What you need
Hearts is played by four players, each on their own, with one ordinary pack of 52 cards and no jokers. Aces are high, so the order in every suit runs 2, 3, 4 and so on up to 10, Jack, Queen, King and Ace. There are no trumps: a card of another suit never wins a trick. On this site you play against three computer players, so a game is always ready.
The goal
Take as few points as you can. Points come in only two kinds of card:
- every heart is worth 1 point, so the thirteen hearts add up to 13;
- the Queen of Spades, sometimes called the Black Lady, is worth 13 points on her own.
That makes 26 points in every hand. The game is played over several hands, and ends as soon as at least one player has 100 points or more. The player with the lowest total wins.
The deal
The cards are shuffled and dealt one at a time, face down, until every player has 13. Sort your cards by suit so you can see what you hold: on this site they are sorted for you, clubs, diamonds, spades and hearts, low to high.
Passing three cards
Before anyone plays, each player chooses three cards and passes them face down to another player. Which way depends on the hand:
- first hand: to the player on your left;
- second hand: to the player on your right;
- third hand: to the player across the table;
- fourth hand: no passing; everyone keeps their cards.
Then the pattern starts again. You must choose your three before you look at the ones passed to you. Passing is your chance to get rid of trouble: the Queen of Spades, the Ace and King of Spades, high hearts, or the last few cards of a short suit.
Playing a trick
The player holding the 2 of Clubs plays it to start the first trick. Play then goes round the table to the left, each player adding one card. The rule that matters most:
- Follow suit if you can. If you hold a card of the suit that was led, you must play one of them. Which one is up to you.
- If you cannot follow, play any card. This is the moment to give away the Queen of Spades or a high heart, because a card of another suit can never win the trick.
When all four have played, the highest card of the suit that was led wins the trick. Its player takes the four cards, sets them aside face down, and leads any card to start the next trick.
Two rules that protect the first trick and the hearts
- No points on the first trick. Nobody may play a heart or the Queen of Spades on the first trick, even with no clubs, unless every card in their hand is a heart or the Queen.
- Hearts must be broken before they are led. You may not lead a heart until a heart has been played on an earlier trick, by someone who could not follow suit. After that, “hearts are broken” and anyone may lead them. The one exception: if you hold nothing but hearts, you may lead one. On this site the Queen of Spades does not break hearts, and she may be led at any time.
Scoring
When all 13 tricks have been played, each player counts the points in the tricks they took: 1 for each heart and 13 for the Queen of Spades. Those points are added to their total.
Shooting the moon
If one player takes all 26 points, every heart and the Queen of Spades, they have “shot the moon”. Instead of scoring 26 themselves, they score nothing for the hand and each of the other three players scores 26. Shooting the moon takes a strong hand full of high cards, and it fails the moment anyone else takes a single heart, so it is a gamble. The usual way to stop someone who is trying is simply to take one heart yourself, even if it costs you a point.
The end of the game
After every hand, check the totals. As soon as anyone has reached 100 points or more, the game is over, and the player with the lowest score wins. If two players share the lowest score, they share the win.
Tips to win more games
- Pass the Queen of Spades, unless you hold four or more low spades to hide behind her. Pass the Ace and King of Spades as well when you have few spades: they win the trick the Queen falls on.
- Empty a suit. Passing your last two or three clubs or diamonds means that, once that suit is led, you can give away points on every trick of it.
- Keep low cards. A 2 or a 3 lets you stay under the winning card late in the hand, when tricks are heavy with hearts.
- Get rid of high cards early. On the first trick nobody can give you points, so it is a safe time to play your highest club.
- Lead spades to find the Queen. If you do not hold the Queen, King or Ace of Spades, leading low spades again and again forces whoever has her to play her eventually.
- Count the cards that have gone. Remember whether the Queen of Spades has been played, and which suits other players have run out of. Once the Queen is gone, your high spades are safe.
- Watch for a moon. If one player has taken every point so far and keeps winning tricks, take a heart yourself to stop them.
Other ways people play
Hearts has many house rules. Some tables let the Queen of Spades break hearts, or allow points on the first trick. In Omnibus Hearts, the Jack of Diamonds is worth 10 points off your score. Some players let the moon shooter choose to take 26 points off their own total instead of giving 26 to everyone else. And with three or five players, cards are removed from the pack so everyone gets the same number. The game on this site plays the standard rules described above, the ones most people learned from the Windows game.
Where Hearts comes from
Hearts belongs to an old family of card games in which the aim is to avoid taking tricks, going back to the Spanish game of Reversis. Hearts itself was being played in America by the 1880s. The Queen of Spades was added later, in a version called Black Lady, and passing cards came after that. Microsoft put Hearts into Windows in 1992, with a version that could be played over an office network, and it stayed there until Windows 8, which is how millions of people learned the game.
Where to play
Start a game of Hearts against three computer players: Hint explains every card it suggests, so it is a good way to learn. If you prefer a game on your own, Klondike Solitaire, FreeCell and Spider Solitaire are here too.