Q♠ on the first trick, or let the Q♠ break hearts.
• Shooting the moon can sometimes be scored as −26 for the shooter instead.

Cheettukali uses the standard rules above, the same as the classic Windows Hearts.

FAQ