The goal
Avoid taking hearts and the queen of spades. The lowest score wins.
Setup
Four players, each playing alone. One 52-card deck without jokers. There are no trumps.
The deal
Deal all the cards one at a time: 13 each. Then everyone passes three cards: left on the first hand, then right, then across, then no pass, and repeat.
A turn
- The holder of the 2 of clubs leads it to the first trick.
- Follow suit if you can. If you can’t, play any card, but no hearts or queen of spades on the first trick.
- The highest card of the suit led wins the trick. Its winner leads next.
Special cards
- No leading hearts until a heart has been played on another suit, unless you hold nothing but hearts.
- The queen of spades costs 13 points on her own.
Scoring
- Each heart: 1 point. Queen of spades: 13. Every hand has 26 points.
- Shooting the moon, the all-or-nothing exception: take every heart and the queen of spades in one hand and you score 0, everyone else 26.
Winning
When someone reaches 100 points, the game ends and the lowest score wins.
House rules
- Omnibus Hearts. The jack of diamonds is a bonus card: whoever takes it subtracts 10 points.
- Spot Hearts. Hearts cost their face value (the 2 costs 2, the ace 14) and the queen of spades 25.
- Moon option. A player who shoots the moon may choose to subtract 26 from their own score instead of adding 26 to everyone else’s.
