- Score sheets
- Card games
- Hearts
How to score Hearts
After every hand, count the penalty cards in the tricks you took: each heart is 1 point and the queen of spades is 13. Lowest is best. The game ends when someone reaches 100.
- 3 to 7 players
- One standard deck
- Ends at 100
- Lowest total wins
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This is the real Scorepad, live. Hand 3 is Mara shooting the moon. Tap any hand to change it.
Hearts
A trick-taking game with no trumps where you try not to win hearts or the queen of spades, and the lowest score wins once someone reaches 100.
Hearts on BoardGameGeek.
How to play Hearts, in brief
Points count against you in Hearts: you try not to win tricks that hold hearts or the queen of spades. When someone reaches 100, the lowest score wins.
- Deal and pass 3Deal the whole deck (13 each with 4 players), then pass 3 cards. With 4, pass left, right, across, then not at all, in turn.
- Follow suitThe 2 of clubs leads the first trick, and each player adds one card, following the suit led if they can. The highest card of that suit takes the trick (there is no trump) and leads next.
- Hold hearts backNobody may lead a heart until one has been played on another suit.
- Count, then deal againAfter 13 tricks, count the hearts and the queen of spades you took, and deal again.
Every heart costs you. The queen of spades costs the most.
Points in Hearts are penalties, so you want as few as you can get. A normal hand hands out 26 points in all, which makes a handy check: the table’s scores for a hand should add to 26.
What each card costs
| Card | Points |
|---|---|
| Each heart ♥ | 1 |
| The queen of spades Q♠ | 13 |
| Every other card | 0 |
| Shooting the moonAll 13 hearts and Q♠ in one hand: 0 for you, 26 for everyone else | 0 / 26 |
- Count your penalty cardsAfter the last trick, look through the tricks you won: 1 point for each heart, 13 for the queen of spades.
- Check the hand adds to 26Hearts and the queen make 26 points, so the hand’s scores always total 26, unless someone shot the moon.
- Score a moon shotTook every heart and the queen? You score 0 and every other player takes 26. Many tables let you subtract 26 from your own total instead.
- Stop at 100, lowest winsThe game ends with the hand in which someone reaches 100. The lowest total wins; a tie for lowest plays on.
Hand 8: Dev takes the queen, and the game.
Dev is stuck with seven hearts and the queen of spades. That puts Dev past 100, so this is the last hand, and the lowest total wins it. This is hand 8 on the Scorepad above.
| Player | Penalty cards taken | Hand |
|---|---|---|
| You | 2♥ 9♥Two hearts | 2 |
| Mara | 3♥ 5♥ 8♥ K♥Four hearts | 4 |
| Dev | Q♠ · 4♥ 6♥ 7♥ 10♥ J♥ Q♥ A♥13 for the queen, plus seven hearts | 20 |
| Jonas | No penalty cardsA clean hand | 0 |
Lowest wins, kept straight.
Tabletales is a scorepad and scrapbook for game night. Type each hand’s points and Tabletales keeps the running totals, with the trophy on the smallest one.
- The trophy goes to the lowestPick Lowest wins and the trophy sits on the smallest total, hand after hand, so nobody reads the column upside down.
- 100 ends itPlay to 100 and whoever reaches it is flagged, so the table knows this hand is the last one.
- Moon hands are quickA moon is 0 for the shooter and 26 for the rest. If your table subtracts instead, tap ± and type 26.
- And the night is keptSave it with who played and a photo from the table. Each game gets a history: how often you play it, who with, and who holds the record.
- Everyone who was there
- Photos from the table
- Hearts, with its scores
Common Hearts scoring mistakes
- Giving the moon shooter 26The shooter scores 0 and everyone else takes 26, or the shooter subtracts 26 if that is your table’s rule.
- Counting the queen of spades as 1She is worth 13, half of the whole hand on her own.
- Crowning the first to 100Reaching 100 ends the game. The lowest total wins it, not the player who got there.
- Skipping the 26 checkIf a normal hand doesn’t add to 26, someone miscounted. Recount before the next deal.
Hearts scoring, answered
- How many points is the queen of spades in Hearts?
- 13. Every heart is 1 point, so the queen and the hearts together hand out 26 points in a hand.
- What happens when you shoot the moon in Hearts?
- You score 0 for the hand and every other player takes 26. Many tables let the shooter subtract 26 from their own total instead.
- When does a game of Hearts end?
- After the hand in which someone reaches 100. The player with the lowest total wins. Some tables play to 50 for a shorter game.
Hearts score sheet
Print one for the table: six players and twenty hands, with a running total beside every hand and the moon rule at the bottom.
Score another game
House rules vary: some tables add the jack of diamonds at minus 10, knock a player who lands exactly on 100 back to 50, or play to 50. Rules checked on 19 October 2026 against Bicycle Cards, Pagat and Wikipedia.
Keep score tonight. Keep the night for good.
Tabletales adds up every hand, then saves the whole night: the games, the scores, the photos and who was there.
