Hearts House Rules: Who Plays What, and Our Defaults

The rules page gives the standard game. This page is for everything a table agrees before the first deal, or argues about after it. For each rule you’ll find the options, who plays them, and what the game on this site does. The printable rules have tick boxes for writing your table’s choices down.

The sources are the published rules: Pagat’s hearts pages, Bicycle’s rules, the US Playing Card Company’s Official Rules of Card Games (editions from 1898 to 1995), Foster’s Complete Hoyle (1914), John Hay’s rules, the Hoyle software rules, Microsoft’s help for the Windows game, and the rules of the big online games (World of Card Games, Trickster, CardGames.io, Whisthub, CardGames.club, Pogo’s old game and 247 Hearts).

The game’s house rules

Press ⚙ House rules above the table in the game to change any of these before you start. Against the computer they apply at once. Play with friends puts them in the link you send, and Quick match seats you with players who chose the same rules.

Two examples you can open straight away: the Windows game’s rules (the moon always adds 26 to the others), and the queen of spades breaking hearts.

Does the queen of spades break hearts?

This is the argument hearts players have most often, and the published rules are split about evenly.

• No, only a heart breaks hearts: Pagat’s main rules, Microsoft’s help for the Windows game, CardGames.io, Whisthub, and the Hoyle software. The game on this site, by default.
• Yes, the queen breaks hearts too: Bicycle’s rules, Trickster’s and Pogo’s defaults, World of Card Games, and a variant in Pagat.

CardGames.io’s rules page explains why it settled on “no”: when its game let the queen break hearts, it had complaints, and when it changed, it had more. Agree on it before you play.

Two smaller questions follow from it:

• If the queen does break hearts, does she break them when someone follows suit with her on a spade lead? World of Card Games says yes, whenever she’s played. Bicycle and Trickster speak of the queen being discarded, which would only cover a player who can’t follow suit. In the game here, with the switch on, any play of the queen breaks hearts.
• May the queen be led before hearts are broken? Yes in Bicycle, World of Card Games and CardGames.io, and in the game here. Trickster’s basic rules don’t allow any point card to be led until hearts or the queen have been played.

Shooting the moon

When one player takes all 13 hearts and the queen of spades, they score nothing for the hand instead of 26. Tables then score it one of four ways:

• The shooter chooses +26 to each other player or −26 from their own score: Pagat’s main rules, Pogo’s old game, John Hay and the Cavendish club. This site’s default.
• Always +26 to the others: Bicycle, the Windows game, the Hoyle software, CardGames.io, Whisthub and 247 Hearts.
• Always −26 from the shooter: a Trickster option, a Pagat variant, and the 1943 rule book’s New York Hearts.
• Best for the shooter: +26 to the others unless that would end the game without the shooter winning, then −26: Trickster’s default and a John Hay variant.

All four are settings in the game. Shooting the moon works through the same hand under each.

Shooting the sun, winning every trick, earns 52 in Pagat’s variations, John Hay’s rules and Pogo’s old game, and 39 on World of Card Games. Bicycle, the Windows game, CardGames.io and Trickster don’t score it, and neither does the game here: it counts as a moon.

Points on the first trick

• No hearts and no queen of spades on the first trick, even from a player with no clubs: Bicycle, the Windows game, World of Card Games, CardGames.io, Trickster, Whisthub, CardGames.club, Pogo’s old game and 247 Hearts. This site’s default.
• Allowed: Pagat’s main rules (which give the ban as something “some play”), the US Playing Card Company’s rule book, John Hay and the Cavendish club.
• World of Card Games’ “first-trick hearts” option lets a player with no clubs throw a heart, but never the queen.

A player with no clubs and nothing but point cards has to play one of them. Pagat, Trickster, Whisthub and CardGames.club let them play any point card; World of Card Games makes it a heart, never the queen. The game here plays it World of Card Games’ way: a heart. Such a hand always has a heart in it.

Passing

• Left, right, across, then a hand with no pass: Pagat, World of Card Games, Trickster, CardGames.io, Whisthub, CardGames.club, Pogo’s old game, John Hay and the Cavendish club. The Windows game also skipped every fourth pass. This site’s default.
• Left, right, across, with no hold hand: a Pagat variant, World of Card Games’ “tournament rules” and a Trickster option.
• Always to the left: Foster’s 1914 Complete Hoyle, the 1926 Hoyle and the 1943 rule book’s New York Hearts. The Hoyle software passes left too, with options.
• Always to the right: the US Playing Card Company’s rule book (1972 to 1995 editions).
• Right first, then left, then across: 247 Hearts, the only source that starts to the right.
• Other ways to pass: one card to each other player (the “scatter”, in Pagat, John Hay and Pogo’s old game), pooling and redealing the passed cards (Pagat, John Hay), or no passing at all (a Trickster option, and the oldest rule books).

