Hearts is a four-player trick-taking game where the goal is to avoid points. Every heart you take adds 1 penalty point to your score, the Queen of Spades adds 13, and the game ends as soon as someone reaches 100, with the lowest score winning. This version follows the classic four-handed rules, where you pass three cards after the deal, the 2♣ leads and hearts must be broken, and you play them against three computer opponents at one of four difficulty levels. They see only their own hands and the cards already played.
Because the other three players have already seen it. Once a card is on the trick it stays there, and the computer players can't be asked to forget a card they watched you play.
At the end of all 13 tricks, only hearts and the Queen of Spades carry points:
| Card or outcome | Penalty points |
|---|---|
| Each heart (2♥ through A♥) | 1 point each (13 total in the suit) |
| Queen of Spades (Q♠) | 13 points |
| Shoot the moon (one player takes all 13 hearts + Q♠) | 0 for the shooter; 26 added to each of the other three players |
House rules differ on the next three questions; the answers are how they work here.
No. Dropping the Q♠ on an early club or diamond trick does not open hearts for leading; only a discarded heart breaks hearts.
No. Shooting the moon always adds 26 points to each of the other three players rather than subtracting 26 from your own total.
Play goes on. Once any player reaches 100 or more, the lowest score wins. If two or more players are tied for the lowest score at that moment, extra hands are dealt until one player stands alone at the bottom.
The three cards you pass shape the whole hand.
Start with your spades. The Q♠ with only one or two small spades to protect her is a liability, so pass her. A bare A♠ or K♠ is nearly as risky, because one spade lead can force it out just as the Queen falls on it. With four or more low spades you can usually keep the Queen, and even the A♠ or K♠, and play under every spade lead.
Next, look for a short side suit you can empty completely. Having no clubs or no diamonds is worth more than passing three random high cards, because every lead in the missing suit becomes a free chance to drop the Q♠ or your highest hearts. Hold on to your 2s, 3s and 4s while you do it. Late in the hand, a low card such as the 3♥ or 4♦ is what lets you slip under a trick instead of winning it.
The direction tells you where your three cards went. On most tricks the player on your left plays right after you, and the player on your right plays right before you. If you passed the Q♠ to the right, you will often see whether she comes down before you have to play your own high spade. Passed to the left, she sits behind you, and putting the A♠ or K♠ on a spade trick ahead of her is how she comes back to you. On the hold hand nobody can pass a problem suit away, so voids appear later than usual and bare high cards are punished hardest.
Most hands revolve around flushing out the Q♠ without catching her yourself. If you lack the A♠ and K♠, leading low spades early forces the players holding the top spades to burn them, or forces the Queen out onto someone else’s trick. If you hold the Queen yourself, wait for a spade lead where the A♠ or K♠ is already on the table, or for the first lead in a suit you have emptied, and throw her immediately.
In clubs and diamonds, cash your Aces and Kings on the first or second round of the suit while everyone still has to follow. By the third round, someone is usually void and waiting to drop the Q♠ or the A♥ on the winner. When you cannot win a trick cleanly, or do not want it, duck with the highest card that still loses so that card cannot trap you into winning a later trick.
You don’t have to memorize every card that fell, as a card counter appears once the first trick is under way (showing which cards remain unseen, which are in your hand, and which have been played).
Running all 26 points takes a hand built for control, with a string of top hearts (A♥ K♥ Q♥ J♥), the Q♠ either in your hand or trapped behind your A♠ K♠, and a long side suit to win the lead and run tricks once the other players are out of winners. Falling one heart short leaves you with 25 penalty points, the worst possible result on a hand, so avoid committing until you know you can win the remaining heart tricks.
Watch the trick piles across the table as closely as your own. The moment one player has taken several hearts and is still leading high winners on purpose, stop playing to avoid points entirely: win a single trick containing even one small heart. Putting 1 point into a second player’s pile kills the moon shot for the whole table.
Avoid the points instead of chasing tricks: every heart costs one and the Queen of Spades thirteen, and the three hands you cannot see decide how much lands on you.
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