# Hearts (card game)
**Hearts** is a trick-taking game played by three to five people, ideally four, whose players try not to capture tricks that hold heart cards; taking the queen of spades is penalized even more heavily.[1](https://www.pagat.com/reverse/hearts.html) • [2](https://nordiccardgames.com/game/hearts) It belongs to the Whist family of trick-taking games, alongside Spades and Bridge, but inverts the usual goal: instead of winning tricks, players try to duck the cards that carry penalties.[3](https://hearts.co/how-to-play-hearts) • [4](https://freecardgames.net/trick-taking/) The game first appeared at the end of the nineteenth century and is now popular in various forms in many countries.[1](https://www.pagat.com/reverse/hearts.html)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Players and deck | Most commonly 4 players, no partnerships; a standard 52-card deck, ace high, with no trump suit[1](https://www.pagat.com/reverse/hearts.html) |
| Penalty cards | Each heart taken is worth 1 point; the queen of spades is worth 13 points; all other cards score nothing[1](https://www.pagat.com/reverse/hearts.html) • [5](https://www.n0zb.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/cards.hearts.rules.pdf) |
| Breaking hearts | Hearts may not be led until a heart has been discarded on an earlier trick, unless the leader holds only hearts[1](https://www.pagat.com/reverse/hearts.html) |
| Shooting the moon | Taking all 13 hearts and the queen of spades (26 points) instead subtracts 26 from your score, or adds 26 to every other player's score[1](https://www.pagat.com/reverse/hearts.html) |
| Game target | American scoring: 1 point per heart, 13 for the queen of spades, no jack of diamonds bonus, game to 100 points[2](https://nordiccardgames.com/game/hearts) |
| Origin | Appeared in the United States in the 1880s, when each heart cost one point; deeper ancestry usually traced to the European avoidance game Reversis, though unverified[6](https://hearts.now/faq/where-does-hearts-come-from) • [7](https://veena.games/blog/hearts/hearts-from-reversis-to-the-windows-install-disc/) |
| Computer era | Microsoft Windows Hearts introduced millions of people to the game against computer opponents[6](https://hearts.now/faq/where-does-hearts-come-from) |
## Play
Each of four players receives 13 cards from the standard deck, and the hand plays out as 13 tricks of standard trick-taking without trumps: you must follow the led suit if you can, and the highest card of the led suit wins the trick.[8](https://biegames.com/blog/spades-vs-hearts/) • [4](https://freecardgames.net/trick-taking/) Because there is no trump, running out of a suit does not let you win tricks; it lets you throw dangerous cards, such as a high heart or the queen of spades, onto someone else's trick.[8](https://biegames.com/blog/spades-vs-hearts/)
**Passing.** Before play, players commonly pass three cards, and many versions rotate the direction: left, right, across, then a hand with no pass, before the cycle repeats.[8](https://biegames.com/blog/spades-vs-hearts/) • [9](https://worldofcardgames.com/hearts-card-game-tournament-rules) In the two-player game there is no pass; every hand starts straight at the first trick.[10](https://playboardgames.org/how-to-play/hearts)
**Breaking hearts.** Hearts are considered broken only after a heart has been played to a previous trick by a player unable to follow suit; until that happens, no one is allowed to lead with a heart.[1](https://www.pagat.com/reverse/hearts.html) • [11](https://playcards.co/rules/hearts) The exception is a player whose hand consists entirely of hearts, who may lead any heart and thereby break hearts.[1](https://www.pagat.com/reverse/hearts.html) Some tables treat any penalty card, including the queen of spades, as breaking hearts.[11](https://playcards.co/rules/hearts)
**First-trick restrictions.** On the first trick no one may play a heart or the queen of spades.[3](https://hearts.co/how-to-play-hearts) • [11](https://playcards.co/rules/hearts) The one hand that escapes this rule is a hand holding nothing but penalty cards, which is forced to play one.[10](https://playboardgames.org/how-to-play/hearts)
## Scoring and shooting the moon
When the hand ends, each heart taken adds 1 point to the taker's score and the queen of spades adds 13; the other cards have no value.[1](https://www.pagat.com/reverse/hearts.html) • [5](https://www.n0zb.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/cards.hearts.rules.pdf) Points are bad, and the lowest total at the end of the game wins, with the game commonly played to 100 points.[8](https://biegames.com/blog/spades-vs-hearts/) • [2](https://nordiccardgames.com/game/hearts)
Shooting the moon is the scoring's one dramatic reversal. A player who captures all 26 penalty points in a single hand, every heart plus the queen of spades, does not take 26 points; instead the score is reduced by 26, or, in the common alternative, every other player's score is increased by 26.[1](https://www.pagat.com/reverse/hearts.html) • [11](https://playcards.co/rules/hearts)
