Hearts

Hearts Quick Facts

• 1Hearts is a trick-avoidance card game where each heart card is worth 1 penalty point and the Queen of Spades is worth 13 penalty points, for a total of 26 penalty points per round.
• 2Shooting the Moon in Hearts means collecting all 26 penalty points (all 13 hearts plus the Queen of Spades) in a single round, which gives 26 penalty points to every other player instead.
• 3Hearts is traditionally played by exactly 4 players using a standard 52-card deck, with each player receiving 13 cards.
• 4The 2 of Clubs must be played to start the first trick in Hearts, and hearts cannot be led until a heart has been played on a previous trick, a rule known as "breaking hearts."
• 5Hearts became widely popular as a computer game after Microsoft included it in Windows 3.1 in 1992, introducing millions of players to the trick-avoidance format.
• 6In Hearts, players pass three cards to another player before each round begins. The passing direction rotates: left, right, across, then a round with no passing.
• 7The player with the lowest total score at the end of a Hearts game wins. Games typically end when any player reaches or exceeds 100 penalty points.