Hearts

Hearts is a four-player card game where the aim is to score as few points as possible. Each heart you capture is worth 1 point and the Queen of Spades is worth 13. The full 52-card deck is dealt, you pass three cards at the start of each hand, then play out thirteen tricks.

The 2♣ leads the first trick. You must follow the led suit if you can; if you can't, you may play anything. The highest card of the led suit wins the trick and leads the next. Hearts can't be led until a heart has been discarded ('broken'). The game ends when a player reaches the point limit, and the lowest total wins.

• Pass three cards each hand, left, right, across, then a hold round with no pass.
• Take all 26 points in a single hand to 'shoot the moon', everyone else takes 26 instead of you.
• Lowest cumulative score wins when the game ends.

• Desktop: click three cards in your hand and confirm to pass, then click a highlighted legal card to play it.
• Phone & tablet: tap to select cards and tap to play, only legal cards are highlighted, so you can't make an illegal move. No keyboard needed.

• Daily, one shared deal each day against three CPU opponents.
• New Game, a fresh randomly shuffled hand versus three CPUs.
• Online, host or join a code, or quick-match, for a live four-player table.

• Pass away high spades (and the Queen) and long-suit dangers unless you're set up to shoot the moon.
• Void yourself in a suit so you can dump the Queen of Spades or hearts on someone else's trick.
• Track which high cards are gone, leading low keeps you off the trick that drops the Queen on you.
• Only chase the moon when you hold the top cards in most suits; one missed trick ruins it.

Hearts descends from a family of games built on an inversion: tricks are a liability, not a prize. Its likely parent is Reversis, popular in Spain around 1750, which charged a penalty point for every trick taken and extra for capturing the jack or queen of hearts.

The game as played now emerged in the United States in the 1880s. The Standard Hoyle of 1887 reported it had been played there only for "the last five years" and judged it "probably of German origin" — while calling it "a most pleasant game, highly provocative of laughter".

Remarkably little has changed since. It was already a no-trump trick-taking game for four, played with a full pack, in which the object was to avoid taking hearts. The variants that came later mostly concern how severely the queen of spades should be punished.

Hearts is a traditional trick-avoidance card game from the wider Whist family, beloved for its blend of luck, card-counting and table psychology. This is an original, free browser version against three computer opponents or live players online, playable instantly with no download or sign-up.

A free, original browser game on PlayPendium. No download, no install.