The objective of Hearts is to score the fewest points by avoiding hearts and the queen of spades.
Hearts is a 4-player trick-taking card game played with a single deck. The objective of the game is to score the fewest points by avoiding hearts-suited cards and the queen of spades. Hearts also includes a twist, known as shooting the moon. Instead of avoiding hearts and the queen of spades, you can attempt to collect them all. If you succeed, all your opponents are penalized instead of you!
Passing cards: At the beginning of each hand, you and your opponents are each dealt 13 cards face down. After looking at your hand, you must pass 3 cards from your hand face down to another player.
The player receiving your cards is determined by the passing rotation. For the first hand, you must pass to the player on your left. For the second hand, you must pass to the player on your right. For the third hand, you must pass to the player across the table. And for the fourth hand, no cards are passed. This rotation repeats until the match ends.
Taking tricks: The player holding the 2 of clubs must lead the hand by playing that card. On your turn, you must play a card of the same suit as the first card led. This is known as following suit.
Once each player has played a card, the player with the highest card played of the suit led collects all 4 cards, known as a trick. The collected trick is not placed in your hand; it is only used at the end of the hand to determine your score. Cards are ranked from 2 (low) to Ace (high).
If you have no cards of the suit led, you may play any card. However, you may not play a heart or the queen of spades on the first trick unless you have no other playable cards in your hand. Playing the first heart or the queen of spades in the hand when no other hearts have been played is known as breaking hearts.
If you win a trick, you lead the next trick. You may play any card, except you are not allowed to lead with a heart until hearts has been broken. The trick-taking cycle repeats until all of the hearts and the queen of spades have been played.
