Heartsworld

Danger Hearts

Danger Hearts is played using the same rules as Standard Hearts, however there is one distinct difference. Instead of keeping a score of the points taken over a number of rounds, each player starts with three lives. If a player takes 14 points or over in a round, then they lose a life. Once they have lots all of their lives, then they are out. When there are only three players left these are the final rounds. Once one of those three has been knocked out, the game ends. The winner is the player with the most lives left at the end of the game. This simple variation can result in exciting game-play. 

A variation on this is that a player receives an extra life every time they score 0 in a round. This however would result in much longer, potentially never-ending games.

Pip Hearts

Pip Hearts is played using the same rules as Standard Hearts apart from the scoring. In this variation of the game, the Queen of Spades does not have any value, but each heart takes on its own value. For example, the 7 of Hearts is worth seven points. Jack is worth 11, Queen is worth 12, King is worth 13, and the Ace is worth 14 points.

Shooting the Big Moon

Despite how ridiculous may sound, this rule is in force in a number of amateur hearts leagues. This rule states, that over the course of a game if a player has received every single point (i.e been shot against in every round) then they finished with '0' and every other player scores 100 (in a normal game), or 260 (in a ten round game).

10 Round Game

Commonly the game of Hearts finishes once a player reaches 100 points, however these are not the rules in the ARCATM league. Each game lasts 10 rounds. If there is a tie at the end, subsequent rounds are played until a winner is decided.

The Secret Missing Card(s) (3 or 5 player)

Normally when playing 3-player Hearts, the 2 or 3 of Diamonds is taken out. However, an interesting way of playing is to take out a random card at the beginning of the game and keep it face down for the duration of the game. In order to do this, you must isolate all 13 hearts and Queen of Spades and only take the random card out of the remaining cards. The secret card is not revealed until the game has finished. This provides an interesting twist to the game as players are much more cautious in the early rounds until they manage to work out the secret card. For 5 player, one or two cards can be kept secret.