Hearts
Also known as Black Lady, Chase the Lady, Black Widow
- Players
- 3-6 players (best with 4)
- Deck
- 1 standard deck (52 cards), jokers removed; a few low cards come out for 3, 5 or 6 players
- Time
- 30-60 minutes
- Difficulty
- Easy
- Category
- Trick-taking
Setup
Hearts is at its best with four players, each on their own. There are no partnerships and no trump suit. Use a 52-card pack with the jokers taken out. Aces are high and twos are low in every suit.
Pick a first dealer however you like, drawing for the low card being the usual method, then pass the deal one seat to the left after every hand. The dealer shuffles and deals the entire pack out one card at a time, clockwise, beginning with the player on their left. Four players get 13 cards each and the hand runs 13 tricks.
Other numbers need the pack trimmed so the deal comes out even. For three players, remove the 2 of diamonds and deal 17 each. For five, remove the 2 of diamonds and the 2 of clubs and deal 10 each. For six, remove the 2 and 3 of diamonds and the 2 and 3 of clubs and deal 8 each. The cards pulled are always low clubs and diamonds, the two suits that carry no penalties, so all 26 penalty points are still in the deal whatever the player count. Other combinations of low cards are used at some tables; the only things that matter are that the deal comes out even and that no heart and not the queen of spades is withdrawn.
There is no layout, no stock and no discard pile. Everything sits in the players' hands, and there is nothing to write down until the first hand has been played out.
| Players | Each player gets | Removed from the deck | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3 | 17 cards | 2♦ | — |
| 4 | 13 cards | — | The whole pack is dealt out. |
| 5 | 10 cards | 2♦, 2♣ | — |
| 6 | 8 cards | 2♦, 3♦, 2♣, 3♣ | — |
Play
Every hand opens with a pass. Pick three cards out of your hand and lay them face down in front of the player who is to receive them. Nobody may look at the cards coming their way until they have committed their own three, so the exchange is genuinely blind on both sides. The direction rotates deal by deal: pass to the left on the first hand, to the right on the second, straight across on the third, and on the fourth hand nobody passes at all and you play what you were dealt. Then the cycle starts again. Three and five players have nobody sitting directly opposite, so their rotation drops the across pass and runs left, right, hold; six players use the full four-hand cycle.
Once everyone has picked up what came their way, the 2 of clubs opens: whoever was dealt it has to lead it. If the 2 of clubs was removed for the player count, the lowest club still in the pack leads instead: the 3 of clubs in a five-handed game, the 4 of clubs in a six-handed game. Play then goes clockwise, one card from each player.
You must follow the suit led if you hold anything in it. Only when you are void may you play something else, and then you may play any card you like subject to the two restrictions below. Nothing is trump, so a trick goes to whoever played the highest card in whatever suit was led. A card thrown off-suit cannot win the trick no matter how high it is. The winner gathers the trick face down and leads to the next one.
Two restrictions shape the whole hand.
First trick. No penalty card may be thrown on the opening trick. That rules out every heart and the queen of spades, even if you are void in clubs and would love to be rid of them. The only escape is a hand that contains literally nothing else, which almost never happens. Some groups relax this to bar hearts only and allow the queen on the first trick, so settle it before you deal.
Leading hearts. You may not lead a heart until hearts have been broken, and they are broken the first time somebody discards a heart on a trick led in another suit. The one exception is a player whose remaining cards are all hearts; they may lead one. The queen of spades is under no such restriction. She can be played whenever spades are led and discarded whenever you are void, and in the standard game putting her down does not break hearts. A good number of tables play that she does break them, which is worth agreeing on in advance.
A hand ends when all the cards are gone. Everyone turns their tricks face up, counts the penalty cards inside them, and the results go on the score sheet before the next player deals.
Goal & scoring
Hearts is a game you are trying to lose. The winner is whoever holds the fewest penalty points when the game ends.
The queen of spades costs whoever collects her 13; every heart taken in a trick costs 1. Exactly 26 points are handed out every deal. Nothing else scores at all. The number of tricks you win is irrelevant; only what is inside them matters.
The exception is shooting the moon. If a single player takes all 13 hearts and the queen of spades in the same hand, the result inverts: the shooter chooses between having 26 taken off their own total and having 26 added to every opponent's. Taking it off your own is the better option when the opponents are already close to the finish or when you are sitting on zero and cannot go below it. The attempt is all or nothing. Let one heart escape to another player and you simply keep the pile you have gathered, which is normally a catastrophe.
Keep a running total for each player. The game ends at the end of the hand in which anyone reaches or passes 100 points, and the player with the lowest total at that moment wins. A target of 50 makes for a quicker game. If two or more players are level on the lowest total when the game would end, nobody has won: deal again and keep playing complete hands, with the same finish condition applied each time, until exactly one player is alone on the lowest score.
| Scores | Value | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Each heart taken in a trick | 1 | — |
| Queen of spades | 13 | — |
| Every other card | 0 | The number of tricks you win does not matter, only what is inside them. |
| Penalty points in one deal | 26 | — |
| Shooting the moon | 26 | Charged to every opponent, or subtract 26 from the shooter's own total. |
| Game ends at | 100 | Lowest total wins; 50 makes a quicker game. |
Variants
Omnibus Hearts (Jack of Diamonds) — The jack of diamonds becomes a bonus card worth minus 10, so whoever takes it in a trick has 10 points struck off their score for that hand. It reshapes the deal completely, because diamonds are suddenly worth fighting for rather than dumping, and a shot at the moon now requires the jack as well as all the hearts and the queen of spades. Some groups use the 10 of diamonds for the same purpose.
Black Maria — The British three-handed form. Take out the 2 of clubs so that each of three players receives 17 cards. Three spades carry penalties instead of one: the queen is worth 13, the king 10 and the ace 7. Cards are passed three to the right only, there is no fixed opening lead, and many groups play it without any moon-shooting rule, so the hand is purely about dodging the black suit.
Cancellation Hearts — Built for six or more players using two full packs shuffled together. Identical cards cancel each other: if the same rank and suit appears twice in one trick, neither copy can win it, and the trick goes to the highest surviving card of the suit led. If every candidate cancels out, nobody wins the trick; it stays on the table and is swept up along with all its penalty cards by whoever takes the next one.
Spot Hearts — Hearts are worth their pip value rather than a flat point each. The 2 through 10 count face value, the jack, queen and king count 10 apiece, the ace counts 15, and the queen of spades is raised to 25. That makes a single deal worth 124 points instead of 26, so the game target has to be scaled up to match, commonly to 500. Low hearts become throwaways and the ace of hearts becomes the card everyone is watching.
Shoot the Sun — An extra tier above shooting the moon that almost nobody achieves. Taking every trick in the hand, not merely every penalty card, is worth double the usual moon: 52 points against each opponent, or 52 struck off your own total, whichever you prefer. Groups that use it treat a failed sun as an ordinary moon attempt, so a player who wins twelve tricks and all the penalties still scores the plain moon. Doubling is not universal; plenty of tables recognise the feat but pay it at the ordinary 26, so say which you are using before anyone tries it.
Rules checked against Pagat, Bicycle Cards, Wikipedia, Britannica, Official Game Rules, Dice Game Depot, Trickster Cards, Cool Old Games.