Hearts

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For other uses, see Hearts (disambiguation).

Hearts
Players	3-5
Age range	6 +
Setup time	1 min
Playing time	20-50 minutes
Random chance	Medium
Skills required	Card Counting Strategy

Hearts (also Black Lady, Chase the Lady and Black Maria)^[1]^[2] is a trick-taking playing card game for four players (although versions for other numbers are possible). A standard deck of 52 playing cards is used. The objective of the game is to have the fewest points at the completion of the game. Tricks containing any heart and the queen of spades give points to the winner of the trick. There are no trumps.^[3]

1 Methodology
2 Strategy
3 Variations
4 References
5 External links

Methodology

Dealing

Thirteen cards are dealt singly in turn to each of the four players.

When there are only three players, the 2♣^[1] or 2♦^[2]^[3] is removed from the deck before play commences, and each player receives 17 cards.
When there are five players, the 2♣ and the 2♦ are both removed, and each player receives 10 cards.^[1]^[2]^[3]

Passing

Before the first round commences, each player chooses three cards from their initial thirteen and passes them face down to the player on their right.^[1] The three cards are picked up and absorbed into the neighbour's hand. Players may not look at the cards they are to receive before passing their own cards.

There are many variations on the passing rules:

Cards may be passed to the left rather than to the right.^[1]
On alternate deals the cards are passed to the left and then the right.
On the first deal cards are passed to the left, on the second deal they are passed to the right, on the third deal they are passed to the player sitting opposite, this sequence being repeated for every three deals.^[3]
On the first deal cards are passed to the left, on the second deal they are passed to the right, on the third deal they are passed to the player sitting opposite, on the fourth deal no cards are passed, this sequence being repeated for every four deals.^[3] (This is the sequence used by the Windows version of the game for PCs).
In the basic game of Hearts, no cards are passed before play commences.^[1]

Other variations on the passing rules include:

The queen of spades may not be passed.^[1]
When there are more than four players, only two cards are passed.^[1]

The play

The player to the left of the dealer leads to the first trick and the other players play a card in turn clockwise. Players must follow suit, when they are able to, but may play a card from any other suit, when they cannot. The player who plays the highest card of the suit led, takes the trick and leads for the next trick.

Common variants include:

The player holding the 2♣ must lead it to begin the first trick.
No penalty card (a heart or the queen of spades) may be played on the first trick.
Hearts may not be led until they have been "broken" (discarded on the lead of another suit), unless the player on lead has only hearts remaining.

Scoring

Each heart won in a trick scores 1 penalty point against the player winning the trick, and the player winning a trick containing the queen of spades scores 13 penalty points. Therefore, there are 26 penalty points in each deal. The game ends either when one player reaches 100 points or after a predetermined number of deals or time has passed. In either case, the winning player is the one with the fewest penalty points.^[4]

Simplified scoring with chips is possible: all players contribute one chip to a central pool of chips and the pool is divided equally between those players taking no penalty cards on a deal; if all players take penalty cards, the pool remains on the table and is added to the next pool; once one player has won all available chips, or once another player has run out, the game ends.

There are many scoring variants including:

The 10♦ or J♦ is a "bonus" card, subtracting 10 penalty points from the player who captures it.
A player reaching exactly 50 or 100 points subtracts 50 points from his score.
Different points are allocated to each penalty card.
The A♠ can also be a penalty card, and sometimes also the K♠ and 10♠.
Higher penalties for the high hearts (e.g. A♥=5, K♥=4, Q♥=3, J♥=2).

Shooting the moon

Shooting the moon is a very common scoring variant. If one player takes all the penalty cards on one deal, that player subtracts the total number of penalty points available (normally 26) from their previous total score. Alternatively, 26 penalty points can be added to each of the other three players' scores.

Attempting to shoot the moon is often a risky strategy, as failure to capture even one of the penalty cards will result in the remaining penalty points (as many as 25) being added to one's score. This element of risk, along with the aspect of reaping success through a spectacular failure, has led to a number of cultural uses of the phrase "shoot the moon."

Strategy

Main article: Hearts Strategy

Hearts strategy starts with the passing stage. The pass can be used to void a suit but this may not be the best strategy as the void may be filled with (higher) cards passed in; this is especially dangerous with spades and hearts. Passing high clubs and diamonds, even voiding these suits is perceived by many to be the best passing strategy.

During the play, strategy will vary from hand to hand but, where a player seems destined to take some tricks, it is often best to take tricks early before others have become void in the suit concerned.

Another important aspect of Hearts is teamwork. As there is typically one leader and all the other players trailing, the most advanced strategy appears when the trailing players team up to give the leader points. Playing the queen and other point cards only when the player with the lowest score can take them, passing favorable cards to trailing players, and setting up the leader all require teamwork and unselfish play.

Deciding to shoot the moon is a critical decision that can be "make or break," as success is worth 26 good points whereas failure risks up to 25 bad points.

Variations

Wikibooks has a book on the topic of

Hearts

Hearts (Windows) - the PC version of the game
Complex hearts - scoring uses complex numbers, while trying to keep the absolute value of your score less than 100.
Double Deck Cancellation Hearts – good for six or more players.
Chinese Hearts (拱猪) (Pinyin-gŏng zhū, literally "chase the pig") – scoring works slightly differently as the queen of spades and the hearts are worth different amounts of penalty points. In addition, the ten of clubs and jack of diamonds both have functions. Shooting the moon now takes into consideration these two additional cards. ^[5]
Booster Nines – if a nine is played then an extra round in the suit is played.^[6]
Joker Hearts – adding the joker cards, which can be played any time and count for zero points.^[7]
Shooting the Sun – taking all the tricks, not just all the points, gives all other players 52 points.^[8]