Hearts (Card Game)

Hearts is a trick-taking card game that is often compared to Bridge in its simplicity and elegance. However, it is simpler and more direct than Bridge or Spades, which makes it easier for children to learn. The game usually has four players.

Gameplay[edit]

The game uses a regular deck of playing cards, with the jokers removed.

On each trick, the "leader" player plays a card from his hard. All other players must "follow suit" by playing a card of that suit from their hands, unless a player does not have any cards of that suit. In that case a player can play a card of any suit, with one exception: it is generally not allowed to "break hearts" (play a heart card) until someone has led a heart as part of a normal trick, unless a player only has hearts in the hand. The highest card of the suit led (the ace is the highest possible card, the two the lowest), takes the trick.

At the end of the game, when all 13 hands have been played, the players tally their scores. Each heart taken by a player is one point, and the Queen of Spades, or "Old Maid", is 13 points. However, if one player manages to take all the cards, then he has successfully "Shot the Moon", and everyone else is awarded 26 points as a penalty.

The opening play of each round generally rotates among the players (either clockwise or counter-clockwise).

The game is over after a set number of rounds, or when one player accumulates one hundred points, depending on how long a game you want to play. The player with the lowest score wins.

Variations[edit]

Hearts does not have as many variations as Bridge or Go Fish, but there are a couple of regional variations that can be used if players get bored with the regular game.

• Armstrong: There are no point cards. The first player to successfully shoot the moon wins the game.
• Hearst: Kings and Queens have reversed ranks, so that the order of ranks is 2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10-J-K-Q-A. This makes it much harder to get rid of the Old Maid, because there are fewer cards that beat Q. This variant is usually played like Mao, where one player doesn't know the secret rule and the other players try to score points based on that player breaking the rules.