Q&A for How to Play Hearts

No, not until a heart has been "broken" by a player discarding a heart on another player's lead.

If you get caught by the other players during or after the hand, you get penalized by reneging and you'll get penalized 26 points.

No! It is best not to tip your hand. Hopefully, by the time other players realize you are shooting the moon, it will be too late. It is up to the players to be observant of everyone's strategy.

No, it doesn't. The only way to break hearts is to play a heart, if you don't follow the suit.

No, you don't have to throw a heart if you cannot follow suit. You can throw down any card you want. People have a tendency to throw the hearts so they don't get caught with them in the end.

Yes, the queen can be played at any time, even if hearts are not broken. To state it another way, if no hearts have been played, hearts are not broken, even if the queen has been played.

You will lose if you have nothing but hearts and hearts have been broken. All other players lose, too. Only the one who led the suit that is available in your hand other than hearts and you must follow it, will win.

The Queen of Spades is worth 13 points.

If you successfully shoot the moon, you receive 0 points and every other player receives 26 points.

A variant of the game is to award negative ten (10) points to the player who captures the jack of diamonds. The jack of diamonds is not required to shoot the moon. This variant creates another opportunity for strategy within the game.

Yes. If spades is led and the queen is the only spade one has, the player must play it. On the reverse, if the queen is led, it must be followed by spades if possible.

No hearts can be played on the first trick. However, you can play the queen.

Using the standard 52-card deck, each player would get 17 cards and 1 would be left over.

Yes. If hearts haven't been broken yet (a heart played on another suit), than you may not lead with a heart, so you must lead with the queen of spades.