How to play Hearts

Needed: 1 deck of playing cards

Players: 2-5 people, although works best with 4

Hearts is an easy to learn card game that is good to play with children. There is not that many rules to the game, making it a great choice to play with kids of all ages.

Hearts is a trick taking card game. Players want to avoid winning tricks with hearts and to avoid taking a trick with the Queen of Spades. The Queen of Spades and hearts are the only cards that add points to your score. The winner is the player with the lowest score.

All cards are dealt equally to players so four players would each have 13 cards. If there is an odd number of players then the leftover cards can create a kitty that will be collected by the winner of the first trick.

During the first round of play, players select three of their cards to pass to the player on their left. They choose those cards and place them face down. Once they have done that then they can pick up the three cards that are being passed to them. The second round players choose three cards to pass to the player on their left. The third round players pass three cards to the person opposite of them. No cards are passed on the fourth round. The cycle then repeats with the fifth hand.

The player with the two of clubs must lead with it for the first trick. There are no trump cards. You should follow suit of the lead card if you are able to. The player who played the highest valued card wins the trick. Once all cards have been played, players who have a heart score one point. The unlucky person with the queen of spades scores 13 points. If a player wins all of the scoring cards, then he/she can either reduce their score by 26 or add 26 to all of the other player's score. Players play until one person reaches 100 points. The person with the fewest number of points wins the game.

It is against the rules to play a heart as a lead if a heart hasn't been played in a trick. A player who has nothing but hearts in their hand can lead with a heart. Spades can be used as a lead card at anytime during the game. In fact, it's a common practice to lead with spades to smoke out the queen.

Some people treat the Jack of Diamonds as a bonus card, and it counts as a negative 10 points for the player with this card. This would surely help to offset the points especially if the same player had the Queen of Spades.

There are speciality Hearts card decks that are sold primarily to appeal to kids. The cards are usually larger cards that make is easier to small hands to hold and manage.

Hearts is a nice family card game. With its simplicity but fun game play is sure to be a hit with everyone.