The game of hearts is scored in a golf sort of way. The lower the score the better. Usually the game is played to 100; when one player reaches one hundred, the game ends. If
playing for money, payoff is based on point differential, but it has many variations.
All hearts are worth a point each, and the queen of spades is 13.
So you have one of two objectives in each hand: sluff off as many hearts and the Queen as possible to stay low or ... if you think you have the hand, "
shoot the moon" by capturing all the hearts and the queen. If you do, each of your opponents is "assessed" 26 points. (shooting the moon)
It's a great play, but a risky one. A player looking to
shoot the moon often gets all but say 1 or 2 points. So instead of his opponents being hit for 26 each, they get zero and you would eat 24 points(if another player had, say, 2 hearts)