Hearts tournament rules

By Marya · Updated by Holger in September 2026

"Tournament rules" are a little different from the standard rules of Hearts at World of Card Games:

• There's no "no-passing" round. Cards are passed left, right, across, then left again, and so on. In the standard version, the order is left, right, across, no pass, and then it starts over.
• If hearts haven't been broken and the player in the lead holds only the Queen of Spades and some hearts, they may lead a heart instead of being forced to lead the Queen. In the standard version, they must lead the Queen.

They're called tournament rules because they were used in the Hearts tournaments that Joe Andrews ran some years ago. The idea is to put less weight on luck and more on skill.

How to use the tournament rules option

If you don't mind whether you play by standard rules or tournament rules, set the tournament rules option to "Either". When you join an existing Hearts table, you may be seated at either type of table. "Either" gets you seated the quickest.

If you like tournament rules and would rather not play at standard rules tables, set the option to "Yes". This can mean a longer wait, because other people may be playing at standard rules tables and you won't be seated there. You will still see those tables in the list of open tables, though.

If you prefer standard rules and would rather not play at tournament rules tables, set the option to "No". This can also mean a longer wait.

When you choose "Join table" in the Hearts menu on the home page, you'll normally be seated at an existing Hearts table that matches all your Hearts options. Sometimes no such table exists. Then a new one has to be created for you. If you want that new table to use tournament rules, you have to set the option to "Yes". With "Either", you may join either type of table, but a table created for you will use standard rules.

"Play ranked" follows the same option. With "Yes" you play on the tournament rules leaderboard only. With "No" you play on the standard one only. With "Either" you take the first ranked seat. A new ranked table then uses standard rules. The first time you choose "Play ranked" in Hearts, the site asks which you want and saves your answer as this option.

You can always change your options, so don't be afraid to try one or the other. You'll find "Options" in the Hearts menu on the home page. You can switch back and forth whenever you're there. In 2018, the button looked like this:

If you use the list of tables to look for a table, you can tell the tournament rules tables from the standard rules ones. In the older screenshot below, the first table uses tournament rules and is marked "tr". The second doesn't, but it uses the "First-trick hearts" option. The third is a regular standard rules table: