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Hearts (♥) is one of the four suits found in playing cards.
It is the second-highest-ranking suit in contract bridge.
Hearts is a popular trick-taking game played with a standard deck of cards, in which the goal is to have the lowest number of points. The game is normally played with four players, but can also be played, sometimes with small modifications to the rules, with a different number of people. Unlike some trick-taking games, such as Euchre and Bridge each hearts player keeps score as an individual rather than playing in a partnership.
Each hand consists of the following phases:
Which player deals has no effect on play, but dealership is normally rotated left with each new hand. In a four-player game, the deck is dealt to exhaustion.
For other numbers of players, non-heart cards are either removed from the deck (3c, 2d, etc.) to make the number of cards divisible by the number of players, or remaining cards can be placed into a "kitty"; the player winning the first trick with penalty cards will receive the card(s) in the kitty as if they were taken in a pass.
In most rounds of hearts (3 out of 4 in 4-player hearts) each player passes three cards to another player, and receives 3 to replace them. Players must select which cards they will pass before viewing the cards passed to them.
The pass sequence, repeating every four rounds, is as follows:
In the "dealer's choice" variant of Hearts, the dealer has the choice of how many cards are passed and to whom. For example, the dealer could declare that each player passes 2 cards to the left, and 1 to the right.
Play is standard trumpless trick-taking. The first lead is usually determined by the 2 of clubs; the person holding this card leads it to the first trick.
Some players prefer to have the first lead determined according to dealership (i.e. the person right of the dealer) instead of the 2 of clubs, because having the 2 of clubs denies its holder one trick's worth of strategic liberty; otherwise, he could lead something more appropriate to his strategy.
All Hearts and the Queen of Spades are penalty cards which players desire to avoid. Hearts may not be led until a penalty card is played; this is called the "breaking of hearts". Usually, this occurs either when the Qs is played under the Ks or As or a heart is ruffed out-of-suit.
Most players disallow the play of penalty cards on the first trick, though this rule is relatively modern addition.
Taking a trick does not give a player any points unless there are point cards in the trick. Each heart counts for one point (for a total of 13 points), and the Queen of spades by itself counts for another 13 points. Thus 26 points are distributed among the players each hand. The goal is to avoid taking points, and the fewer point cards taken, the better. However, if a player takes all 26 points in the hand (known as shooting the moon), the reverse situation occurs; he or she subtracts 26 from their point total (a variation of this rule is to have the player who shoots the moon receive zero points and all the other players get 26--in either case, shooting the moon is a very positive outcome for a player).
In some variants you can lose 52 points (or have all other players gain 52 points), by taking all tricks in the deal. This is called "shooting the sun".
The game is played until one or more players has passed a predetermined point threshold (usually 100 points). The player who holds the fewest points at the end of that hand is declared the winner.
Hearts is classified, in references such as Hoyle's Rules of Games, as a children's game, but, in fact, there is depth to the game.
Heart's strategic element first appears in the 3-card player-to-player pass. Intuitively, the function of this pass is to rid one's hand of undesirable cards, or to get a head start on clearing a suit. However, this is not always the best strategy. For example, imagine a hand containing the 3, 4, and King of Spades. It would seem that to pass these spades would be a great decision; it would rid the hand of a usually undesirable card (the King) and open a void in the spade suit. Yet in fact, most Hearts players would consider this a poor decision; were this player passed a Queen, and no other spades, he would now hold a singleton Queen, one of the worst hand configurations in the game.
Holding the Queen of spades is considered desirable if the Queen is "protected" by at least three other spades. If this is not the case, the QS is a liability and should be ruffed at the first possible opportunity. Low (2, 3, 4) hearts are considered highly desirable, high hearts and spades (Q, K, A) very undesirable. To a lesser extent, lower cards of each suit are desirable, though when the JD bonus is used, high diamonds are actually desirable. Finally, the 2C is considered slightly undesirable; always played to the harmless first trick, it can't be used as a "ducker", and it deprives its holder to exercise any strategic liberty on the first turn. Finally, balanced hands (4-3-3-3 suit split) are undesirable because they make it difficult to clear a suit.
The above criteria of desirability, one should note, only apply to a player not desiring to "shoot the moon". Otherwise, many of these criteria are reversed. A hand that appears "doomed" may be excellent for the purpose of moon-shooting.
