Classic Hearts against three computer players. Pass three cards, follow suit, avoid points. Lowest score when someone hits 100 wins.
What is Hearts?
Hearts is a four-player trick-taking card game in which you try to avoid winning tricks that contain hearts or the queen of spades, because each heart costs 1 point and the queen costs 13. The game ends when someone reaches 100 points, and the player with the lowest total wins.
There are no trumps and no partners. Every player is on their own, and most of the skill lies in getting rid of dangerous cards at the right moment: passing them before the round, dumping them when you cannot follow suit, and leading in ways that make someone else take the points. On Hevagames you play South against three computer players, West, North and East.
How to play Hearts
The deal and the pass: each round, all 52 cards are dealt, 13 to each player. Before play, everyone chooses three cards to pass. The direction rotates: left in the first round, right in the second, across in the third, and no passing in the fourth, then the cycle repeats. The cards you receive are highlighted in your hand.
Tricks: the player holding the 2 of clubs leads it to the first trick. Each player in turn plays one card. You must follow the suit that was led if you can; if you cannot, you may play any card, including a heart or the queen of spades, even on the first trick. The highest card of the suit that was led wins the trick, with Ace high, and the winner leads the next trick.
Leading hearts: you may not lead a heart until a heart has been played in an earlier trick, which is called breaking hearts, unless your hand holds nothing but hearts.
Scoring a round: after 13 tricks, each player counts the hearts they took, 1 point each, plus 13 for the queen of spades, 26 points in all. If one player takes all 26, they have shot the moon: they score 0 and every other player gets 26. When a round ends with any player at 100 or more, the game is over and the lowest total wins.
Hearts strategy
Pass for safety. The queen, king and ace of spades are the classic cards to pass when you hold few spades, because the king and ace can win the trick on which someone drops the queen. With five or more spades you can usually keep them, since your low spades let you duck spade leads. Pass high hearts too. Do not pass low spades: they are your protection.
Make a void. If you hold two or three clubs or diamonds, passing all of them leaves you with no cards in that suit. Once that suit is led you can throw away the queen of spades or high hearts. A void is often worth more than getting rid of one high card.
Hunt the queen. If you do not hold the queen, king or ace of spades, lead low spades. Whoever holds the queen is forced to play it on a spade trick sooner or later, and with only low spades in your hand you will not be the one who wins it.
Lead low, play under. When you lead, low cards in a suit that has not been played much are safe. When you follow, play the highest card that still loses to the card on the table. Late in a suit, when the trick has no points in it, taking it with a high card can be a free way to get rid of that card.
Count the cards. Each suit has 13 cards. Keep track of how many spades and hearts have gone and whether the queen is still out. Knowing that only one heart is left changes which card you can safely play.
Stop the moon. If one player has taken every point so far in a round, take a heart yourself before the end. Giving up 1 or 2 points is far better than taking 26. If your own hand is full of high hearts and high spades, you can try to shoot the moon, but missing by one heart is costly.
Hearts rules in our version and other variants
Our Hearts plays the standard four-player game: three-card passing in the order left, right, across and hold, the 2 of clubs leading, hearts broken only by a heart, points allowed on the first trick, shooting the moon worth 26 to every other player, and a game to 100. There are no options to change these rules.
Other variants exist. Some versions do not allow points on the first trick, some let the player who shoots the moon subtract 26 from their own score, and some add penalty cards or give a bonus for the jack of diamonds. Versions for three, five or six players also exist. This game is for one player against three computer players; there is no online or local multiplayer.
Where Hearts comes from
Hearts descends from older European card games in which the aim was to avoid taking tricks or certain cards, such as Reversis. The game was recorded in the United States in the 1880s. The rule that makes the queen of spades worth 13 points comes from a version known as Black Lady, and it is the form most people play today.
Hearts reached a very large audience when it was included on personal computers in the 1990s, and the phrase shooting the moon has been part of the game's language for a long time.
Play Hearts on Hevagames
Our Hearts runs in the browser on phones, tablets and computers, with nothing to install. Tap a card to select it, then tap it again or press Play. To pass, tap three cards and press Pass, then OK after you see what you received. Cards you are not allowed to play are dimmed, and the message line tells you what to do: lead the 2 of clubs, follow suit, or play any card. With a keyboard, Tab moves between cards and Enter plays.
The Scores button shows the points of the current round and the running totals for all four players. The whole game, including the hands, the trick on the table and the scores, is saved in your browser and continues after a reload. The game also counts how many games you have won; you win when your total is the lowest, ties included.
How to play
- 1Each round you get 13 cards. Pick 3 to pass left, right or across; every fourth round nobody passes.
- 2The player with the 2 of clubs leads the first trick. Follow the suit that was led if you can.
- 3The highest card of the led suit takes the trick. Each heart is 1 point, the queen of spades 13.
- 4You cannot lead hearts until a heart has been played, unless you hold only hearts.
- 5The game ends when a player reaches 100 points. The lowest total wins.
Controls
Tips
- Pass the queen, king and ace of spades if you hold few spades.
- Get rid of a whole suit early so you can throw away hearts and the queen later.
- Taking all 26 points in a round (shooting the moon) gives 26 to every other player instead.
