Hearts
Hearts Scoring
Hearts scores by the cards in the tricks you won, not by how many tricks you took. Each heart is 1 point. The queen of spades is 13. A round has 26 points to hand out. Keep a running total. When any player reaches 100, the game is over after that round is counted. Lowest score wins.
Keep this page open the first few nights. Confirm the ugly piles in hearts practice, where you can see who actually ate the queen.
Hearts scoring chart
| What you took | Points added |
|---|---|
| One heart | 1 |
| All 13 hearts, no queen | 13 |
| Queen of spades | 13 |
| Queen plus some hearts | 13 + 1 per heart |
| A trick with no hearts and no queen | 0 |
| Every point card (the moon) | 0 for you, 26 for each opponent |
There is no bonus for taking a lot of clean tricks. There is also no extra tax for taking the queen on a lonely spade trick versus a pile of hearts. Thirteen is thirteen.
What you are trying to do every round
- Take as few of those 26 as you can.
- Or take all 26, which is shooting the moon.
- There is no prize for finishing with 12 instead of 13 if someone else has 4.
If you are still learning the pass and the first lead, walk a first game night and then use the hearts lessons.
Shooting the moon
The moon is all 13 hearts plus the queen of spades. Not 25. Not the queen and most of the hearts. All of it.
| Result | Who gets points |
|---|---|
| You took all 26 | You 0, each opponent 26 |
| You took 25 or fewer | You keep what you took. No reversal. |
| Someone else took even one heart | Moon fails. Score the piles as usual. |
A common house choice: the moon shooter may subtract 26 from their own score instead of dumping 26 on the others. Near 100 that choice matters. Standard CardPractice teaching is the dump-26-on-everyone-else version. Say which one you are playing.
Race to 100, lowest wins
Add after every round. When someone's total reaches 100 or more, finish counting that round, then stop. You do not deal another hand "to give them a chance."
The winner is whoever has the fewest points, even if they are not the person who crossed 100. Crossing 100 only ends the game.
Example:
- You 74, West 88, North 91, East 97.
- East takes the queen and four hearts: +17, now 114.
- You took one heart: +1, now 75.
- Game over. You win. East hitting 100 is what stopped the deal, not a prize.
How to keep score without a fancy pad
Four columns on scrap paper:
You West North East 4 13 9 0 4 6 16 0 12 0 2 12
Circle a column when it lands on or past 100, then compare the four totals.
What does not score
- The number of tricks. Ten clean diamond tricks are still 0.
- The ace of spades, king of spades, or any club. Only the queen among the spades is a point card.
- A failed moon. You do not get a participation 13. You get whatever you actually took.
Jack of diamonds for -10 is a house variant, not the default. If your table uses it, a round is no longer a clean 26. Ask before the first pass.