The game offers the first three and no passing. Every source except 247 Hearts has you look at your cards before you pass; 247 Hearts says real-life players must pass without looking, and no other source does.

The first lead

• The holder of the two of clubs leads it: Pagat, Bicycle, the Hoyle software, the Windows game and every online game. This site’s game.
• The player to the dealer’s left leads any card: the US Playing Card Company’s rule books, Foster’s Complete Hoyle, the Cavendish club, and the British game Black Maria. Pagat calls it the original rule, still played by some. With the hearts-broken rule in force, Pagat says that lead may be anything but a heart.

The game here always starts with the two of clubs.

Leading hearts

• Hearts can’t be led until a heart has been played, unless the leader holds only hearts: every modern source. Pagat says nearly everyone in the USA plays this way.
• Hearts may be led at any time: the old rule books, the Cavendish club and Black Maria. Pagat calls it the original rule.
• A leader with only hearts and the queen of spades, before hearts are broken: World of Card Games’ standard game makes them lead the queen; Pagat says many people allow a heart instead, as do World of Card Games’ tournament rules and John Hay. The game here allows a heart.

Must the queen be played at the first chance?

The US Playing Card Company’s rule book requires a player holding the queen of spades to discard her at the first opportunity, and the Cavendish club’s money-game rules punish a failure with 26 points. Both are old forms; the rule book itself says the rule is often set aside in social play, and Pagat gives it only as something some players insist on. Bicycle’s current rules say the queen doesn’t have to be discarded at the first opportunity, no online game requires it, and neither does the game here.

How long is a game?

• To 100: almost every source, and this site’s default.
• To 50: Bicycle (“some play to 50”), 247 Hearts and CardGames.club’s game; an option on Pogo, Trickster and Whisthub.
• To 75: a setting on PlayOK’s tables.

The game offers 100, 75 and 50. Whatever the target, the game ends after the hand in which someone reaches it, and the lowest score wins.

Landing exactly on the target. Some tables reward a player who lands exactly on 100: Pagat reports their score going back to 50 (or to zero), John Hay lists several versions, and Pogo and Trickster had options for it. The game’s switch puts a score that lands exactly on the target back to half of it. It’s off by default.

Ties

When the game ends with two or more players tied for the lowest score:

• Play more hands until one is lowest alone: Pagat’s variations, John Hay, Pogo’s old game and CardGames.io. This site’s default.
• The tied players share the win: World of Card Games and Trickster.

The jack of diamonds (Omnibus Hearts)

In Omnibus Hearts, one diamond is a bonus card that takes points off whoever wins it.

• Jack of diamonds, minus 10: Pagat, Pogo’s old game (an option), Trickster (minus 5 or minus 10), and the 1943 rule book’s New York Hearts. PlayOK’s tables have a checkbox for it.
• Ten of diamonds, plus 10 to the winner’s credit: the US Playing Card Company’s rule book, which names the jack as a local variant; John Hay gives either card.
• 247 Hearts calls the jack a 10-point penalty, against every other source.

The game’s switch makes the jack of diamonds worth minus 10. A moon is still all 13 hearts and the queen of spades, and the jack counts separately for whoever took it, as in Pagat. See the moon and the jack.

Playing like the Windows game

Many people learned hearts on the game that came with Windows. Microsoft’s help for the Windows 7 version describes the same game as this site’s default, except for the moon: three cards passed (with no pass every fourth hand), the two of clubs leads, no hearts or queen on the first trick, hearts broken only by a heart, and the game over at 100. A moon always gave the other players 26 points.

To play that way, set Shooting the moon to +26 to the others, or open this link.

The old rule-book game

How the game changed over the century is told on the history page.

The US Playing Card Company’s Official Rules of Card Games (the 1972, 1989 and 1995 editions share the same text) describes “Hearts (Black Lady)” quite differently from today’s game: three cards passed to the right, the player to the dealer’s left leading any card, no rule against leading hearts, the queen of spades discarded at the first opportunity, and the score settled between players after each deal instead of played to 100. There is no moon in it; only the Omnibus version has a take-all. Older still, the 1898 edition has hearts without the queen at all, with only the hearts counting.

Other house rules

Rules some tables play that the game here doesn’t offer:

• Taking no tricks at all earns −5 (an option in Pogo’s old game, and in John Hay’s list).
• The queen of spades counts for something other than 13, or not at all (Trickster has an option for no queen; Pagat’s Spot Hearts and Da Nasty Fix use other values).
• Spot Hearts: each heart counts its face value. Black Maria, the British game, usually for three: in one of its scorings the king and ace of spades count too. Cancellation Hearts: two decks for 6 to 10 players. These are separate games, described on the variations page.