Hearts scoring and shooting the moon

This guide uses the scoring on our Hearts rules page.

Penalty cards

Card	Penalty
Each heart	1
Queen of spades	13

There are 13 hearts and the queen, so every hand carries 26 penalty points in total. The penalties you record for a hand should add up to 26 (78 after a moon shot, since three opponents add 26 each). If they do not, look for a counting error.

Ending the game

Play hands until a player reaches 100 or more. The player with the lowest total then wins. If the lowest totals are tied, share the win or play more hands until one player is lowest. Agree that before you start.

Shooting the moon

If one player takes all 13 hearts and the queen of spades in one hand, they shoot the moon. In this version the shooter scores 0 and each opponent adds 26.

Another published form subtracts 26 from the shooter’s score instead. Decide which you use before the game.

Example

Three hands with four players:

Hand	Anna	Ben	Cy	Dee
1	5	13	6	2
2	0	26	0	0
3	8	4	9	5

In hand 2, Ben took every penalty card without a moon shot. In a moon shot by Ben, the row would instead read Ben 0, the others 26 each.

Variants

• Jack of diamonds: whoever takes it subtracts 10. Off by default in this version.
• Three players: remove the two of diamonds, deal 17 each.
• Five players: remove the two of clubs, deal 10 each.
• The queen of spades alone does not break hearts in this version.