Rules

How to play Hearts

Updated September 2026 · 4 players · About 30 minutes

Hearts is a trick-taking game for four where the object is to lose. You are trying to avoid taking hearts and the queen of spades — unless you decide to take every single one of them, which is where the game gets interesting.

There is a practice hand further down if you would rather learn by playing than by reading.

What you need

Four players, each for themselves, and a full 52-card deck. Cards rank A high down to 2. There is no trump suit.

The deal

Deal the whole deck out, thirteen cards each.

Passing

Before play, everyone chooses three cards from their hand and passes them face down, picking up the three passed to them only after their own have gone. The direction rotates each hand:

1. First hand — pass to the left
2. Second hand — pass to the right
3. Third hand — pass across
4. Fourth hand — no passing at all

Then the cycle repeats. Passing is most of the skill in Hearts: you are trying to void a suit or get rid of high spades without handing someone else an easy hand.

Playing the tricks

Whoever holds the two of clubs leads it — always, every hand. Play proceeds clockwise. You must follow suit if you can. If you cannot, you may play anything, subject to the two restrictions below. Highest card of the led suit takes the trick, and the winner leads the next.

Scoring

At the end of each hand, count what you took:

Points are bad. The game ends when someone reaches 100, and the player with the lowest score wins.

Shooting the moon

If one player takes all thirteen hearts and the queen of spades — all 26 points — they have shot the moon. Instead of taking 26, every other player takes 26. Some groups let the shooter choose to subtract 26 from their own score instead; agree which before you start.

Shooting is rarer than beginners think and more common than experienced players allow for. The defense is simple and easy to forget: if someone looks like they are taking everything, take one trick, any trick.

Hearts is easier to understand than it is to play, because the instinct that serves you in every other card game — win the trick — is exactly wrong here. Below is a full hand against three opponents. Cards you cannot legally play are faded.

Watch the running total. After each trick the trainer says whether you could have ducked, which is the habit worth building.

Three things beginners get wrong

Keeping high spades

The ace and king of spades are dangerous. If you hold them and the queen is still out, you will eventually be forced to play one into a spade trick and collect her. Pass them away or play them early.

Passing three high cards of the same suit

It feels safe and it hands one opponent control of that suit. Spread the risk, or pass with a purpose — voiding yourself in a suit is usually worth more.

Forgetting the game is about the long run

Taking four points to stop someone shooting the moon is an excellent trade. Playing each hand to score zero, regardless of what the others are doing, loses games.

Common variations

• Jack of diamonds — taking it subtracts 10 points.
• No passing on every fourth hand is standard; some groups drop it.
• Playing to 50 for a shorter game.
• Three or five players — remove cards so the deck deals evenly.