Hearts: Rules, How to Play, and Tips for Avoiding Penalties

Hearts is a trick-taking card game for four players where the goal is to finish with the lowest score, not the highest. You avoid penalty points by not winning tricks that contain hearts or the queen of spades. A full game runs until one player reaches 100 points; the player with the lowest total then wins. This guide covers the deal, the pass, the order of play, scoring, shooting the moon, and the mistakes that quietly pile up penalty points. It assumes four players and a standard 52-card deck, which is the format 247 Games lists among its card game lineup.

The Objective and the Penalty Cards

Most card games reward you for taking tricks. Hearts inverts that: every heart you capture and the queen of spades are penalties you want to leave on the table.

There are 26 penalty points available in every round. Because the queen of spades alone is worth as much as all thirteen hearts combined, avoiding her matters more than dodging a single heart.

Dealing and Passing

1. Deal. Each player receives 13 cards, one at a time, face down. With four players the whole deck is dealt, so every card is in someone's hand.
2. Pass three cards. Before play begins, each player selects three cards and passes them face down to another player. The direction rotates by round:
   • Round 1: pass left
   • Round 2: pass right
   • Round 3: pass across
   • Round 4: hold (no pass)
   • Then the cycle repeats.
3. Choose your pass deliberately. This is the only moment you control which dangerous cards leave your hand. Dumping the queen of spades or high hearts here is often the difference between a clean round and a costly one.

The Order of Play

The player holding the 2 of clubs leads the first trick, and that card must be played to start. Play then proceeds clockwise, with each player following suit if they can.

• Follow suit. If you have a card of the led suit, you must play one.
• Void in a suit. If you have none of the led suit, you may play any card — including a heart or the queen of spades.
• Winning the trick. The highest card of the led suit takes the trick. The winner leads the next trick.

The First Trick Rule

Two restrictions apply to the opening trick:

• You cannot play a heart or the queen of spades on the first trick, even if you are void in clubs.
• You cannot lead a heart until hearts have been "broken" — that is, until a heart has already been played on an earlier trick.

Once a heart appears, hearts are live and can be led freely.

Scoring a Round

When all 13 tricks are played, each player counts the penalty cards in the tricks they won:

• Add 1 point per heart.
• Add 13 points if you took the queen of spades.
• A player who takes no penalty cards scores 0 for the round.

Scores accumulate across rounds. The game ends when a player reaches 100 points, and the lowest total wins.

Shooting the Moon

If one player captures all 13 hearts and the queen of spades — every penalty card in the round — that player "shoots the moon." Two outcomes are common:

• Standard: the shooter scores 0 and every other player adds 26 points.
• Variant: the shooter may subtract 26 from their own score instead.

Agree on which version you're using before the first deal, since it changes strategy dramatically.

Common Mistakes That Cost You Points

• Passing too passively. Keeping the queen of spades "just in case" usually backfires. If you can't safely hold her, pass her.
• Leading a low heart too early. Breaking hearts gives opponents an easy way to dump their penalty cards onto you.
• Forgetting the first-trick restriction. Trying to play a heart or the queen on trick one is illegal and forces a redo.
• Winning a trick you didn't need. Taking a trick with a high card when a lower one would have lost it hands you whatever penalty cards were played.
• Ignoring who is void. If a player has shown they're out of a suit, leading that suit invites them to dump hearts or the queen onto the trick.
• Missing the moon attempt. If an opponent is collecting every penalty card, you may need to take a trick deliberately to stop them — even at a small cost to yourself.

Quick Reference

• Players: 4
• Deck: standard 52 cards
• Goal: lowest score
• Penalties: 1 per heart, 13 for the queen of spades
• Game ends: when a player reaches 100 points
• Key rule: hearts can't be led until broken; no penalty cards on the first trick

Once you can track the queen of spades and read who is void in which suit, most of your penalty points disappear. Start with a few practice rounds focusing only on the pass and the first trick, then add moon-watching once the basics feel automatic.