Hearts
The trick-taking game where you try not to win. Every heart costs a point and the queen of spades costs thirteen; pass your worst three cards away, follow suit, and be the lowest when somebody reaches a hundred. Four hands, and the bot fills any chair a person does not take.
The deal and the pass
- Four hands of thirteen cards from a standard pack. At three hands the two of diamonds is taken out and everybody gets seventeen.
- Before the first trick each player passes three cards face down: to the left on the first hand, to the right on the second, across on the third, and on the fourth nobody passes. At three hands it goes left, right, then no pass.
- You choose your three before you see what you are getting. When the last pass is in, the cards change hands and the player holding the two of clubs leads.
Playing a trick
- The two of clubs leads the first trick. After that the winner of each trick leads the next.
- Follow suit if you can. If you cannot, play anything: this is how the queen and the hearts get dumped on whoever is winning the trick.
- The highest card of the suit led takes the trick. There are no trumps.
- A heart may not be led until a heart has been played on an earlier trick, unless you hold nothing but hearts. The queen of spades does not break hearts here, and the first trick is not protected: a heart or the queen may be thrown on it. That is the main text of the published rules; both protections are variations, and this site does not play them.
Scoring
- At the end of a hand each heart you took counts one point against you and the queen of spades thirteen, so twenty-six points are dealt out every hand.
- Take all twenty-six and you have shot the moon: instead of scoring them, twenty-six go on to everybody else. The choice the published rules give the shooter, twenty-six off their own score instead, is made for you here: it is taken only when giving the points away would end the match with you behind somebody.
How a game ends
- The match ends at the end of the hand in which anybody reaches a hundred or more. It never ends in the middle of a hand.
- The lowest total wins. Equal lowest totals share first place, and there is no winner.
- A resignation or a missed deadline ends the game against that player: their seat finishes last and the others are placed by their totals. At a table with a bot in it the game is not rated.
Worth knowing before you start
- Pass your danger, not your rubbish: the queen of spades, the ace and king of spades, and high hearts go first. Low cards are what get you out of tricks later.
- A void is worth more than a low card. With no cards of the suit led you can throw the queen or a heart on whoever is winning, so passing the last one or two of a short suit is often the best pass.
- Count the queen. Until she has been played, every high spade you hold is a risk and every trick you win in spades is a risk; once she is gone, spades are safe.
- Watch the player who has taken every point so far. Once they have a handful of hearts they may be trying for the moon, and taking one heart off them costs you one point and saves you twenty-six.
- The bot fills the empty chairs. Two people sit at four hands with the bot playing the other two; a game with a bot at the table is not rated.
The deal comes from the seed, published when the game ends, so every hand can be checked. Each pass was made in secret and shown only to the player who received it.
Hearts terms
- Breaking hearts
- The first heart played on any trick. Until then a heart cannot be led, except by a hand of nothing but hearts.
- Shooting the moon
- Taking every heart and the queen of spades in one hand: twenty-six points to everybody else instead of to you.
- A void
- Holding no cards of a suit, so that when it is led you may play anything.