Since it's difficult to tell whether another player will play a Heart or the Queen of Spades after you, usually, you want to avoid taking tricks altogether, even if no point cards have been played yet. All other cards are worth no points, so you may collect these without fear. The cards that are worth points are the Hearts and the Queen of Spades. In Hearts, like in golf, all players want to gain the lowest amount of points possible - whoever has the fewest points at the end wins. In most cases, since we usually don't want to win hands, we'll probably play the Five.Īvoid Hearts and the Queen of Spades. The Ace will win the hand for us because it's the highest card of the same suit as the lead card, while the Five won't beat the Queen.

So, for example, if the person who led the trick played a Queen of Diamonds and we have an Ace of Diamonds and a Five of Diamonds in our hand, we have to play one of these Diamonds.

For example, the Ace of Clubs is the most powerful Club, followed by the King of Clubs, the Queen, and so on.

In each suit, the cards are ranked from the Ace (the highest value) on down, with 2 being the lowest value.

As we'll see below, usually, you don't want to win tricks. Whoever wins the trick leads the next trick - play proceeds in this way until all players have no more cards in their hands. After all players have played a card, the highest-ranking card that matches the suit of the card that led the trick 'wins' and the person who played that card takes all the cards in the trick and keeps them face down in a pile in front of him or herself until the end of the hand. Once you're sure everyone has the same number of cards, remove the leftovers from the game without looking at them and shuffle them back into the deck before the next hand.Īvoid taking tricks by trying not to play the highest-ranking card during the trick.

Note that, if you're playing with a number of people other than 4, you may have leftover cards at the end of dealing.

The deal proceeds to the original dealer's left at the start of each hand.

The first dealer is either pre-determined or selected via some other method - for example, having players draw cards at random, the lowest being the first to deal.

Players are all dealt the same number of cards - usually by having one player deal in a circle until no cards remain. X Research source Other than your cards, all you'll need is some scratch paper (or something else to write on) and a pen to record your score. Hearts uses a normal 52 card deck (minus Jokers). Hearts is a versatile game - it can be played by 3-7 players, though 4 is the standard number. The player with the lowest score wins.Grab a standard deck, a few friends, and some scratch paper. Hearts is played to 100 points, when a player reaches this score, the game ends. If a player has won all 13 hearts and the Queen of Spades, that player can choose to subtract 26 points from his score, or to add 26 points to every other player's score. Scoring: At the end of each hand, the number of hearts a player has taken, is counted they count for 1 point each. The Queen of Spades can be led at any time.

Hearts may not be led until a heart or the Queen of Spades has been played (this is called 'breaking' hearts). The winner of the trick gets all the cards and starts the next trick.

The highest card of the suit led wins a trick (there is no trumps in this game). Exception: If a player has no clubs when the first trick is led, a heart or the Queen of Spades cannot be played. If a player has no cards in the suit led, a card of any other suit may be discarded. Each player must follow suit if possible. Playing tricks: The player holding the 2 of clubs (after the passing) plays that card to start the first trick. This rotation repeats until the game ends. to the player on your left, 2 to the player on your right, 3 to the player across the table, 4. All players must pass their own cards before looking at the cards received from an opponent. Passing: After looking at his or her hand, each player chooses three cards and passes them face down to another player.

Card game of hearts free