{"id":206,"date":"2026-04-20T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-04-20T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/example.com\/?post_type=card_game&amp;p=2"},"modified":"2026-04-20T12:00:00","modified_gmt":"2026-04-20T12:00:00","slug":"hearts-rules","status":"publish","type":"card_game","link":"https:\/\/playerules.com\/?card_game=hearts-rules","title":{"rendered":"Hearts"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">What Is Hearts?<\/h2>\n\n\n<p>Hearts is a classic four-player card game where you&#8217;re trying to AVOID taking certain cards. Every heart is worth 1 penalty point, and the Queen of Spades is worth a whopping 13 points. The player with the lowest score when someone hits 100 points wins. But here&#8217;s the twist \u2014 if you&#8217;re brave enough to collect ALL the hearts AND the Queen of Spades in one round, you &#8216;Shoot the Moon&#8217; and everyone ELSE gets 26 points instead.<\/p>\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">What You Need<\/h2>\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>A standard 52-card deck<\/li><li>Exactly 4 players<\/li><li>Paper and pen for scoring<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Setup<\/h2>\n\n\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Deal all 52 cards, 13 to each player.<\/li><li>Before playing, everyone picks 3 cards from their hand and passes them face-down to the next player. In round 1 you pass left, round 2 you pass right, round 3 you pass across, round 4 you keep your cards (no pass). This pattern repeats.<\/li><li>Look at the cards you received from your neighbor before you start.<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">How to Play \u2014 Step by Step<\/h2>\n\n\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>The player holding the <strong>2 of Clubs<\/strong> goes first and must play it.<\/li><li>Going clockwise, each player must play a card of the <strong>same suit<\/strong> as the first card played. If you don&#8217;t have that suit, you can play any card.<\/li><li>The player who played the highest card of the suit that was led wins all four cards and takes them into their &#8216;pile.&#8217;<\/li><li>The player who won the trick leads the next one \u2014 they pick any card to start (with one restriction: see below).<\/li><li>Play continues until all 13 tricks are played.<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">The Heart Rule<\/h3>\n\n\n<p>You cannot lead (start a trick) with a heart until someone has already played a heart on a previous trick. This is called &#8216;breaking hearts.&#8217; The Queen of Spades can be played at any time \u2014 even on the very first trick.<\/p>\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Shooting the Moon<\/h3>\n\n\n<p>If you manage to win ALL 13 hearts AND the Queen of Spades in a single round, instead of getting 26 penalty points, every other player gets 26 points and you get 0. This is called &#8216;Shooting the Moon&#8217; and it completely flips the game. It&#8217;s risky but powerful.<\/p>\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Scoring<\/h2>\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Each heart in your pile = 1 penalty point<\/li><li>Queen of Spades in your pile = 13 penalty points<\/li><li>All other cards = 0 points<\/li><li>Shoot the Moon = you score 0, everyone else scores 26<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n<p>Add up penalty points after each round. Keep a running total.<\/p>\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Winning<\/h2>\n\n\n<p>When any player hits 100 points, the game is over. The player with the LOWEST total score wins.<\/p>\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Strategy Tips<\/h2>\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><strong>Get rid of the Queen of Spades fast.<\/strong> If you have it, pass it to another player or dump it early when you can&#8217;t follow suit.<\/li><li><strong>Pass high spades like Ace and King<\/strong> \u2014 they might force you to win the Queen later.<\/li><li><strong>Void a suit on purpose.<\/strong> If you have no clubs, you can dump hearts or the Queen of Spades whenever clubs are led.<\/li><li><strong>Watch for Moon attempts.<\/strong> If one player is winning every trick with high cards, play your highest card to stop them.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=qRoY3gSIYzk\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><strong>\u25b6 Watch: How to Play Hearts (YouTube)<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Avoid taking hearts and the Queen of Spades. Lowest score wins \u2014 but dare to take them ALL and flip the game.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"game_category":[2],"game_tag":[],"class_list":["post-206","card_game","type-card_game","status-publish","hentry","game_category-classic-games"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/playerules.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/card_game\/206","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/playerules.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/card_game"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/playerules.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/card_game"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/playerules.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/card_game\/206\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/playerules.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=206"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"game_category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playerules.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fgame_category&post=206"},{"taxonomy":"game_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playerules.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fgame_tag&post=206"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}