How to Play Hearts: Rules, Passing and Scoring
Hearts is a trick-taking card game for four players where you try to take as few points as possible. Each heart you win is worth 1 point and the Queen of spades is worth 13. Everyone passes three cards, the 2 of clubs leads, and you must follow suit when you can. When someone reaches 100 points, the player with the lowest score wins.
What you need and the aim of the game
Hearts uses one standard 52-card deck and four players, each playing for themselves. Aces are high, so the cards rank from 2 (lowest) up to 10, Jack, Queen, King and Ace. There are no trumps: a trick is always won by the highest card of the suit that was led.
Unlike most card games, you don't want to win tricks. You want to avoid winning the ones with penalty cards in them: the 13 hearts and the Queen of spades. Points are bad, and the lowest total at the end wins. You can try every rule below in the GameLake Hearts game, where you play against Hops the frog and his pond friends Pip and Shelly.
The deal
Shuffle and deal the whole deck one card at a time, so each player gets 13 cards. Pick up your hand and sort it by suit; it makes the rest of the hand much easier. In the online game your cards are sorted for you, clubs, diamonds, spades and hearts from left to right, low to high.
Passing three cards
Before any card is played, everyone chooses three cards to pass to another player. All players pick first, then pass at the same time, so you can't use the cards you're about to receive to decide what to give away. The direction changes every hand:
- Hand 1: pass to the player on your left.
- Hand 2: pass to the player on your right.
- Hand 3: pass to the player across the table.
- Hand 4: no passing (a hold hand). Then the cycle starts again.
Most players pass their most dangerous cards: the Queen of spades, the Ace and King of spades, and high hearts. Passing all the cards of a short suit is clever too, because a suit you don't have lets you throw away bad cards later. There's much more on this in our Hearts strategy guide.
Playing the tricks
Whoever holds the 2 of clubs leads it to start the first trick. Play then goes to the left (clockwise), and each player puts down one card. Once all four cards are down, the trick is complete and the player who won it leads the next one. A hand has 13 tricks.
- Follow suit. If you have a card of the suit that was led, you must play one. You may choose which.
- Can't follow? Play anything. With no card of the led suit, you may play any card at all. This is when the Queen of spades and the hearts get thrown onto other players' tricks.
- Highest card of the led suit wins. Cards of other suits never win, however high they are.
- No points on the first trick. On the opening clubs trick you may not throw a heart or the Queen of spades, unless you have nothing else.
Breaking hearts
You may not lead a heart until hearts have been broken, which means a heart has already been played on an earlier trick by someone who couldn't follow suit (like Hops' 3 of hearts above). After that, anyone may lead hearts. The only exception: if your hand holds nothing but hearts, you may lead one anyway.
In GameLake's version, as in most American rules, the Queen of spades does not break hearts; only a heart does. The game simply won't let you lead a heart too early, and Hops tells you why if you try.
Scoring each hand
When all 13 tricks have been played, everyone counts the penalty cards in the tricks they won. The other cards are worth nothing.
| Card | Points |
|---|---|
| Each heart (2♥ to A♥) | 1 point, 13 in all |
| Queen of spades (Q♠) | 13 points |
| Every other card | 0 |
| Total in each hand | 26 points |
Shooting the moon
If one player takes all 26 points, every heart and the Queen, they have shot the moon: they score 0 for the hand and each of the other three players scores 26 instead. It's a big gamble, because taking 25 of the 26 points is a disaster. Our guide to shooting the moon in Hearts explains when to try it and how to stop it.
How to win the game
Add each hand's points to a running total. The game ends at the end of the hand in which someone reaches or passes 100 points. The player with the lowest total wins. If two players are tied for the lowest score, GameLake plays one more hand to break the tie.
A game usually takes six to ten hands. Keep an eye on the scores: when someone is close to 100, the leader often wants the game to end, and the others may need to dump points on the player in front.
Hearts rules at a glance
| Rule | How it works |
|---|---|
| Players and cards | 4 players, 13 cards each, Aces high, no trumps |
| Passing | 3 cards: left, right, across, then no pass |
| First lead | The 2 of clubs |
| Following suit | Required when you can; otherwise play any card |
| First trick | No hearts or Queen of spades (unless you have nothing else) |
| Leading hearts | Only after a heart has been played |
| Points | 1 per heart, 13 for the Queen of spades |
| Shooting the moon | Take all 26: you score 0, everyone else 26 |
| End of game | Someone reaches 100; lowest score wins |
Playing Hearts on GameLake
Choose Easy, Medium or Hard for how carefully Hops, Pip and Shelly play. On Easy they're often careless; on Hard they count every card played, smoke out the Queen of spades, block your moon shots and sometimes try one themselves.
- Teach me: Hops highlights the three cards he'd pass, or the card he'd play, and explains why in one short sentence. Coached games are practice, so they don't count as wins.
- Daily: everyone in the world gets the same deal and the same passes each day. Play one hand and try to beat par, the points Hops takes when he plays your seat.
- Online: play a friend or a table of up to four people. Hops and his friends fill any empty seats, and the table checks every card, so nobody can cheat.
- Classic look: a green felt table, white cards and a grey score window, like the Hearts that came with old desktop computers.
On a phone your 13 cards sit in two overlapping rows so every card stays big enough to read and tap. Cards you can't play are dimmed, so you can always see your choices.
Frequently asked questions
How many cards do you pass in Hearts?
Three. You pass to the left on the first hand, to the right on the second, across on the third, and keep your cards on the fourth, then the cycle repeats.
Who goes first in Hearts?
The player holding the 2 of clubs. They must lead it to start the first trick of every hand.
Can you play a heart on the first trick?
No. Hearts and the Queen of spades can't be played on the first trick, unless a player has no clubs and nothing but penalty cards.
How many points is the Queen of spades in Hearts?
13 points, the same as all thirteen hearts together. There are 26 points in every hand.
Do you want high or low points in Hearts?
Low. Points are penalties, and the player with the fewest points when someone reaches 100 wins the game.
What happens if you get all the hearts?
If you take all 13 hearts and the Queen of spades, you shoot the moon: you score 0 for that hand and every other player scores 26.