Hearts
Object
To be the player with the lowest score at the end of the game. The game is over when someone reaches or exceeds the agreed upon score. Usually 100.
General Rules
There is no trump suit.
Hearts may not be led until a heart or the queen of spades has been discarded first.
The Deal
Deal the cards one at a time, face down, clockwise. If there are any left, say for games with not exactly four players, set the cards aside as a pile. Do not discard them. And do not look at them.
Pass the trash: Each player will pass three cards to another person. They can be any of their cards and the other person must accept them. On the first round pass to the person on the left. The second round to the person on the right. The third round to the person directly across. And on the fourth round, hold your cards. There is no passing. If need be, based on the number of players, don’t pass across. Keep following this sequence until the game is over.
The Play
The player with the 2 of clubs opens the round. If no one has it then just go up to the next. In this case 3.
Each player must follow suit if possible. If not, they must throw off with any other suit. Exception: If it is the first round they can not throw off a heart or the queen of spades.
The highest card of the suit led wins the trick and the winner of that trick leads the next round.
In games were there are not four players, the player winning the first round takes the discarded pile and adds them to their hand. They must then discard an equal number of cards into the trick they just won. They can discard the same cards, different cards, or a combination of cards from the trick won and those already in their hand. When done they will have the same number of cards in their hand as the other players for the next round. Keep in mind that any heart or the queen of spades discarded will count towards their total at the end of the round. This may be good to get rid of aces or if shooting the moon.
Scoring
At the end of each hand, players count the number of hearts they have taken as well as the queen of spades, if applicable. Hearts count as one point each and the queen counts 13 points. These are added to the players running total.
The aggregate total of all scores for each hand must be a multiple of 26.
When a player takes all 13 hearts and the queen of spades in one round, instead of getting 26 points, they score zero and each of the other players score 26 points. This is called Shooting the Moon.