## History
Hearts, in the form played today, emerged in America during the 1880s, when every heart counted a single penalty point.[6](https://hearts.now/faq/where-does-hearts-come-from) In the original version, hearts were the only penalty card, and each heart was worth one penalty point; the queen of spades was added later.[12](https://hearts.co/history-of-hearts) By the late nineteenth century, English-language players had games called Hearts in which the heart suit carried penalty value.[7](https://veena.games/blog/hearts/hearts-from-reversis-to-the-windows-install-disc/)
The deeper ancestry is usually traced to [Reversis](https://www.edgepedia.org/reversis), an older European avoidance game; some accounts also suggest a Spanish origin played with a traditional 48-card Spanish deck and counter-clockwise rotation.[7](https://veena.games/blog/hearts/hearts-from-reversis-to-the-windows-install-disc/) • [12](https://hearts.co/history-of-hearts) The cleanest summary is that Hearts belongs to the European trick-avoidance family, and Reversis is the usual story, unverified, for its deeper ancestry.[7](https://veena.games/blog/hearts/hearts-from-reversis-to-the-windows-install-disc/)
Hearts later reached a vast audience through software. The version bundled with [Microsoft Windows](https://www.edgepedia.org/microsoft-windows) was for millions of people their first card game against computer opponents, and it made Hearts one of the most-played games in history.[6](https://hearts.now/faq/where-does-hearts-come-from)
## Variations
The same game is played in Australia under the name Rickety Kate.[1](https://www.pagat.com/reverse/hearts.html) Variations differ in passing, in when hearts may be led, and in extra scoring cards. Some versions add a jack of diamonds bonus, which American scoring omits.[2](https://nordiccardgames.com/game/hearts) In Spot Hearts, heart cards carry values based on their rank rather than a flat point each.[13](https://www.pagat.com/invented/hearts_vars.html) [Tournament](https://www.edgepedia.org/tournament) rules, used in the Hearts tournaments that Joe Andrews ran, remove the no-passing hand, cycling left, right, across, then left again, and allow a player holding only the queen of spades and hearts to lead a heart rather than being forced to lead the queen; the intent is to put less weight on luck and more on skill.[9](https://worldofcardgames.com/hearts-card-game-tournament-rules)
## Hearts and its relatives
Hearts, Spades, Bridge, Euchre, and Pinochle all belong to the Whist family of trick-taking games, but they differ sharply in objective and structure.[14](https://rarepike.com/pinochle/articles/vs-other-games/) Hearts is an avoidance game in which points are bad and the lowest score wins; Spades is a contract game in which players bid the number of tricks they will take, spades are always trump, and points are good.[8](https://biegames.com/blog/spades-vs-hearts/) Hearts has no bidding at all, and its players compete individually rather than in partnerships.[8](https://biegames.com/blog/spades-vs-hearts/) • [14](https://rarepike.com/pinochle/articles/vs-other-games/) Both games use a standard 52-card deck, deal 13 cards to each of four players, and play 13 tricks with a follow-suit requirement, which makes Hearts a slightly easier start for a new trick-taking player: the main rule, avoiding hearts and the queen of spades, is easy to keep in your head.[8](https://biegames.com/blog/spades-vs-hearts/)
## References
1. [Hearts - card game rules, pagat.com](https://www.pagat.com/reverse/hearts.html)
2. [Hearts Card Game Rules, Nordic Card Games](https://nordiccardgames.com/game/hearts)
3. [How to play Hearts, hearts.co](https://hearts.co/how-to-play-hearts)
4. [Trick-Taking Games: Hearts, Spades, Bridge, Euchre, Pinochle, freecardgames.net](https://freecardgames.net/trick-taking/)
5. [Hearts Rules (PDF), n0zb.com](https://www.n0zb.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/cards.hearts.rules.pdf)
6. [Where Does Hearts Come From? A Short History, Hearts.now](https://hearts.now/faq/where-does-hearts-come-from)
7. [Hearts History: Reversis to Windows, Veena Games](https://veena.games/blog/hearts/hearts-from-reversis-to-the-windows-install-disc/)
8. [Spades vs Hearts: Key Differences & Which to Play, BieGames](https://biegames.com/blog/spades-vs-hearts/)
9. [Hearts tournament rules, World of Card Games](https://worldofcardgames.com/hearts-card-game-tournament-rules)
10. [Hearts Rules: Passing, Points and the Queen of Spades, Play Board Games](https://playboardgames.org/how-to-play/hearts)
11. [Hearts Rules: Scoring, Passing & Shooting the Moon, Play Cards](https://playcards.co/rules/hearts)
12. [History of Hearts, hearts.co](https://hearts.co/history-of-hearts)
13. [Hearts Variations - card game rules, pagat.com](https://www.pagat.com/invented/hearts_vars.html)
14. [Pinochle vs Spades, Bridge, Hearts & Euchre, Rare Pike](https://rarepike.com/pinochle/articles/vs-other-games/)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Sports, games, and recreation › Board, card, and puzzle games › Card games › Traditional card games › Trick-taking card games*
*Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 21, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 21, 2026 · Last review: Oct 21, 2026*
*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*
License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license