During play, a common strategy is to attempt to clear a suit, or to make a void in it so that potentially dangerous cards can be ruffed to future tricks of that suit. A singleton or doubleton is relatively easy to clear; while a 3- or 4-card suit can be cleared, doing so may exhaust most or all of the cards in that suit, and then the clearing thereof is useless.
Early in a round of hearts, players often try to take the lead when they believe they can do so safely, because of the liberty offered by having the lead. Later, as penalty cards begin to emerge, players try to lose tricks. Often a player taking the lead late in a round of Hearts will be stuck with it.
The element of risk involved in shooting the moon is one of the appeals of the game, since a player may attempt to get all 26 points and fail by only getting 24 or 25, in which case the player suffers a massive penalty. This element provides much of the appeal of the game, along with the cutthroat aspect associated with a player holding the queen of spades possibly having the option of dropping it on another player's trick. Often the player who has the fewest points (and is thus leading) is the one people try to give the queen to; however, there is always the risk of giving it a player who then uses it as part of shooting the moon. Players must always be on the lookout for another player trying to shoot the moon, in the hopes that they can stop it. In addition, the element of passing cards allows players to attempt to control their destiny and influence that of their fellow players.
When a large number of players are present, play with more than 1 deck. There are still a total of 26 points per deck. If the same card is played more than once to the same trick, they "cancel" and the highest remaining card of the suit led wins the trick. If all cards of the suit led cancel, then the person who led to that trick leads again to the next trick, and the winner of that trick gets credit for both tricks. (but this is very rare) If the last trick is completely cancelled, any points it contains are not scored for that hand. Shooting the moon is theoretically possible in this variant, but almost impossible to attain.
When playing cancellation hearts, it is key to remember what cards are no longer cancellable, as they are dangerous to play. For those unwilling to memorize each card played, you can sort your hand and then move a card to the left side of your hand when its counterpart is played. If you are not in the lead or near the lead, you should consider leading the ace of hearts or queen of spades, knowing that the person holding the matching card will gladly cancel it. Of course, this play is risky.
Some people play that the jack of diamonds counts for -10 points. This card is normally not required to shoot the moon. In some books, this card is the ten of diamonds.
In this variant, instead of each heart card counting for one point, the higher hearts are a larger penalty than the lower hearts. Usually, 2-10 count for their pip value, jack 11, queen 12, king 13, ace 14, and the queen of spades counts for 25. Some people play that 2-10 are worth pip value, the face cards 10 each, ace 15, and the queen of spades counts for 25. Shooting the moon may be worth either the sum of all the cards combined, or the rule may simply not be observed.
Due to the higher point value, a higher game-ending score, such as 500, must be chosen when this variant is played.
Complex hearts is a Hearts variant using the complex number system for scoring. Play rules are no different than those of conventional Hearts. Hearts earn their captor 1 point a piece, the Queen of Spades earns <math>13i<math>, and the Jack of Diamonds earns -10 points. The Ten of Clubs (which in some Hearts variants doubles any penalties assessed) provides a <math>2i<math> multiplier on a player's score for the round.
The loser of a game is the first player whose score, in absolute value, exceeds 100. The winner is the player whose absolute value is smallest. (The absolute value of a complex number <math>a + bi<math> is <math>\sqrt{a^2 + b^2}<math>.)
This means that the Jack of Diamonds is not always a benefit card, nor are the traditional penalty cards always bad. For example, netting the Ten of Clubs and the Queen of Spades will result in a score change of -26, possibly counteracting some unwanted Hearts. Likewise, a player with a negative score (in terms of the real part) would be penalized for taking the Jack of Diamonds, but rewarded for taking Hearts.
The Queen of Spades is especially dangerous in this variant, because the only way to counteract its effect is to capture the JD-10C combination, which produces a score change of <math>-20i<math>.
Complex analogues of "shooting the moon" vary, but one possibility is to allow a person who accomplishes this to add <math>\pm 13 \pm 13i<math> to each player's score, the signs chosen at the shooter's discretion.
Some obscure positions can arise. For example, suppose you are dealt
And an opponent holds
When you play off all your cards except the queen of clubs and deuce of diamonds, your opponent will hold the six of hearts and jack of diamonds. When you play the queen of clubs, your opponent is squeezed. If he discards the jack of diamonds, you will win the last trick with the deuce of diamonds. If he discards the six of hearts, he will win the last trick with the jack of diamonds, but all the points will be gone and your moon will be successful.
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