Partner hearts

Partner Hearts is a variation on the classic card game Hearts. It was developed by students at The University of Western Ontario in the 1980s, and influenced by the card game Euchre, which is popular in central Canada and the US midwest.

Four players make up the game, with players sitting opposite each other as partners. Each team combines their scores, which are tallied in the same manner as the classic Hearts game. An exception is that teams which 'shoot the moon' by gathering all 13 hearts and the queen of spades score 52 points for the opposition if one member of the team collects all scoring cards (the 13 hearts and the queen of spades).

Games are typically played to 200 points, twice the normal game limit of 100, as points are awarded at twice the rate of the classic game.

The complexity of game play becomes apparent after a few hands. Players become increasingly aware of the need to remember what cards have been played. Comparisons to the savvy needed to play Bridge have been made. A bright young law student once surmized, "This is harder than law school".

Partner Hearts was earlier developed and started in the late 70's and played on a regular basis by accountants at Data Terminal Systems in Stow, Mass and continues to be played on a monthly basis in Norwood, Mass. It is popularly accepted that this team had coined the phrase "those damn middle cards!" and does not use the double scoring for collecting all the books in a game.