How to play Hearts
The goal
Take as few points as you can. When anyone’s total reaches 100 (or 50, if you chose a shorter game) at the end of a hand, the player with the lowest total wins. A tie for lowest counts as a shared win.
The rules
- The deal. Each of the four players gets 13 cards. Aces are high, and there are no trumps.
- Passing. Before each hand, everyone passes three cards: to the left in the first hand, then to the right, then across the table. Every fourth hand, nobody passes.
- The first trick. Whoever holds the 2 of clubs leads it. Nobody may play a heart or the queen of spades on this trick unless they have nothing else they can play.
- Following suit. Play goes clockwise. You must play a card of the suit that was led if you have one. If you don’t, you may play any card.
- Taking tricks. The highest card of the suit led takes the trick, and whoever took it leads the next one.
- Leading hearts. You can’t lead a heart until a heart has been played on an earlier trick (hearts are “broken”), unless your hand holds nothing but hearts. The queen of spades doesn’t break hearts.
- Scoring. Each heart you take is 1 point, and the queen of spades is 13. There are 26 points in every hand.
- Shooting the moon. If you take all 13 hearts and the queen of spades, you score 0 and everyone else scores 26. You can choose a new game where the shooter scores −26 instead.
- Jack of diamonds (optional). With this house rule on, whoever takes the jack of diamonds scores 10 points less. It doesn’t count toward shooting the moon.
Playing your cards
Tap or click a card to play it. Cards you can’t play right now are hatched, and the message under the table says why. To pass, tap three cards so they rise, then press Pass. If you’d like a safety net against stray taps, turn on Tap, then confirm in Settings: the first tap raises a card, and a second tap plays it.
| Key | Action |
|---|---|
| ← → (or ↑ ↓) | Move along your hand |
| Home / End | Jump to the first or last card |
| Enter or Space | Play the card, or choose it for passing |
| H | Show a hint |
| L | See the last trick |
| Escape | Close a dialog |
Difficulty
- Easy: relaxed company that makes the odd friendly mistake.
- Normal: solid players who duck tricks, dump the queen of spades when they can, and stop an obvious moon.
- Hard: they imagine where the unseen cards might be, play each choice out, and pick the best. They notice who is out of a suit, and they’ll shoot the moon when the cards allow.
Tips
- Pass the queen of spades, or the ace and king of spades, unless you hold plenty of low spades to protect them.
- Passing away a whole short suit gives you a void, so you can drop hearts and high cards when that suit is led.
- Lead low spades to flush out the queen, as long as you don’t hold her yourself.
- Keep an eye on the hearts beside each player. If one player has every point so far, take a heart from them before they shoot the moon.
Questions
Do the computer players cheat? No. They only know their own cards, the cards that have been played, and who has failed to follow suit.
What counts as a game played? A game counts once someone reaches the target score. Games you replace before then don’t count.
Do I need an account? No. Your game saves on this device automatically. An optional account adds cloud saves across devices.
