Things get fraught when hearts are trumps, as it's far harder to dump them on another player when you can't follow suit. There are two ways of doing this - to rotate the trump suit each turn (hearts, clubs, diamonds, spades, no trumps), or to decide trumps by cutting before the deal. All hearts are worth their face value (the four is worth four points etc, jack 11, queen 12, king 13, ace 15, queen of spades 25) and there are different trumps each round. When one player reaches a pre-agreed number of points - 100, normally, or 500 - the player with the fewest points wins. To make things more interesting, before play begins, each player must pick three cards to pass on - to the player on their left in the first round, to the right in the second, across in the third, no passing in the fourth.Īt the end of each hand, players tally up the points in their tricks. Unlike whist, the object is not to win the most tricks, but to win as few tricks as possible containing hearts or the queen of spades (the 'black maria'). Play progresses like whist - one player leads a card, everyone else follows suit if they can, the player of the highest card (or trump) takes the trick and leads to the next.
Left of dealer starts, and can play any card. Play with real people in the real world, and it's a wheeze.Įach player is dealt 13 cards.
How to play If you've never played hearts, you might be forgiven for assuming it's a terrible game, thanks to Microsoft.
