The goal
Avoid points. In every hand, whoever takes hearts or the queen of spades adds points to their score. The game ends when someone reaches the table's limit, and the lowest score wins.
Players and deck
There are four players, no partners. You use the full 52-card deck, and each player gets 13 cards. Aces are high in every suit, followed by king, queen, jack, 10 and so on down to the 2. Play moves to the left, clockwise.
There is no trump suit: no suit outranks another.
Passing three cards
After the deal, each player picks three cards to pass to someone else. Everyone picks at the same time, and the cards only change hands once all four have chosen, so you never see what you're getting before you pass. The direction changes every hand:
- 1st hand
- To the player on your left
- 2nd hand
- To the player on your right
- 3rd hand
- To the player across from you
- 4th hand
- No passing
On the 5th hand the cycle starts over, always in this order.
How a trick is played
- On the first trick of every hand, whoever holds the 2 of clubs leads it.
- Each player puts one card on the table, moving to the left.
- If you hold the suit led (the suit of the first card), you must play it. This is called following suit.
- If you have none of the suit led, you may play any card. After the first trick, that's your chance to dump hearts and the queen of spades.
- The highest card of the suit led takes the trick. A card of another suit can never win it.
- Whoever takes the trick collects the four cards and leads the next one.
Each hand has 13 tricks, until the cards run out.
The first trick
On the first trick of every hand, nobody plays a point card, meaning no hearts and no queen of spades. If you're out of clubs, discard a card that isn't worth points. The only exception is a player holding nothing but point cards, who may then play one.
Breaking hearts
You can't lead hearts, that is, start a trick with a heart, until hearts are broken. They break as soon as any heart is played in the hand, which usually happens when someone can't follow suit and discards a heart.
A player holding nothing but hearts may lead one anyway. The queen of spades does not break hearts, and she can be led on any trick after the first.
Scoring and shooting the moon
At the end of the hand, each player adds up the point cards in the tricks they took:
- Each heart
- 1 point
- Queen of spades
- 13 points
- Every other card
- Worth nothing
- Shooting the moon
- Take all 13 hearts and the queen of spades yourself and you score zero for the hand, while each of the other three gets 26 points
Every hand has 26 points up for grabs. To shoot the moon you need all of them: if an opponent takes even a single heart, the attempt backfires.
End of the game and who wins
Scores are checked at the end of every hand. When someone reaches or passes the table's limit (100 or 50 points), the game ends and the lowest score wins. If two or more players are tied for the lowest score, they all win.
A player who resigns or leaves mid-game loses, and the game ends for all four: the lowest score among the other three wins. If the table waits more than 48 hours on someone, the others can end the game, and the lowest score among the players still there wins.
Revoking
To revoke is to not follow suit while holding the suit led. At the tables on Selminha.com, the player who opens the table decides how revokes are handled:
- Revokes blocked (the default)
- The game only lets you play legal cards, so nobody can revoke.
- Revokes allowed
- You may revoke at your own risk. While tricks are being played, any player can call a revoke on one of the other three, and the table checks the plays of the hand. The hand ends right there: if the revoke happened, the player who revoked takes 26 points and everyone else zero; if the call is wrong, the 26 points go to the accuser. Then the game moves on to the next hand.
Even at a table that allows revokes, the leading rules still apply: the 2 of clubs opens the hand and nobody leads hearts before they're broken.
The table on Selminha.com
Hearts on the site is played by invitation: the host sends the link, and the first three people to open it take a seat. Anyone who arrives later watches. When opening a table, you choose:
- Game ends at
- 100 points, the classic, or 50 points for a quick game.
- Revokes
- Block them or Allow them, as explained above.
- Deck
- Each player picks the deck design they see on their own screen. It only changes the look, never the rules.
- Bots
- Before the match starts, the host can fill empty seats with bots. They only see their own cards and never revoke or call a revoke.
The table lives on the site: the four of you don't need to be online at the same time, and the game tells you when it's your turn. At the end, you can play a rematch at the same table.
Tips for beginners
- When passing, get rid of the ace and king of spades if you don't have low spades to cover them: those are the cards that tend to catch the queen.
- Try to void a suit early. Once you're out of it, you can dump hearts and the queen of spades on tricks other players take.
- Hold on to low cards. To duck a trick, play the highest card that still loses to the highest card on the table.
- Keep an eye on whoever is taking all the points. If someone is going for the moon, take a heart yourself to stop them.
- Count the spades that have been played: until the queen of spades shows up, any spade trick can bring her to you.
Variations of Hearts
Hearts is played all over the world, with small differences from table to table. At some, a player who shoots the moon can choose between adding 26 to everyone else or subtracting 26 from their own score; at others, the jack of diamonds takes points off, the queen of spades breaks hearts, or point cards are allowed on the first trick. The tables on Selminha.com use the classic game described on this page: shooting the moon always gives 26 to each of the others, the jack of diamonds is worth nothing, and the host chooses the limit (100 or 50) and revokes (blocked or allowed).