Editing Hearts (card game) (section)

== Modern rules (2011) ==
The following rules are based on Arnold (2011).{{sfn|Arnold|2011|pp=}}

=== Preliminaries ===
Three to six may play, but four is best. A [[standard pack]] is used. For three players, the {{cards|2c}} is removed; for five players the {{cards|2c}} and {{cards|2d}} are removed, for six players the {{cards|3c}}, {{cards|2c}}, {{cards|2d}} and {{cards|2s}} are left out. Players draw cards to determine the first dealer; lowest deals. Deal and play are clockwise. Dealer shuffles and youngest hand (right of dealer) cuts. The dealer then deals all the cards, individually and face down, beginning with the eldest hand (to the left of the dealer).

==== Passing ====
A common variant is that players will select three cards from their hand and pass them to another player in a predetermined cycle that changes each hand, receiving three replacement cards from another player. This allows players to attempt to improve their hand, such as by discarding high-ranking cards likely to win a penalty trick, and also provides some information-sharing since the player passing knows three of the cards the player they passed to now holds.

=== Playing ===
Eldest hand leads to the first trick. Players must follow suit if able; otherwise, they may play any card. The trick is won by the highest card of the suit led, and the winning player [[capture (cards)|captures]] the cards played in the trick. The winner also leads the following trick.

==== Minor rule variants ====
* Instead of the eldest hand leading, the player holding the {{cards|2c}} leads it to the first trick.
* A heart may not be played to lead a trick until another Heart has been played off-suit (known as "breaking Hearts").
* A penalty card may not be played to the first trick. If a player's hand has only penalty cards (rare), a misdeal may be called, or any of several possibilities for the penalty card on the first trick can be implemented, such as not counting that point, or laying it aside and giving it to the player who has the least nonzero points for the hand.
* For three players, two Jokers can also be added; how these cards behave when played can vary, most commonly they can never win any trick.

=== Scoring ===
Each heart captured in tricks incurs a penalty point, there being thirteen penalty points in total. The winner is the player with the lowest score either after an agreed number of deals, such as 8, or when one player reaches an agreed ending score, such as 100 points.

If Hearts is played for [[stakes (cards)|stakes]], the average score is worked out and those above it pay the difference into a [[pool (cards)|pool]], while those below it draw the difference.

==== Shooting the moon ====
With this rule variant (also known as "running") in effect, a player who captures every penalty card in the hand may either deduct this maximum score from their total, or add it to every other player's score.