Hearts is one of the most popular card games. The game is played with a standard deck of 52 cards, with no jokers.
Rules for playing
- Deal out all the cards in the deck.
- Each player chooses 3 cards to pass on. In the first round you pass to the left, the second round to the right, the third round straight across and the last round there is no exchange.
- The player with the 2 of clubs starts the game by playing that particular card. Other players must then follow suit and place one card each into the pile.
- If you can’t follow suit, you can play any another card from your hand.
- In the first round, you are not allowed to play hearts or queen of spades.
- Heart cards may not be played until someone has managed to void suit and played a card of hearts.
- Whoever wins the trick may start the next move by placing any card.
- The round is over when all tricks have been played. You then count points where each heart card taken gives 1 point and the queen of spades gives 13 points.
- If someone succeeds in taking all the score cards, that person instead gets 0 points and the other players 26 points each.
- You play until a player reaches 100 points. Whoever then has the least number of points wins.
How to play Hearts
Even if the rules are quite clear it might be good to get a more detailed run down of how to play hearts, so here it is:
Deal out the cards
Each player is dealt 13 cards (for standard 4 players). The remaining cards form the “kitty” or “stock” pile.
If you’re only 3 players you deal each player 17 cards and remove 2 of Diamonds, while if you’re 5 players you deal 10 card each and remove 2 och Clubs. The rest of the rules of the game remain the same.
The players look at their cards and decide which cards to keep and which to pass to the other players. Typically, players will pass three cards to the player on their left, but you can also vary between left, right and opposite.
Opening play and first trick
The player to the left of the dealer starts the first trick by playing any card from their hand. The other players must then follow suit by playing a card of the same suit if they have one. If a player cannot follow suit, they may play any card they like.
The trick is won by the player who plays the highest card of the suit that was led. If more than one player plays the highest card, the trick is won by the player who played the first highest card.
The winner of the trick collects the cards and places them face down in a pile. They then start the next trick by playing any card they like.
The game continues until all 13 tricks have been played.
At the end of the game, the players count their points. Hearts are worth 1 point each, and the queen of spades is worth 13 points. The player with the fewest points wins.