How to play Hearts

Duck the hearts, dodge the queen of spades, and finish with the lowest score after thirteen tricks against three computer players.

Play Hearts free → More card games games

Hearts is a trick-taking game in the "avoidance" family: unlike whist or bridge you are trying *not* to win tricks, or at least not the ones with points in them. It is a four-player game with a genuine strategic twist — the option to take everything instead of nothing.

The deal and the pass

The full 52-card deck is dealt out, thirteen cards each. Before play, everyone selects three cards to pass simultaneously. The direction rotates hand by hand: left, right, across, then a hold hand where no cards are passed at all. Because the pass is simultaneous, you choose your three before seeing what arrives — the standard mistake is passing away the low spades you will need to protect yourself from the queen.

Play, and the restrictions

The holder of the two of clubs leads it to the first trick. You must follow the led suit if you can; if you are void, you may play any card, and that is your only opportunity to unload a heart or the queen of spades onto someone else. Two restrictions catch people out. No point card — no heart, no queen of spades — may be played on the very first trick at all. And hearts may not be *led* until hearts have been broken, meaning until a heart has been discarded on some earlier trick. Following suit with a heart is always legal; leading one before the break is not.

How scoring works in Hearts

Each heart taken is one point and the queen of spades is thirteen, so a hand contains 26 points. Points are bad. The game continues, hand after hand, until someone reaches 100, at which point the player with the *lowest* total wins.

Shooting the moon

If a single player takes all thirteen hearts and the queen of spades in one hand, they score zero and every other player scores 26. This changes everything about how the game is played, because it means you cannot safely dump points on the same opponent all hand — feeding one player is how a shoot succeeds. Watching for a player who has taken every point so far, and deliberately taking one to break it, is a standard defensive move.

What the queen really is

The queen of spades is half the points in the deck in one card. Most of a hand's tactics are about her: whether you hold the ace or king of spades and are therefore in danger of being forced to take her, whether you can flush her out by leading low spades early, and whether you can hold a low spade back as protection for the endgame.

Controls

Tap a highlighted card to play it; only legal cards are enabled.

During the pass, tap three cards to raise them and press Pass.
Arrow keys walk your hand, Enter plays.

Strategy tips

Pass high spades — ace, king, queen — unless you hold four or more spades to protect them. A bare king of spades is a liability.
Keep low spades. They are your escape from being forced to take the queen late in the hand.
Create a void in a suit you are weak in when passing; the freedom to discard is worth more than any single card you keep.
Lead low early to lose tricks cheaply and gather information about who is void in what.
Do not dump every point on the same opponent. Feeding one player is exactly how someone shoots the moon at your expense.
Watch for a shoot. If one player has taken all the points so far, take a single heart deliberately to break it — one point beats twenty-six.
Count the spades. Knowing how many are still out tells you whether leading a low spade is safe or is about to draw the queen onto you.