Hearts card game is a simple game that belongs to the trick taking card game family. It’s played with a standard 52 card deck, usually by four players.
Goal of the game
The whole point of the game is to score as little points as you can. The player with the fewest points at the end wins. The game is played for as many hands as it takes for one of the players to reach 100 points or more.
The deal
Each player gets 13 cards, dealt out one by one. Before the hand begins, each player passes 3 cards to another player. In the first hand players pass to their left, on the second hand to the right, on the third hand to the player opposite of them and on the fourth hand no cards are passed. If it takes more than 4 hands to finish a game, the passing starts over again as if it ware the first hand.
The game
This is a trick taking game. The strength of cards goes from 2(the weakest) to Ace(the strongest), there are no trumps.
The player with the deuce of clubs starts the game with it. All players must follow suite(play the same suit if they have it), if they can not, they can play any card.
A player can not lead a heart unless a heart has been played in a previous trick or he has nothing but hearts.
The player that took the previous trick leads the next one. The hand continues this way until all players run out of cards.
Scoring
At the end of the hand all players count their score. This is probably the easiest card game to count score in… any heart is worth 1 point and the queen of spades is worth 13 points, that’s it!
The score is the written down for every player and the next hand starts. Game ends when a players score exceeds 100 points.
