Hearts is a four-player trick-taking card game where the goal is to win as few points as possible. Hearts cost 1 point each and the Queen of Spades costs 13. Pass three cards each round, follow suit when you can, and the player with the lowest score when someone reaches 100 wins. Free in your browser, no sign-up.
Goal: finish with the fewest points when any player hits 100.
Three AI difficulty levels (easy, medium, hard) from the menu. The hard AI tracks the Queen of Spades, attempts moon shoots when its hand fits, and coordinates passing with simulated partner awareness. Install it as an app from your browser menu to play offline.
Hearts evolved from Reversis, a Spanish point-trick game played in the late 1700s. The modern penalty-card version with the Queen of Spades (sometimes called the Black Lady, Black Maria, or Slippery Anne) took shape in the United States in the early 1900s and became a Microsoft Windows fixture from Windows for Workgroups 3.1 in 1992.
For the complete rules, including the rotating pass, the 2 of clubs lead, breaking hearts and shooting the moon, read the full Hearts guide.
Take all 13 hearts and the Queen of Spades in one round and you score 0, while every other player scores 26. It only counts when you take every single point card — miss one and the points fall on you as normal. Most rounds aren't worth attempting; a clear void in two suits is the usual signal that a shoot is on.
Yes, at any time after the first trick. The lead restriction only applies to hearts (which must be broken first). Leading the Queen on a spades trick is legal but rare — it usually means dumping it on a trick someone else has already committed to winning.
The standard rule keeps the opening trick clean of points. You may only play a heart or the Queen of Spades on trick one if you have no clubs at all. This prevents an unlucky 2-of-Clubs lead from immediately costing the leader points.
Both are declared winners. The game ends the moment any player hits 100 points, and the title goes to whoever has the lowest total at that point — ties included. A tiebreaker round isn't traditional.