Hearts (card game)

From Conservapedia

Hearts is a trick-taking card game that is often compared to Bridge in its simplicity and elegance. However, it is simpler and more direct than Bridge or Spades, which makes it easier for childen to learn.

Gameplay

The game uses a regular deck of playing cards, with the jokers removed. Aces count as high, e.g., 14. All of the cards are shuffled and dealt to the players (usually four players). On each trick, the "leader" player plays a card from his hard. Each other player must "follow suit" by playing a card from his hand also. It is generally not allowed to "break hearts" (play a heart card) until someone has led a heart as part of a normal trick. Otherwise, players are allowed to play whatever suits they like, if they are out of the current leading suit.

At the end of the game, when all 13 hands have been played, the players tally their scores. Each heart taken by a player is minus one point, and the Queen of Spades, or "Old Maid", costs minus 13. However, if one player manages to take all the cards, then he has successfully "Shot the Moon", and everyone else is awarded 26 points as a penalty.

The game is over after a set number of rounds, or when one player breaks a hundred points, depending on how long a game you want to play.

Variations

Hearts does not have as many variations as Bridge or Go Fish, but there are a couple of regional variations that can be used if players get bored with the regular game.

• Armstrong: There are no point cards. The first player to successfully shoot the moon wins the game.
• Hearst: Kings and Queens have reversed ranks, so that the order of ranks is 2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10-J-K-Q-A. This makes it much harder to get rid of the Old Maid, because there are fewer cards that beat Q. This variant is usually played like Mao, where one player doesn't know the secret rule and the other players try to score points based on that player breaking the rules.