Card Games
How to play Hearts
Avoid taking hearts and the queen of spades in your tricks. Every heart costs a point, the queen costs thirteen, and when someone reaches the target the lowest total wins. Take every penalty card in one hand, though, and the damage lands on everyone else.
By K.R. · Updated October 2026 · Sources and editorial process
What you need
- One standard 52-card deck, no jokers.
- Four players, each playing for themselves. Three or five also work with small adjustments (see below).
- A score sheet with a column per player. Scores only go up, so a running total per column is all you need.
- Roughly 45 minutes for a game to 100. Bicycle notes some groups play to 50 for a shorter session.
Cards rank ace high down to 2 in every suit, and there is no trump suit at all. The only cards that matter for scoring are the thirteen hearts (1 point each) and the Q♠ (13 points). That is 26 penalty points in every hand.
Set up the game
- Deal. Shuffle and deal the whole deck one card at a time, face down, clockwise. Each of four players gets 13 cards.
- Three or five players. Bicycle removes the 2♦ for three players (17 cards each) and the 2♣ for five players (10 cards each). With the 2♣ out, the 3♣ opens.
- Agree the pass. Most American tables pass three cards before play: left on the first hand, right on the second, across on the third, no pass on the fourth, then repeat. Choose your three cards and place them face down before you pick up the ones coming to you.
- Agree the target. 100 is standard. Write it on the sheet.
Playing Hearts
- Open with the 2♣. After the pass, whoever holds the 2♣ leads it to the first trick.
- Follow suit. Each player in turn, clockwise, must play a card of the suit led if they have one. If not, they may discard any card.
- Win the trick. The highest card of the suit led wins. A discard of another suit never wins, however high. The winner takes all four cards face down, including any hearts or Q♠ someone threw in, and leads next.
- First-trick protection. Under Bicycle's rules, a player with no clubs on the opening trick may not discard a heart or the Q♠ on it.
- Breaking hearts. Hearts may not be led until a heart or the Q♠ has been discarded on an earlier trick. The Q♠ itself may be led at any time, and you are never required to dump it at the first chance.
- Score the hand. After 13 tricks, each player counts 1 point per heart and 13 for the Q♠ in the tricks they won. Add to the running totals.
- Shooting the moon. If one player takes all 13 hearts and the Q♠, Bicycle scores that player 0 and adds 26 to every opponent instead.
- End of game. When any player reaches or passes the target at the end of a hand, the lowest total wins.
A sample round, trick by trick
Four players: Ana, Ben, Cal and Dee, seated clockwise. It is the first hand, so everyone passes three cards to the left.
The pass. Ana holds the Q♠ with only two other spades (8♠ 3♠). With so few spades to hide behind, she is at risk of being forced to win the queen, so she passes Q♠, A♥ and K♦ to Ben. Ben, now holding the Q♠ with five other spades, is reasonably safe; long spades protect the queen.
- Trick 1. Cal has the 2♣ and leads it. Dee plays K♣, Ana 9♣, Ben 4♣. Dee wins with the king. No points, because nobody is allowed to throw a heart or the queen on the opening trick.
- Trick 2. Dee leads 5♦. Ana plays 3♦, Ben plays K♦ (the card Ana passed him), Cal plays 7♦. Ben wins. Still no points.
- Trick 3. Ben wants to flush out spades to see where the danger is, but he holds the queen, so he leads a safe low club, 6♣. Cal plays 10♣. Dee is out of clubs and discards 9♥, which breaks hearts. Ana plays 8♣. Cal's 10♣ is the highest club, so Cal takes the trick and its 1 point.
- Trick 4. Cal leads 2♥, now legal. Dee plays 5♥, Ana plays J♥, Ben plays A♥. Ben's ace wins four hearts: 4 points.
- Trick 5. Ben leads J♠. Cal plays A♠ and wins the trick, which is exactly what Ben wanted: the ace of spades is gone. Ben now has only the king to fear.
A few tricks later Ben has run out of diamonds. Dee leads A♦, hoping it's safe, and Ben discards the Q♠ on it. Nobody else can beat the ace in diamonds, so Dee wins the trick and takes 13 points. That is the whole game in one moment: the queen goes to whoever wins the trick, not to whoever played it.
Scoring, with a worked example
At the end of the hand, each player counts the hearts and the Q♠ in the tricks they won:
| Player | Hearts taken | Q♠ | Hand score | Running total |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ana | 2 | no | 2 | 2 |
| Ben | 7 | no | 7 | 7 |
| Cal | 4 | no | 4 | 4 |
| Dee | 0 | yes | 13 | 13 |
| Check | 26 | |||
Always add the hand column. If it isn't 26, someone miscounted.
Shooting the moon. A few hands later, Ben takes all thirteen hearts and the Q♠. Under Bicycle's rule, Ben scores 0 for that hand and Ana, Cal and Dee each add 26. Many apps and home games instead let the shooter choose between that and subtracting 26 from their own score; Pagat lists both. Settle which one you use before you start.
Ending. Suppose after nine hands the totals are Ana 64, Ben 101, Cal 58, Dee 77. Ben's total has passed 100, so the game ends and Cal wins with the lowest score.
Beginner strategy that actually helps
- Pass dangerous high cards, not just points. A♠ and K♠ are risky because they can capture the queen. High hearts are risky because they win heart tricks late. Low cards are your friends.
