Hearts is the great backwards card game: the only classic where the goal is to lose tricks. Four players, no partners, no trump — just thirteen hearts, one infamous Queen, and the constant temptation to gamble everything on shooting the moon. This guide covers the complete classic rules — passing, trick play, breaking hearts, scoring — along with the strategy that keeps the Queen of Spades off your back.
Objective
Hearts is played by four players, every player for themselves. Penalty points come from capturing hearts (1 point each) and the Queen of Spades (13 points). The game ends when any player reaches the end score — traditionally 100 points — and the player with the lowest total wins.
Setup
Use a standard 52-card deck, dealt out completely — 13 cards each. There is no trump suit; within each suit, cards rank Ace (high) down to 2.
The Pass
Before play, each player chooses three cards to pass face down. The direction rotates each hand in a four-hand cycle:
- Hand 1 — pass left
- Hand 2 — pass right
- Hand 3 — pass across
- Hand 4 — hold (no pass)
The pass is your first weapon: ship your dangerous high spades and lone high hearts to a neighbor — and remember that whatever arrives tells you something about the hand that sent it.
Playing the Hand
The first trick
Whoever holds the 2 of Clubs leads it to the first trick. Players must follow suit if they can. On this first trick no penalty card may be played — no hearts and not the Queen of Spades — unless a player's hand leaves no legal alternative.
Following suit and breaking hearts
The highest card of the suit led wins each trick, and the winner leads the next. If you cannot follow suit, you may discard anything — this is how the Queen finds her victims. Hearts may not be led until they are broken: until someone, unable to follow suit, has discarded a heart on a trick. (If your hand is all hearts, you may lead them.)
Scoring
- Each heart captured: 1 point
- The Queen of Spades: 13 points
- Shooting the moon — capturing all 13 hearts and the Queen: instead of taking 26 points, you give 26 points to every other player.
A hand where you take no penalty cards at all — a clean hand — scores zero, and stringing clean hands together is how games are won. Play continues until someone reaches the end score (100 classic; Double Eagle Apps: Hearts offers 50, 75, or 100), and the lowest total takes the game.
The Double Eagle twist
Our house variation adds one card worth wanting: the Jack of Diamonds is the gold-marked Double Eagle card, and capturing it takes ten points off your score. Suddenly one trick each hand is worth fighting for, and the pure dodge-everything game gains a second axis. It's toggleable — switch it off and the game is classic Hearts to the letter. (A minus-ten Jack of Diamonds is also a time-honored variant of tabletop Hearts, often called "Omnibus Hearts.")
Strategy & Tips
- Pass with a plan. High spades (Ace, King, Queen) and lone high hearts are the classic ships-out. But keep the Queen if she's guarded by several low spades — holding her can be safer than passing her to an enemy who now knows where she is.
- Create a void early. Emptying a side suit lets you discard dangerous cards — or the Queen herself — the moment that suit is led.
- Flush the Queen with spade leads. If you hold only low spades, leading them repeatedly forces the Queen's holder to either eat her or play ever-closer to dropping her.
- Count to thirteen. Track how many cards of each suit have gone by. Knowing the third round of clubs will be trumped-by-discard is what keeps 13 points off your plate.
- Take an early, cheap trick. Winning a heartless trick early is often fine — it hands you the lead when you need it and denies a moon-shooter their perfect sweep.
- Watch for the moon. If one player is quietly winning every heart, spend a high card to steal a single heart from them — one heart in your hand turns their +26 triumph into an ordinary bad hand for them.
- Respect the endgame score. Near the end score, the math changes: sometimes eating three hearts to keep the Queen off your plate — or to end the game while you're ahead — is the winning move.
- With the Double Eagle card on, plan the Jack of Diamonds like a mini-contract: winning that one diamond trick with a modest card is a free ten-point rebate — but don't wreck a clean hand chasing it.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is shooting the moon?
Capturing all 13 hearts and the Queen of Spades in one hand. Instead of taking 26 penalty points you give 26 to every other player — the biggest swing in the game. Miss a single heart, though, and you simply eat everything you collected.
When are hearts broken?
The first time a heart is discarded on a trick — possible only when a player can't follow the suit led. Until then, hearts may not be led (unless hearts are all you have).
What is the Double Eagle card?
An optional house twist in Double Eagle Apps: Hearts: the Jack of Diamonds is gold-marked, and its captor takes ten points off their score — one trick each hand worth fighting for. Toggle it off for classic Hearts to the letter.
Do the computer players see my cards?
No. All three AI opponents play only from what a human could see: their own hand, the cards passed to them, and the tricks on the table. Five difficulty levels, and none of them cheats — the Fair Play panel in Settings spells out the whole promise. The game is 100% offline, ad-free at launch, and has a seeded daily deal — the same cards for everyone on Earth.
More Game Guides
Master the rest of the classics with our other guides:
- How to Play Klondike Solitaire
- How to Play Poker — Texas Hold'em & Five Card Stud
- How to Play Spades
- How to Play Backgammon
- How to Play Chess & Checkers
- All Double Eagle games
Dodge the Queen. Chase the Eagle.
Double Eagle Apps: Hearts is coming soon to Google Play from Double Eagle Games — classic cut-throat Hearts against three honest AI, with the optional Double Eagle card twist. Fully offline, ad-free at launch.