The goal
In Hearts you want as few points as you can. Every heart you win costs you one point. The queen of spades costs thirteen on her own.
The deal
Four players each get thirteen cards, so the whole deck is out. There is no trump suit. A card only beats another card of the same suit. The deal moves one seat to the left each hand, and the cards go out starting from the dealer's left.
Before the first trick you choose three cards and pass them to a neighbour. Three come back to you. The pass goes left, then right, then across. Every fourth hand nobody passes.
The play
Whoever holds the two of clubs plays it first. The other three players each play one card in turn. You must play the suit that was led if you have one. Those four cards are a trick.
The highest card of the suit that was led wins the trick and takes the four cards. Whoever wins a trick leads the next one.
If you have none of the suit led, you may play any card, except no heart or queen on the first trick. That is how hearts and the queen get handed to whoever wins the trick. The one exception: a hand of nothing but hearts and the queen of spades may play one of them on the first trick.
You cannot lead a heart until a heart has been played on some earlier trick. Once one has, hearts are broken and anyone may lead them. The queen of spades does not break hearts; only a heart does. Exception: if every card in your hand is a heart, you may lead one anyway.
Scoring
When all thirteen tricks are played, count the hearts you took and add thirteen if you took the queen. Every hand puts exactly twenty-six points on the table, shared out among the four players.
Take every heart and the queen in one hand and you have shot the moon. You may give each of the other three twenty-six, or take twenty-six off your own score. The table asks which. The choice is the shooter's alone; one left unmade gives each of the other three twenty-six. To stop a shooter, take a single heart yourself.
Some tables play the jack of diamonds option, shown in the lobby. Whoever takes the jack of diamonds has ten taken off their score. It is not a penalty card, so it may be played on the first trick, and it still counts when someone shoots the moon.
Winning
Play hands until someone reaches the target: one hundred, unless the table was set to fifty or a hundred and fifty in the lobby. The game ends there, and the player with the lowest score wins. If two players share the lowest score, another hand is dealt.
