Keep your score low.
Hearts is a trick-taking card game for four players. Use a standard 52-card deck, without jokers, and deal thirteen cards to each player. Cards rank from 2 (lowest) to ace (highest).
Most cards have no point value. Each heart is worth 1 point, and the queen of spades is worth 13 points. Usually, you want to avoid winning tricks that contain those cards.
Pass three. Make a plan.
Before play, each player chooses exactly three cards to pass. Everyone chooses before receiving their new cards. The direction changes each hand:
- LeftHand 1
- RightHand 2
- AcrossHand 3
- HoldHand 4
On the hold hand, keep all your cards. Then repeat the cycle. In Manor, select three cards and confirm your pass; selecting alone does not send them.
Follow the lead.
A trick is one card from each player. The leader plays first and the others take turns clockwise. If you have the led suit, you must play that suit. If you have none, you may play another suit, subject to the first-trick restriction below.
The highest card of the led suit wins the trick. There is no trump suit. The winner takes all four cards and leads the next trick. In Manor, tap a card to select it, then confirm Play.
Start with the two of clubs.
After passing, whoever holds 2♣ must lead it. Everyone with clubs must follow suit.
If you have no clubs, you still cannot discard a heart or the queen of spades on this first trick unless every card you hold is a point card. The first-trick restriction is an important exception to choosing any off-suit card.
Wait for hearts to break.
You cannot lead a heart until someone has played a heart on an earlier play, typically when unable to follow suit. Once that happens, hearts are “broken” and may be led.
There is one exception: if your remaining cards are all hearts, you may lead a heart even before they are broken. Playing the queen of spades does not, by itself, break hearts.
Count points. Or shoot the moon.
After all thirteen tricks, count the points in the cards each player captured and add them to their match total. There are 26 points in a hand: thirteen hearts and the queen of spades.
Shooting the moon
Capture all thirteen hearts and the queen of spades yourself. Instead of receiving 26 points, you receive 0 and each of your three opponents receives 26.
Manor uses this add-26 rule. The alternative of subtracting 26 from the shooter’s total is not enabled, and the jack of diamonds has no special bonus.
The lowest score wins.
When a completed hand takes anyone’s total to 100 or more, the player with the unique lowest total wins the match. If two or more players are tied for lowest, play another hand until there is a single winner.
Reaching 100 does not make you the winner. Hearts rewards keeping your total down.