What is Spot Hearts?
In the standard game all hearts are equal: the two of hearts costs one point, and so does the ace. In Spot Hearts each heart costs its rank: the two to the ten score their number, the jack 11, the queen 12, the king 13 and the ace 14. The queen of spades costs 25 instead of 13. That makes 129 points at stake in each hand instead of 26.
Everything else is the standard game: passing, the two of clubs leading, following suit, the rule that hearts cannot be led until they are broken and the ban on penalty cards on the first trick are all unchanged. What changes is the play: a low heart is now almost harmless, while the ace, king and queen of hearts are nearly as dangerous as the queen of spades used to be, so players work hard to get rid of their high hearts.
Shooting the moon still means taking every heart and the queen of spades, and it is worth the whole 129 points. Because scores grow so fast, a game to the usual target ends after very few hands; the published suggestion is a target of 500.
Rule changes
| Rule | Standard Hearts | Spot Hearts |
|---|---|---|
| Hearts | Standard Hearts1 point each. | Spot HeartsTheir rank: two to ten at face value, jack 11, queen 12, king 13, ace 14. |
| Queen of spades | Standard Hearts13 points. | Spot Hearts25 points. |
| Points in a hand | Standard Hearts26. | Spot Hearts129 with a full pack. |
| Shooting the moon | Standard HeartsTaking every heart and the queen of spades gives everyone else 26 points, or takes 26 off your score if the table chose that rule. | Spot HeartsThe same, for 129 points. |
| Target score | Standard Hearts100 points, or the target chosen in the setup. | Spot HeartsThe target chosen in the setup. With scores this high, a larger target such as 500 gives a game of normal length. |
| Other options | Standard HeartsBlack Maria, Omnibus, the moon rule and the target score can be chosen. | Spot HeartsAll of them work with Spot Hearts. With Black Maria the king of spades still costs 10 and the ace 7, and there is no moon; with Omnibus the jack of diamonds still takes 10 points off. |
History
Spot Hearts is a scoring variation of Hearts. One common description gives the values used here, the jack of hearts 11, queen 12, king 13 and ace 14, the lower hearts at face value and the queen of spades 25, and suggests a target of about 500 because the scores are so much higher. General accounts of Hearts give the same values for the hearts.
There is also a second version in which the heart court cards count 10 each and the ace 15; that version is not played here. No description gives a date or an inventor for Spot Hearts, and none is claimed here.