Gambling terms, explained straight

Card Games

Whist vs hearts

A phrase used to compare two trick-taking games: whist, where the aim is to win tricks for points, and hearts, where the aim is to avoid tricks containing penalty cards.

Objective
Whist: win tricks. Hearts: avoid penalty cards.
Scoring
Whist: 1 point per odd trick won. Hearts: each heart = 1 point, queen of spades = 13 points.12

Key points

  • Whist awards points for tricks taken above six; hearts assigns penalty points for hearts and the queen of spades.21
  • Both games use a standard 52-card deck, but hearts is typically played to 100 points.12

Where this term is used

Card games Whist The original trick-taking game where the goal is to win tricks. Card games Hearts card game An evasion trick-taking game where penalty cards are to be avoided. Card games Whist vs bridge Compares whist with contract bridge, a more complex bidding game. Card games Whist suit Explains the role of the trump suit in whist. Card games Whist vs euchre Compares whist with euchre, a faster trick-taking game. Card games Whist vs spades Compares whist with spades, a bidding trick-taking game.

Sources

  1. Hearts bicyclecards.com Provides scoring details for hearts, including point values and target score.
  2. Whist en.wikipedia.org Supports the description of whist's scoring and rules.

Sources are drawn from regulators, universities and published research, and each one is labelled with what it actually is — a preprint is not called a paper. Bookmaker and affiliate pages are never cited here, because a page that sells betting is not a neutral authority on it.

Written and maintained by Ellis Warrender, writer and maintainer.

Last updated 28 July 2026. Spotted an error? Tell me and it gets fixed and logged on the corrections page.