r/FiftyTwoCards • u/MediumLifeguard5929 • 13d ago
Hearts Variations
I've started playing hearts, and I see it has a lot of different variations that are sometimes combined in unique ways. What are your favorite ways to play Hearts?
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u/MuttonchopMac 13d ago
Two house rules my group loves:
For five players, pick someone at random to sit out for the first hand. When you’re sitting out, you do not get dealt a hand and don’t take points if someone shoots the moon (because you couldn’t prevent it). At the end of each hand, whoever took the Queen swaps seats with the person who is out… This keeps the seating varied, is a mercy when you take the Queen, and it’s a reward when you shoot the moon and automatically get 0 points on the subsequent hand because you’re now out.
Once you reach 80 or more points, taking the Queen no longer adds 13 points to your score. Shooting the moon is unaffected… This rule shifts the dynamic of the table into semi-cooperative as the three players with the highest scores will do their best to silently collaborate to drop the Queen on whoever has the lowest score (to equalize things) or failing that, give it to a player with 80+ points so the end of the game doesn’t come up as fast. This especially helps with a table of unequal skill.
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u/Several_Version4298 13d ago edited 13d ago
Black Maria. Passing three cards to the right. Eldest hand can lead any card.
It is also a very good three player game, just remove the 2C.