Hearts

Hearts came about in the 19th century and is a negative (or avoidance of) trick-taking game, also referred to as a nullo game. The objective of the game is to have the lowest score. Points are accumulated for each heart card the player has at the end of the round. Hearts shares the idea of trick avoidance with other games such as euchre, whist, and skat.

The idea of trick avoidance is directly opposite of the game of bridge, in which the players are trying to take as many tricks as possible. There are a number of variations of Hearts. Basic Hearts is also referred to as Omnibus Hearts. Normally play is with four people, each playing for themselves. Variants exist that allow as few as two players and as many as six. However, even in these variants each player still plays for themselves. [Page 286]A standard deck of 52 cards is used in all the variants, although in some cases, one or more of the twos has to be removed to make the deal work out so that all players have the same number of cards.

In each hand, points are accumulated for each heart the player takes (usually one point for each card). In one of the variants, points are also gained for taking the queen of spades. This variant is called Black Maria or Black Lady since the queen of spade usually scores more than one point. The exact amount depends on the rules being used. Common values are five and thirteen, the same as the total of all the heart cards.

There is an exception to the rule of scoring points for the hearts (and queen of spades). Called shooting the moon or going for control, if a player can collect all of the cards that score points, the player scores zero and all other players score the value of all the scoring cards.

Another standard feature of Hearts is passing three cards to one of the other players at the beginning of the game. The pass can be to the same person each round or can vary from round to round. If varied, a pattern is usually used, and it must be such that each player will pass to every other player at the table at some point. There is often a hold round where no passing takes place.

The game is played in hands until either a predetermined number of hands are played, or one or more players exceed a certain number of points. At the end of the game the player with the lowest number of points wins. If players are wagering on the game the losing players pay the winner. A common amount is a penny per point of difference in their scores.

There a numerous variations to Hearts. One variation changes the number of points scored for each heart card. Called Spot Hearts, instead of one point no matter what the card is, each card counts a number of points equal to its value, with the jack being 11, the queen 12, the king 13, and the ace 14. Another variant involves when the queen of spades can be played. One variant requires the queen to be played the first time the player does not have any cards in the suit that was led. There is also a variant that allows the player who takes the trick with either the jack or 10 of diamonds to lower their score by 10 points. Hearts is considered a more challenging game if the game is played without the passing of cards before the play of each round.

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