Card
Play Hearts online
Dodge hearts and the Queen of Spades — lowest score wins. Or risk everything and shoot the moon.
4 players, about 25 minutes. Play Hearts with friends using a room code, or solo against Nell. Free, no sign-up, works on your phone.
How to play Hearts
Players
4
Time
~30 min
Goal
Lowest score
Objective
Avoid taking points! Every heart is worth 1 point and the Queen of Spades is worth 13. When someone reaches 100 points, the game ends — and the player with the lowest score wins.
Setup
The full 52-card deck is dealt out, 13 cards to each of the 4 players. You can only see your own cards.
Passing
1
Before each hand, choose 3 cards to pass to another player.
2
The direction rotates every hand: left, then right, then across, then a hold hand with no passing.
💡
Passing high spades (Ace, King, Queen) and high hearts is usually smart — they are the cards most likely to win tricks you don't want.
Playing a Hand
1
Whoever holds the 2 of clubs leads it to start the first trick.
2
Players must follow suit if they can. The highest card of the led suit wins the trick, and the winner leads the next one.
3
You can't lead hearts until they are broken — someone must first discard a heart on another suit's trick (unless hearts are all you have).
4
No points on the first trick: hearts and the Queen of Spades can't be played on trick one unless you have no other choice.
Scoring
Card
Points
Each heart
1 point
Queen of Spades
13 points
Everything else
0 points
Shooting the Moon
Take all 26 points in one hand — every heart plus the Queen of Spades — and instead of scoring 26, you give 26 points to every other player. High risk, huge reward.
Strategy Tips
💡
Get rid of high cards early while it's safe. Watch who is void in each suit — a void player can dump the Queen of Spades on your winning trick. And if you're stuck winning a trick, win it with your biggest card so it can't hurt you later.