Hearts Scoring — Points, Totals & Winning
Hearts is a penalty game — you want the lowest score. Each hand adds points to running totals until someone reaches the match target.
Card values
Only hearts and the queen of spades count against you. Every other card is zero.
- Each heart: 1 penalty point (13 hearts in the deck).
- Queen of spades (Q♠): 13 penalty points.
- All clubs, diamonds, and non-heart spades: 0 points.
Scoring a hand
Count the penalty cards in tricks you won. That number is your score for the hand — add it to your match total.
You took 3 hearts (3 points) and the queen of spades (13 points) = 16 points for the hand. These 16 points are added to your match total. Other players add only what they captured.
Shooting the moon
If one player captures all 13 hearts and the queen of spades in a single hand, that player scores 0 for the hand and each opponent scores 26. This is called shooting the moon (or “running the cards”).
One player captures every heart and the Q♠. That player scores 0 for the hand; each of the other three players scores 26 instead of their usual trick points.
See the shoot the moon guide for when to try it and how opponents can stop you.
Winning the match
After each hand, penalty points are added to running totals. When any player reaches 100 points or more, the player with the lowest total score wins the match.
On Classic Deck Games the match ends as soon as any player reaches the target. The player with the lowest total wins.