Hearts FAQ

Hearts is a 4-player trick-taking card game played with one standard 52-card deck, where the goal is to avoid points rather than collect them. Every heart is worth 1 penalty point and the queen of spades is worth 13. Players take turns playing to tricks, and whoever has the lowest total score when someone reaches 100 points wins the match.

Yes. heartscardgame.app is completely free and runs entirely in your browser against three computer opponents. There is nothing to buy, download, or install, and there are no interruptive video ads, premium tiers, or paywalls.

No. The game is the website — a 100% browser-based build with no app store download and no sign-up. Your stats are saved locally in your browser, so there is no login to manage.

Hearts descends from a family of 19th-century European trick-avoidance games. The American form most people play today — with passing, the queen of spades worth 13 points, and shooting the moon — took shape in the early 20th century and became a fixture of casual card play, later spreading widely through early computer and Windows card game bundles.

Deal 13 cards to each of four players. Before most hands, each player passes three cards to a neighbor — left, then right, then across, then no pass, repeating every four hands. Whoever holds the two of clubs leads the first trick; everyone must follow suit if able, and the highest card of the suit led wins the trick and leads the next. Hearts score 1 point each and the queen of spades scores 13. Play continues, hand after hand, until someone's total reaches 100 — the lowest score at that point wins.

If a single player takes every point-scoring card in a hand — all 13 hearts and the queen of spades, 26 points total — the scoring flips. That player scores 0 for the hand instead of 26, and every other player scores 26. It is a bold, high-risk way to close a scoring gap in one hand.

Hearts cannot be led until they are "broken" — meaning a heart has already been played to some earlier trick in the hand, usually because a player without the led suit discarded one. The only exception is when your whole remaining hand is hearts, in which case you have no other legal lead.

Before a hand starts, you choose three cards from your hand and pass them face down. The direction rotates every hand: left, then right, then across, then a hand with no pass at all, and the cycle repeats. You also receive three cards from a neighbor before the first trick is led.

During the pass, tap up to three cards to select them, then tap "Pass 3 cards." On your turn, legal cards are highlighted — tap or click one to play it. On the keyboard, Tab moves focus between cards and Enter or Space plays the focused one; N deals a new match and M toggles sound.

No — Hearts does not use foundations, and once a card is played to a trick it cannot be taken back. That is standard for the game: every play is a real decision, which is part of what makes reading the table matter.

Pass away your most dangerous cards — the queen of spades and high spades especially — and try to keep a few low cards in every suit so you always have a safe card to follow with. Avoid leading hearts before they are broken, track which opponents are void in a suit, and only attempt to shoot the moon when your hand is genuinely strong in both hearts and spades.

The three computer players use real Hearts heuristics: they pass away dangerous cards like the queen of spades and high spades, avoid leading hearts before they are broken, duck under tricks they do not want to win, and unload point cards when they are void in the led suit. They play a solid, sensible game without seeing your hand.

The queen of spades if you have her, followed by the ace and king of spades if you do not hold enough low spades to protect yourself later. After that, your highest hearts are usually next, since they are guaranteed penalty points if you end up taking them.

The current streak counts consecutive matches you have won (had the lowest score when someone reached 100). Starting a new match before the current one finishes, or finishing a match without the lowest score, resets the current streak to zero. Your longest streak is kept as a separate best.

Matches played and won, your best winning score, total hands played, moon shots, and your win streak are saved locally in your browser. Nothing is sent to a server and there is no account. A match in progress is not saved if you close the tab.

Yes. The layout is built for touch: tap a card to select it during the pass, or tap a highlighted card to play it on your turn. The whole table fits on one portrait screen, and dealing a new match is instant with no page reload.

The game needs a connection to load the page the first time. After that, some browsers may keep the tab playable without a network, but there is no dedicated offline app or installer.

Open Stats from the game menu and use Reset progress, then confirm with the second tap. That clears matches played, matches won, best score, hands played, moon shots, and streaks on this browser. It cannot be undone.

Any current browser with JavaScript: Chrome, Edge, Firefox, and Safari on desktop, plus their mobile versions. If cards do not respond, update the browser, allow scripts for this site, and reload.