Hearts

Game type: «evasion-type» trick-taking card game
Deck: standard 52-card deck

Number of players
Hearts is played by 4 people. No partnerships.

Rank of Suits
There’s no trump suit.

Rank of Cards
Ace, K, Q, J, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2 (highest to lowest).

Object of the Game
The goal is to avoid scoring points. Each heart is worth one penalty point and the queen of spades is worth 13 penalty points. The other cards have no value.

The game ends when someone reaches or goes over the number of predetermined points (Quick, 20, 50, or 100), and the winner is the player with the lowest score.

Deal and Passing
Each player gets 13 cards. Each player passes three cards of their choice to the player to their left, right, and the player sitting opposite on the first, second and third hand, respectively. On the fourth hand, no cards are passed. This cycle is repeated until the game ends.

The Play
The person who holds the 2 of clubs leads it to the first trick. The other players must play a card of the suit which was led. If they don’t have a card of that suit, they may play any card. The person who played the highest card of the suit led wins the trick and leads to the next trick.
Hearts can’t be played until after a heart has been played to a previous trick. Unless your hand contains nothing but hearts. Breaking hearts allows hearts to be led in the future.
Players are permitted to lead spades to any trick after the first one.

The Scoring
Each player scores penalty points for cards in the tricks which they won. Each heart scores one point, and the queen of spades scores 13 points. However, if you manage to win all the scoring cards (shooting the moon), your score is reduced by 26 points, or you can choose to have all other players’ scores increased by 26 points instead.
The game continues until one player has reached or exceeded the number of predetermined points. The person with the lowest score wins.