Deck: Standard 52 card deck

Rank of Cards: Standard ranking with ace high.

Number of Players: 4

Object of the Game: To have the lowest score when someone reaches or goes over 100 points.

The Deal: Standard dealing, 13 cards to each player.

The Pass: After examining their cards, each player chooses 3 cards from their hand to pass to another player. After they have removed these cards from their hand and placed them face down on the table, they may add the cards that were passed to them to their hand. The first hand, the cards are passed to the player on the left. The second hand, they are passed to the player on the right. The third hand they are passed to the player across the table (second to the left). The fourth hand, no cards are passed. This cycle then repeats until the end of the game.

Scoring: A player scores 1 point for each card in the hearts suit that he caught during play. The player who captured the queen of spades receives an additional 13 points. If a player captures all 26 points (which is called "shooting the moon"), that player may choose to have his score reduced by 26 points, or may choose to have all other players' scores increased by 26 points. Game continues until one or more players have reached or exceeded 100 points at the conclusion of a hand. The person with the lowest score is then the winner. If there is a tie for low score when a player reaches or goes over 100 points, additional hands are played until there is a clear winner.

Players are not required to pass cards if they do not wish. The player may simply pass on the cards that were passed to him (without looking at them). This may result in players sometimes receiving their own cards back.

• Player to the left of the dealer leads to the first trick and may lead any card except hearts.

• Player to the left of the dealer leads and may lead any card and any card may be led at anytime during the hand.

• Hearts may be led anytime after a point card has been played (not just hearts).

• Hearts may be led if a player has only point cards.

• If hearts have not been played and a player finds herself in the lead with only hearts the hand is abandoned and no score is counted.

• Any card may be led at anytime.
• If hearts have not been played and a player finds himself in the lead with only hearts and the Queen of Spades, he may lead hearts instead of the Queen of Spades.

• A player must play the Queen of Spades as soon as she can do so without possibility of taking the trick. This would be when she is void in the lead suit or when the Ace or King of Spades has already been played on a spade lead.

• The 10 of Diamonds (or Jack of Diamonds) counts -10 (or -11) points for the person taking it. It may or may not be required that the card be taken to shoot the moon. If a player does shoot the moon, scoring should be handled as usual, then the player who took the 10 of Diamonds has 10 points deducted from their score.
• The 10 of clubs doubles the points caught during the hand for the player capturing it.
• A player who shoots the moon always has 26 points deducted from their score.
• All other players always have 26 points added to their score when a player shoots the moon.
• All other players always have 26 points added to their score when a player shoots the moon unless this would end the game without the shooter winning. If so, then 26 points are deducted from shooter's score.
• "Shooting the sun" is taking all tricks (as opposed to taking all hearts) and is worth 52 points with scoring handled the same as shooting the moon.
• If a player's score reaches 100 points exactly, his score is reduced to 50 (or 51 or 0).
• If a player's score reaches 50 points exactly, her score is reduced to 0.
• If a player's score reaches 100 points exactly, his score is reduced to 50. If it remains at 50 after the following hand it is reduced to 0.
• If, after additional hands (because of a tie), no one's score is greater than 100 points, the game continues.
• The Ace of Hearts counts 5 points instead of just 1 point.
• If a player takes no tricks during the hand they score -5.
• If a player takes no tricks during the hand they score +50.

The game may be played with either 3 or 5 players. The game is played as above with the following differences. Deal the cards as far as they will go evenly. There will be one or two cards left over. Place these cards in the middle of the table face down. The player who takes the first trick (or alternately, the first point) takes these cards and places them with his captured cards (he may look at them first). An alternate method is to let the person who takes the extra cards place these extra cards in their hand and discard an equal number of cards from their hand.

Another method is to discard 1 or 2 small cards from the deck so that the deal comes out even. (Suggested: 2 of Clubs, then either 3 of Clubs or left of dealer leads. For 5 players, leave out 2 of Clubs and 2 of Diamonds.)

Obviously, you cannot pass across the table, but a passing rotation should be decided on before play begins. If a scatter pass is used with 3 players, pass four cards by passing two to each other player. In a 5 player game, the rotation should include passing to the 2^nd person to the left, and 2^nd person to the right.

A variation called Turbo Hearts may be played using the following rules:

• The Jack (or 10) of Diamonds and 10 of Clubs are used as in the variations above.
• After the pass but before the first lead each player may "turbo-charge" one of the following cards: Ace of Heart, Queen of Spades, Jack (or 10) of Diamonds, or Ten of Clubs. They do this by placing the card face up in front of them and leaving it there until played.
• A turbo-charged Queen of Spades or Jack of Diamonds doubles the value of that card for that hand.
• A turbo-charged Ace of Hearts doubles the value of all hearts for that hand.
• A turbo-charged Ten of Clubs quadruples the score for that hand of the player who captures it. The quadrupling is applied after all other points have been counted.
• A player may not play a turbo-charged card the first time a card of that suit is led unless they have nothing else in that suit.
• Before playing this version, the players need to come to a general agreement as to what constitutes "shooting the moon" and how shooting the moon will be scored.

• The score to end the game should be raised to 200 or 300 points.

Two decks can be shuffled together to allow 6 or more players to play. Play by whichever of the above variations you prefer. Player to the left of the dealer leads (since there are two 2 of Clubs). If two identical cards are played to a trick, the first one played is considered to be of higher rank. Taking all 52 points is required to shoot the moon. The total score needed to end the game should also be raised.

Cancellation Hearts is played the same as Double-Deck Hearts with the following exception: If two identical cards are played to a trick, they cancel each other out. The highest uncancelled card in the lead suit takes the trick. If all cards in the lead suit are cancelled then the trick is held over and the winner of the next trick captures it (the same person leads to both tricks). If the last trick of the hand is completely cancelled, the person who led takes it (or alternately, it is discarded).

Point-Count Hearts is played by whichever of the above rules the players prefer. In scoring, each heart counts a number of points equal to it value (e.g. 8 of Hearts is 8 points, 2 of Hearts is 2 points, etc.). The Queen of Spades counts 50 points. Jack, Queen, and King of Hearts can count either 10 points each or 11, 12, and 13 points respectively. The Ace of Hearts can be counted as either 1 or 15 points. The score for ending the game should be increased to 300, 500, or 1000 points.

My thanks to Richard Dunlap, George Klemic, Theodore Hwa, Preston Pfarmer, Matthew Ryan, Ilana Stern, Warren Chang, Don Woods, Chris Phillips, and especially Andy Latto. Also a big thanks to John McLeod.