Hearts — rules card

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Hearts 4 players · one 52-card pack THE IDEA • Every heart you take is 1 point and the Queen of Spades is 13. Points are BAD. • When somebody reaches the target, the player with the FEWEST points wins. THE DEAL AND THE PASS • Before each hand you pass three cards face down: left, then right, then across, then a hand where nobody passes at all. • The hold hand has to exist. Without it the pass direction never repeats and one seat is always handing to the same person. • The player holding the lowest club leads the first trick, and must lead that card. PLAYING A TRICK • You must follow the suit that was led if you hold it. Cards you may not play go grey. • The highest card of the SUIT THAT WAS LED takes the trick. A high card of another suit wins nothing. • Whoever takes the trick leads the next one. THE TWO RESTRICTIONS • On the very first trick you may not throw away anything that scores — no heart, no Queen of Spades — unless that is the whole of what you are holding. • Nobody may LEAD a heart until a heart has already been played on some other suit. That is "breaking" hearts. The exception is the same: unless hearts are all you hold. SHOOTING THE MOON • Take EVERY point in the hand — all thirteen hearts and the Queen — and it flips: you score nothing and everybody else takes the lot. • Missing by one card is the worst hand in the game, which is why it is a gamble and not a plan. WHAT THE TABLE TELLS YOU • A card you may not play is greyed rather than hidden, so the rule can be learned by watching which cards dim. • A finished trick pauses before it clears, so the last card can actually be read. WORDS THIS GAME USES Trick — One card from each player, played in turn. Somebody takes it, and taking it is usually what you are trying to avoid. Lead — To play the first card of a trick. The suit you lead is the suit everybody else must follow. Follow suit — To play a card of the suit that was led. You must, if you can. Void — Holding no cards at all in a suit. Being void lets you throw away anything you like when that suit is led — which is how the Queen gets handed to somebody. Breaking hearts — The first time a heart is played on a trick led in some other suit. Until that happens nobody may lead a heart. Shooting the moon — Taking every single point in a hand on purpose, which reverses the scoring. The Lady — A common nickname for the Queen of Spades. She is thirteen points on her own — more than every heart put together. WHERE THESE CAME FROM Pagat.com — Hearts. The de facto authority for the folk card games. Hearts has no governing body and no official rulebook. w.richardpringle.com/games/hearts/ ▲ FOLD ▼ ▲ FOLD ▼ ▲ FOLD ▼ FOLD & TEAR