Hearts is the classic trick-taking game of avoidance: unlike most card games, you are trying not to win the wrong tricks. Every heart costs you a point, the Queen of Spades costs thirteen, and the player with the lowest score when someone hits 100 is the winner. This page is a complete reference to how Hearts is played. If you'd rather learn by doing, you can play Hearts right now against three computer opponents.
What is Hearts?
Hearts is a four-player game played with a standard 52-card deck. There are no partnerships — it is every player for themselves. Aces are high and there is no trump suit. The goal is to dodge points across a series of hands, and the game ends when any player reaches the target score (100 on CardHearth). At that moment, the player with the fewest points wins.
The deal
All 52 cards are dealt out evenly, so each of the four players receives 13 cards. Nothing is left in a stock — every card is in someone's hand. You sort your hand, and then, before a single card is played, comes the pass.
The pass
At the start of most hands you choose three cards to pass face down to another player, and you receive three from someone else. The direction rotates hand by hand:
- Hand 1: pass left.
- Hand 2: pass right.
- Hand 3: pass across (to the player opposite you).
- Hand 4: no pass — you keep your hand (the "hold" hand).
Then the cycle repeats. You pick your three cards and pass them before you see what is coming back, so the pass is your first real decision: it is your chance to unload dangerous cards like the Queen of Spades, the Ace and King of Spades, or a long run of high hearts.
The two of clubs leads
The player holding the two of clubs must lead it to begin the first trick. Play then goes clockwise. Each player in turn plays one card, and you must follow the led suit if you hold a card in it. If you are void in the led suit, you may play any card — and that is exactly how you get rid of hearts and the Queen of Spades.
Winning a trick
The highest card of the led suit wins the trick — there is no trump, so off-suit cards (the ones you throw when you can't follow) can never win. Whoever wins the trick collects those four cards face down and leads the next trick. The cards you win don't help you; they are where your points come from.
The no-points-on-the-first-trick rule
You may not play any point card — no heart, and not the Queen of Spades — on the very first trick of a hand, unless your hand is somehow nothing but points. This keeps the opening trick safe and stops anyone dumping the Queen immediately.
Breaking hearts
You cannot lead a heart until hearts have been "broken". Hearts break the first time someone, unable to follow the led suit, discards a heart onto a trick. By default the Queen of Spades breaks hearts too — a common house rule — and you can turn that off in Settings if you prefer that only a heart breaks. Until hearts are broken, they can only be played when you are following suit or sloughing on another suit — never as the card that opens a trick.
Scoring
At the end of each hand, players count the point cards they took:
- Each heart is worth 1 point (thirteen hearts = 13 points).
- The Queen of Spades is worth 13 points on her own.
- Every other card is worth nothing.
So there are 26 points in play every hand. Points are bad: you want to take as few as possible. Scores accumulate across hands, and the game ends when someone reaches 100. The player with the lowest total then wins.
Shooting the moon
There is one spectacular exception. If a single player takes all 26 points in a hand — every heart and the Queen of Spades — they have shot the moon. Rather than scoring 26, that player scores zero and each of the other three players is hit with 26 points. It is a high-risk, high-reward gambit: miss by a single heart and you simply collect all those points yourself.
How you win
Hands continue until a player's running total reaches 100 or more. The game then stops and the lowest score wins. Because a single bad hand — or one successful moon shot against you — can swing 26 points, Hearts stays tense right to the end.
Frequently asked questions
Who leads the first trick in Hearts?
Whoever holds the two of clubs must lead it to start the first trick of every hand. Play then proceeds clockwise, and everyone must follow the led suit if they can.
What does "breaking hearts" mean?
You cannot lead a heart until hearts have been "broken" — that is, until someone, unable to follow suit, discards a heart onto an earlier trick. By default on CardHearth the Queen of Spades also breaks hearts (a common house rule), but you can switch that off in Settings so that only a heart breaks. Once hearts are broken, they may be led like any other suit.
What is shooting the moon?
If you manage to take every single point in a hand — all thirteen hearts and the Queen of Spades, 26 points in total — you "shoot the moon". Instead of taking 26 points, you score zero and all three opponents take 26 each. It is the game’s biggest swing.
Keep going
Now that you know the rules, play a hand of Hearts against the computer. When you want to start dodging points like a pro, read our Hearts strategy guide, see how it compares in Hearts vs Spades, try the partnership game in Spades, or browse everything in our guides hub.