How To Play Hearts - Card Games

Hearts is a fun card game with many different variation and is actually derived from Bridge. The objective of the game is to get as many points as possible. Points are given for cards with the "hearts" suit that you win and a certain number of points is also given for the Queen of Spades.

The dealer deals the cards clockwise, beginning with the player on his left. Each person is dealt 13 cards, face down. The players look at their cards but do not allow others to see the card. The dealer puts the remaining cards in the pile at the center of the table and flips the top card in the discard pile. This card determines which suit the players will lead with. If, for example, the flipped card is the three of spades, players look in their hands for the spade cards and discard one of those cards onto a pile. Each player discards a card and the one with the highest card wins all of the cards played by the other players.

The card game continues like this. If someone does not have a card left of a particular suit, they have to put down a card of a different suit. This card "trumps" the other cards and the suit then changes to diamonds, clubs or hearts, depending upon the suit the player discarded. When all of the cards have been discarded, players add up the amount of points they have, giving one point for each heart card and 13 points for the Queen of Spades.

Variations of this game include playing "Spades" in which players get a point for each spade card they hold and 13 for the Queen of Hearts. You can also play "Diamonds" or "Clubs," but be sure to tell everyone which cards count as points before playing.

Another variation of this card game includes each player bidding on how many "tricks" they will win. The "tricks" are the rounds of cards that each player wins. After getting the 13 cards, each player estimates how many "tricks" they will win. At the end of the game, a player not only gets points for the cards he or she has won, but also gets a certain number of points added or taken away, depending on what they bid at the beginning of the game.

For example, a person who thinks they have a good hand with a lot of face cards and other high cards, may bid that they are going to win seven of the 13 tricks. If that person wins six tricks, they gain six points and deduct one. The game ends when one person accumulates 100 points.

Another variation of the game is to accumulate the least number of points. In this game, players do not want the higher cards or the Queen of Spades as the points are bad. The game also stops when one person accumulates 100 points and the winner is determined to be the person with the least amount of points.

Hearts is a fun and enjoyable game to play and is best when playing with four people.