This is a documentation for Board Game Arena: play board games online !

Gamehelphearts

From Board Game Arena
Jump to navigation Jump to search
The printable version is no longer supported and may have rendering errors. Please update your browser bookmarks and please use the default browser print function instead.

Overview

  • Hearts is a card game for 4 players, every player for themselves.
  • It uses the standard 52-card pack, ranked A (high) to 2 (low), with the figure cards being KQJ high to low.

Setup

The entire deck is dealt, giving each player a hand of 13 cards. After looking at your hand, choose three cards to pass to another player.

The passing rotation is:

  • (1st hand) to the player on your left,
  • (2nd hand) to the player on your right,
  • (3rd hand) to the player across the table,
  • (4th hand) no passing.

The rotation repeats until the game ends.

Tricks

  • After passing cards, the player holding the 2♣ leads the first trick.
  • Each player must follow suit if possible. If you have no cards of the suit led, you may play a card of any suit.
    • Exception: You may not play a ​♥ or the Q♠ on the first trick, even if you have no clubs.
  • The highest card of the suit led wins the trick. The winner of a trick starts the next trick.
  • Hearts may not be led until a ​♥ has been played (this is called "breaking hearts").
  • There is no trump suit.

Scoring

  • At the end of each hand, each ​♥ taken by a player counts -1, and the Q♠ counts -13.
  • If one player has taken all 13 ​♥s and Q♠ (this is known as "shooting the moon", or "slam"), that player scores 0 and all other players score -26. Warning other players about an attempt to shoot the moon is team play, and a breach of Hearts etiquette.
  • When one or more players reach zero, the game ends.
  • The player with the highest score wins.

Variants

Initial points

  • Start with 50 points
  • Start with 75 points
  • Start with 100 points

Rule set

  • Hearts
  • Omnibus Hearts: J♦ is +10
  • Black Maria: A♠ is -7, K♠ is -10, no penalty card play limit, always pass right, no shooting the moon, player left of dealer always starts
  • Spot Hearts: A♥ is -14, K♥ is -13, Q♥ is -12, J♥ is -11, and other ​♥ are negative their face value
  • Custom

Jack of Diamonds bonus

  • Disabled
  • Enabled (J♦ worth +10)

Penalty card play limit

  • Default (no points on first trick, cannot lead ​♥ until they break)
  • Points in the first trick (cannot lead ​♥ until they break)
  • Disabled

Face value scoring

  • Disabled
  • Enabled

High Spades scoring

  • Disabled
  • Enabled

Starter card

  • Enabled (2♣ always starts)
  • Disabled (player left of dealer always starts)

Shooting the moon

  • Default (other players receive -26 points)
  • Positive moon scoring (player receives +26 points)
  • Disabled

Pass cycle

  • Default
  • Remove no pass hands
  • Always pass right

Skip uneventful final tricks

  • Yes
  • No