Hearts

How to play

Four players, thirteen cards each. Before the hand you pass three cards — left, then right, then across, then a hand with no passing, and round again. Everybody passes at the same time, so you choose before you see what is coming back.

The two of clubs leads the first trick. Everybody must follow the suit led if they can; if they cannot, they may play anything. There is no trump — the highest card of the suit LED takes the trick, and whoever takes it leads the next one.

Hearts cannot be led until somebody has played one on another suit. Then they can, and the endgame usually gets a lot more painful.

Scoring

• Each heart is one point, and there are thirteen of them.
• The queen of spades is thirteen points on her own — half the hand, on one card. She is marked with a crown so you can find her at a glance.
• That is 26 points in every hand, shared out among four players. Nothing else scores.
• Shooting the moon — taking every one of those 26 — scores you nothing and gives everybody else 26.
• A match runs until somebody reaches 100, and then the lowest total wins.

Modes

Quick hand

One hand, played out and scored. The quickest way in.

Match to 100

Hands until somebody reaches a hundred. Lowest score wins, so the aim is to keep taking nothing.

Teaching

The legal cards are marked, the table is read out for you, and a hint is always there. Nothing is recorded.

Daily deal

Four hands, one of each passing direction, and everyone gets the same cards today.

The opponents

They keep track of who failed to follow which suit, which tells them exactly who has run out of what — and leading a suit somebody is out of is how you invite the queen onto your own trick. They know whether the queen has gone, and they notice when one player has collected every point so far, which is what a moon attempt looks like from the outside.

Casual

Plays low when it does not want the trick and high when it does, and does not keep track of who has run out of what.

Steady

Remembers who is void in which suit, keeps count of the queen, and notices when somebody is going for the moon.

Sharp

Everything Steady does, played the same way every single time — it never takes the second-best option to keep you guessing.

The levels differ in how much they work out and how consistently they act on it — measured, not asserted: over six seeds with every deal played from all four seats, Steady takes about 1.5 points a hand fewer than Casual, and Sharp about 0.7 fewer than Steady. They never differ in what they are allowed to see.

A few things worth knowing

• If you are not holding the queen, pass your high spades — the ace and king are how you end up taking her.
• If you are holding her, keep two or three low spades. You need something to play under her while spades are being led.
• Getting rid of a whole suit early is worth a great deal. A void is what lets you throw the queen or a heart away on somebody else’s trick.
• Watch what people fail to follow. That is free information, it is the same information the opponents are using, and it is usually the difference between a clean hand and thirteen points.

Privacy and local play

Your hand, your settings and your record are stored on this device and nowhere else. There is no account, no sign-in and no gameplay request to any server. The reset button clears this game’s data and leaves every other Zerdly tool alone.

Questions

Can the computer see my cards?

No, and not as a matter of care. The only thing an opponent is ever given is one seat's view of the table, and that object has no field for anybody else's hand — not an empty one, no field at all. Everything they know about your hand they worked out from cards you played in the open: if you did not follow clubs on the fourth trick, they know you are out of clubs, exactly as a human opponent would.

Why am I trying to lose?

Hearts is a penalty game. Every heart you take costs one point and the queen of spades costs thirteen, and the player with the LOWEST score wins. Taking a trick is usually a bad thing, which is the opposite of almost every other card game.

What is shooting the moon?

Taking every single point in the hand — all thirteen hearts and the queen. Instead of scoring 26 you score nothing, and everybody else takes 26. It is the one reason to take a trick on purpose, and it is all-or-nothing: twenty-five points is a disaster, not a near miss.

Which house rules does this table use?

The two of clubs always leads the first trick, and no points may be played on it unless your hand is nothing but point cards. Hearts cannot be led until one has been played on another suit, unless your hand is nothing but hearts. The queen of spades does NOT break hearts — she is a spade. Shooting the moon gives everybody else twenty-six rather than taking twenty-six off the shooter. A match runs to a hundred and the lowest total wins.

Can I reload to get a better hand in the Daily?

No, and not because it is forbidden. Each hand of the Daily is dealt from the date and that hand's number, so hand three is the same fifty-two cards however you arrive at it. The Daily is four hands because the passing rotation is four long — you get one of each direction.

Is anything sent to a server?

No. The rules, the shuffle, the opponents, the sounds and your saved hand all run in your browser. There is no account, and clearing this game's data leaves every other Zerdly tool untouched.

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