Hearts: Instructions
How to play
All details about how to play multiplayer games can be found in the general instructions.
Rules
Hearts is a card game for 4 players. There are no teams. A deck of 52 cards is used. There are no trumps and the trick value of the cards ranges from 2 (lowest) to Ace (highest). The aim of the game is for each player to have as few Hearts in his/her tricks as possible and to avoid taking the Queen of Spades.
Two variants of the game are available: “Classic” and “Special”.
"Classic" Rules:
Each player receives 13 cards at the beginning of the game. The players must then select three of their own cards, which are subsequently passed on to the next player. In the 1st round, the cards are passed to the player to the left, in the 2nd round to the player to the right. In the 3rd round the players pass their cards to the opponent opposite. In the 4th round there is no exchange of cards. This cycle is repeated until the game is over.
The player with the 2 of Clubs then begins the game by playing this card. Play progresses with each player in turn (clockwise) laying a card. The Queen of Spades, however, may not be played in the first round. Players must follow suit. If a player cannot follow suit, he/she may play any other card of his/her choice. Once all four players have played their cards, the player, who laid the highest card in the lead suit, takes the trick. This player then begins the next trick. A Heart may only be played to start a trick once a Heart has already been played elsewhere in the game.
“Special” Rules:
The key difference to the game in this variant is that any player, no matter how far behind he/she is, still has the chance to win. Therefore the game remains exciting for every player right until the end. “Special” Hearts follows the same rules as “Classic” Hearts with the exception of the following rules:
Perfect Round
If a player, who is not leading the game, picks up no negative points in a round, he/she wins the round and another round is played. This means that a player cannot lose when he or she plays a ‘perfect round’ if the leading player has not achieved a perfect round him/herself.
Equal Points
A further round is also played when one or more players are level on points with the player who has the fewest points. The game will be played until a winner is confirmed.
Points
As soon as all of the cards have been played, the points of the players are totalled up. Heart cards are worth one negative point each, while the Queen of Spades is worth 13 negative points. The negative points are accumulative. There is, however, one exception. If a player manages to take all of the Hearts and the Queen of Spades, he/she does not receive any negative points. Instead, all of his/her opponents are given 13 negative points each.
If, following the calculation of points, a player has reached or exceeded the number of points chosen at the beginning, the player with the lowest total wins the game.
