Hearts Scoring — Points, Totals & Winning
Hearts is a penalty game — you want the lowest score. Hearts are worth 1 point each, the queen of spades is worth 13, and a full “moon” is 26 points. 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.
Scoring examples (quick table)
Here are common scoring outcomes. In every example below, you add the hand score to your running total (lower is better).
| What you captured | Hand score |
|---|---|
| 0 hearts, no Q♠ | 0 |
| 3 hearts | 3 |
| Q♠ only | 13 |
| 2 hearts + Q♠ | 15 |
| All 13 hearts, no Q♠ | 13 |
| All hearts + Q♠ (shoot the moon) | 0 (you), 26 (each opponent) |
Why the lowest score wins
Hearts is designed as a “penalty” trick-taking game. Instead of collecting points as a reward, you are trying to avoid penalty cards that opponents force into your tricks.
That flips the normal trick-taking goal: sometimes you intentionally lose tricks. Your score is the total penalty points you have been stuck with over the match, so the lowest total is the best result.
What is 26 points in Hearts?
There are 26 penalty points in a deck: 13 hearts worth 1 point each (13 total) plus the queen of spades worth 13 points.
That is why shooting the moon is a 26-point swing: one player takes every penalty card in a hand, then scoring flips to 0 for the shooter and 26 for everyone else (on this site).
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.
What happens if two players tie?
Ties can happen if two players end the match on the same total score. The core rules do not have a single universal tie-breaker — different groups handle it differently.
On Classic Deck Games, if two players tie for the lowest score at match end, the game treats it as a tie for first (shared win).
Does the Queen of Spades break hearts?
No. Hearts are broken only when a heart is played on a trick led in another suit (someone discards a heart because they cannot follow suit).
Playing Q♠ does not break hearts by itself. Q♠ is a penalty card, but “breaking hearts” is specifically about when hearts are allowed to be led.
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.