- Empty a short suit. Passing away all your diamonds, say, lets you discard penalty cards whenever diamonds are led. Being void is the most powerful position in Hearts.
- Keep the queen if you have plenty of spades. Five or more spades with the queen is usually safe; you can play low spades under others until the ace and king are gone.
- Lead low spades to "smoke out" the queen when you don't hold A♠, K♠ or Q♠. Someone holding the queen with few spades may be forced to play it on your trick, but only if a higher spade from someone else wins it.
- Track the 26. Keep a rough count of hearts played. Late in a hand, knowing that only the 2♥ and 3♥ remain can turn a scary lead into a safe one.
- Stop a moon early. If one player has taken every point so far, take a heart yourself even if it costs a point. Losing 1 is far better than losing 26.
- Get rid of high cards early in a suit. On the first round of clubs or diamonds, points are rarely thrown because most players can still follow. That's the safest moment to dump your ace or king.
Common mistakes and rule disputes
- "The queen of spades is a trump." There are no trumps in Hearts. The Q♠ only wins a trick if spades were led and it is the highest spade played.
- Throwing points on the first trick. Bicycle forbids a heart or the Q♠ on the opening trick when you are void in clubs. Some groups allow it; the official Bicycle answer is no.
- Does the queen break hearts? Under Bicycle, yes: hearts can be led once a heart or the Q♠ has been discarded. Pagat's main description only mentions hearts, and lists the queen-breaks-hearts rule as a common variation. Agree on it.
- Leading a heart when holding only hearts. Pagat explicitly allows this even if hearts haven't been broken; you have nothing else to lead.
- Picking up passed cards before choosing yours. Choose and place your three cards first, then look at what you received.
- Ending as soon as someone reaches 100 mid-hand. Finish the hand and count everything; the game ends at the end of that hand.
Popular variants and house rules
These change the game from the Bicycle version; label them clearly before play.
- Omnibus Hearts: the J♦ (sometimes the 10♦) is worth −10 to whoever takes it.
- Shooting the sun: taking every trick, not just every point, scored as 52 in some groups.
- Exactly 100 resets: landing exactly on 100 drops you to 50 or 0 at some tables.
- Black Maria: the British cousin, often for three players, where some versions also give the K♠ and A♠ penalty values.
- Partnership Hearts: partners opposite, combining their penalty points.
- Different pass cycles: left, right, across with no hold hand, or a "scatter" pass of one card to each opponent.
Teaching it in 5 minutes
A host script that works for most tables:
- "Everyone plays for themselves. Low score wins, so points are bad."
- "Every heart you win is one point. The queen of spades is thirteen. Nothing else counts."
- "Follow the suit that was led if you can. If you can't, throw anything. That's your chance to dump hearts or the queen on someone else."
- "Highest card of the led suit wins. There are no trumps."
- "The 2 of clubs starts. Nobody can throw points on that first trick."
- "You can't lead hearts until someone has thrown one."
- "Before each hand we pass three cards: left, right, across, then keep. Pass away your scary high cards."
- "One twist: if you take every heart and the queen, everyone else gets 26 instead of you. We play until someone hits 100."
Ages and group size
Four players is the classic game. Three or five players works with Bicycle's card-removal rule, though five-player hands of ten cards are noticeably swingier. Children around 9 or 10 can play once they reliably follow suit; the strategy of passing and voiding suits comes with experience. Bicycle lists Hearts as 13+, which is a reasonable age for the shoot-the-moon tactics to make sense. It is a good bridge game for families: no partners to let down, and short hands.
Frequently asked questions
Can I lead the queen of spades before hearts are broken?
Yes. Bicycle permits the queen to be led at any time. Only hearts themselves are restricted.
Do you always pass three cards?
Most American groups do, rotating left, right, across and hold. Bicycle's page does not define a rotation, so agree it before dealing.
What happens when you shoot the moon?
Under Bicycle, you score 0 for that hand and each opponent adds 26. Some groups let you subtract 26 from yourself instead.
Do I have to play the queen of spades as soon as I can?
No. Bicycle says the queen does not have to be discarded at the first opportunity.
What if two players tie for lowest when someone hits 100?
Bicycle doesn't say. Pagat notes that many groups play additional hands until there is a clear winner.
How do you play Hearts with three people?
Remove the 2♦ and deal 17 cards each. Everything else stays the same.
Can you throw a heart if you can follow suit?
No. You must follow the suit led if you can. You only get to discard hearts when you are out of that suit.
Check yourself
Clubs are led on trick 6 with the 5♣. You have no clubs. Can you play the Q♠?
Yes. It's not the first trick, and you can't follow suit, so you may discard anything, including the queen.
A spade trick is played: 10♠, Q♠, K♠, 4♠. Who takes the 13 points?
The player of the K♠, the highest spade played. The queen goes with the trick.
One hand's scores add to 25. What went wrong?
A heart was missed in someone's count. Every hand totals 26.
Sources and edition notes
Bicycle Cards four-player Hearts: no trump, 2♣ opening lead, no hearts or Q♠ on the first trick for a player void in clubs, hearts unleadable until a heart or Q♠ is discarded, Q♠ leadable any time, 100-point finish, shoot-the-moon scored as 0 for the shooter and 26 to each opponent. The pass rotation and the variants come from Pagat's description of American Hearts and are labelled as conventions.
Sources checked October 2026. This records a document check, not a claim of hands-on testing.
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