Guide
How to Play Hearts
Hearts is a game of avoidance. Pass three cards, follow suit, and keep every heart — and the queen of spades — out of your trick pile, unless you are ready to gamble on the moon.
Play HeartsThe objective
Avoid points, not collect them
Hearts is played with one standard 52-card deck across four seats: you and three computer opponents. Every heart is worth 1 penalty point and the queen of spades is worth 13. Hands are dealt and played until someone's running total reaches 100 — whoever has the lowest total at that point wins the match.
Between the deal and the finish, the work is reading the table: what has been played, who is void in what, and when it is safe to let a trick come to you. There is no timer forcing your hand; the challenge is the order you do things in.
The game is free, runs in the browser, and needs no account. Open the table when you want to play; use this guide for the rules and the habits that win more matches.
The deal
Thirteen cards each, then a pass
All 52 cards are dealt out evenly: 13 to you, 13 to each of the three computer opponents. Before most hands, everyone chooses three cards and passes them face down to a neighbor — left on the first hand, right on the second, across on the third, and no pass at all on the fourth. The cycle then repeats.
Once the pass is settled, whoever holds the two of clubs leads it to start the first trick. Every deal here is a fresh shuffle, so no two hands play quite the same.
Controls
Tap, click, or use the keyboard
There is no dragging in Hearts — every action is a single tap or click.
Passing
Tap or click to select
During the pass, tap three cards in your hand to select them — a selected card lifts slightly. Tap "Pass 3 cards" once you have exactly three chosen, or tap a selected card again to swap your pick.
Your turn
Tap or click to play
When it is your turn, legal cards are highlighted and the rest are dimmed. Tap or click any highlighted card to play it to the trick — there is no dragging.
Desktop
Keyboard
Tab moves focus between your cards and Enter or Space plays or selects the focused one, so the whole hand is keyboard-operable. N deals a new match and M mutes the sound.
The loop
Four steps you repeat every match
Reading the table, then choosing between these four is the whole game.
- 1
Deal and pass
All 52 cards are dealt, 13 to you and 13 to each of three computer opponents. Before play, everyone chooses three cards and passes them face down — to the left, then the right, then across, then no pass at all, cycling every four hands.
- 2
Follow suit
Whoever holds the two of clubs leads it to start the first trick. Play goes in turn order, and every player must follow the suit that was led if they can. With no card of that suit, any card may be played — this is how hearts usually get "broken."
- 3
Win the trick, or dodge it
The highest card of the suit that was led wins the trick and leads the next one. Hearts and the queen of spades carry penalty points, so the goal is usually to avoid winning tricks that contain them — unless you are going for the moon.
- 4
Score and repeat
Each heart is worth 1 point and the queen of spades is worth 13. Points are tallied after all 13 tricks are played and added to a running total. Deal again until someone reaches 100 — the lowest total at that point wins.
Rules & scoring
Every rule that decides a play
The objective
Hearts is a game of avoidance. Every heart you take is worth 1 penalty point and the queen of spades is worth 13. When the match ends, the lowest total score wins — so the aim on most hands is to take as few points as possible.
The pass
Before each hand (except the fourth in every cycle, which has no pass), every player chooses three cards from their 13-card hand and passes them face down to a neighbor: left on the first hand, right on the second, across on the third, then the cycle repeats.
Leading and following
The two of clubs always leads the first trick of a hand. After that, the winner of each trick leads the next. Players must follow the suit that was led if able; with none of that suit, any card in hand may be played.
Hearts and the first trick
You may not lead a heart until a heart has been played to some earlier trick in the hand — unless your entire hand is hearts. On the very first trick of a hand, a player with no clubs may not throw a heart or the queen of spades unless every remaining card is a point card.
Shooting the moon
If one player takes every heart and the queen of spades in a single hand — all 26 penalty points — the scoring flips: that player scores 0 for the hand and everyone else scores 26. It is a high-risk, high-reward way to close a gap fast.
The big swing
Shooting the moon
Every penalty point in the deck adds up to 26 — thirteen hearts plus the queen of spades. If a single player collects all 26 in one hand, the scoring inverts: that player scores 0 instead of 26, and every opponent scores 26 instead of 0.
It is a genuine strategy, not a fluke — a hand with the ace, king, and queen of spades plus a long run of hearts can be steered toward the moon on purpose. It is also risky: an attempt that falls one trick short hands opponents a huge lead instead.
Common mistakes
Why an easy hand still costs points
Holding the queen of spades too long
Sitting on the queen hoping to pass her later is risky — if spades get led before you can get rid of her, she can land in your trick pile for 13 points at once.
Leading hearts before they are broken
It is a straightforward rules violation to lead a heart before one has been played, but even once hearts are broken, leading them early can hand an opponent an easy shot at shooting the moon.
Keeping too many high cards
Holding onto aces and kings "just in case" often means being forced to win tricks late in the hand, exactly when the queen of spades or a fistful of hearts is most likely to be in them.
Ignoring who is void
Not tracking which opponents have run out of a suit is the most common way experienced players still get caught by a well-timed lead into a card they cannot avoid.
- Pass your highest spades and the queen of spades herself if you have her — she is the single most expensive card in the deck.
- Hold on to a few low spades if you can. They let you safely follow suit later without being stuck holding the queen when it appears.
- Void a suit early by passing or discarding it, so you have somewhere safe to dump dangerous cards once you run out.
- Never lead a heart until it has been broken, and avoid leading the ace or king of spades before the queen has fallen.
- Watch who is void in which suit — if an opponent is out of spades, leading spades near the queen can back them into taking it.
- Only chase the moon when your hand is genuinely strong in hearts and spades — a failed attempt usually hands your opponents a big lead.
- Play toward the end of the trick when you can. Seeing what everyone else throws before you decide is the biggest edge in Hearts.
Where you can play
Same table on phone and desktop
heartscardgame.app runs in any modern browser with no app to install. Progress stays on the device you played on.
Desktop browsers
Chrome, Edge, Firefox, and Safari all run the game with no plugin. Click a card to select it during the pass or to play it on your turn, and use the keyboard shortcuts for mute and a new match.
Phones and tablets
The layout is touch-first: tap a card to select or play it, no dragging required. The full table — three opponents, the trick, and your hand — stays on one screen in portrait.
Progress on this device
Matches played and won, your best winning score, hands played, moon shots, and your win streak live in local browser storage. They stay until you reset them or clear site data, and they do not sync between devices.
Still stuck on a rule? Read the Hearts FAQ or jump in and play.
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