Hearts Online | Free Multiplayer Card Game
Draft content — this guide is pending editorial review.
Hearts is a four-player trick-avoidance card game played with a standard 52-card deck. Unlike most trick-taking games, the goal is to take as few penalty points as possible — every heart you capture costs one point, and the Queen of Spades costs thirteen. Play continues round after round until a player crosses 100 points, at which moment the lowest cumulative score wins. The game combines the trick-following discipline of Bridge with the misère scoring of games like Reversis, and it rewards careful card counting and inference.
How to Play
- Four players sit around a virtual table. A standard 52-card deck is dealt evenly, 13 cards to each seat.
- Before play begins, each player selects three cards to pass to a neighbor. The pass direction rotates left, right, across, hold each round.
- The player holding the Two of Clubs leads it on the first trick. Players follow suit if they can; if not, they may play any card.
- The highest card of the lead suit wins the trick. The trick winner leads the next trick.
- Hearts are worth one penalty point each and the Queen of Spades is worth thirteen. The goal is to take as few points as possible.
- Hearts may not be led until they have been "broken" by a discard onto a non-heart trick. Most house rules also forbid playing any penalty card on the very first trick of the round.
- If a single player captures every heart and the Queen of Spades in one round (shooting the moon), they score zero and every opponent scores 26.
- Play continues round after round until one player crosses 100 points; the lowest total at that moment wins the match.
Strategy
Get rid of the Queen of Spades before it gets rid of you. If you hold the Queen with only low spades around it, your usual move is to pass her during the pre-round exchange — preferably on a left pass (which goes to your most immediate opponent) or an across pass (which puts her out of your immediate left-and-right sphere). If you hold the Queen with the Ace or King of Spades behind her, you can survive by dropping her on someone else's spade trick.
Void a suit early. If you can empty your hand of one suit by the fifth trick, every subsequent trick in that suit becomes a free discard opportunity — and a chance to dump dangerous hearts onto an opponent. Pair voiding with careful spade management and you have an arsenal of penalty cards you can hand to anyone careless enough to lead a long suit.
Count hearts. There are exactly 13 hearts in play. Once seven or eight have fallen, you should know who is holding which of the remainder. The same applies to spades — particularly the Queen and the high spades around her. Card counting at this scale is much more tractable than in Bridge because the suits are small and the trick count is short.
Watch for shoots. If an opponent suddenly stops following ranks and starts winning every trick aggressively, they are probably shooting the moon. The counter-tactic is to deliberately take a single heart on purpose. One point of penalty for you is far cheaper than the 26 points that a successful shoot would charge you.
History
Hearts began as a family of European reverse-trick games in the eighteenth century. Card historians usually trace the modern rules back to Reversis, a Spanish gambling pastime in which the player taking the fewest points won the pot. Reversis splintered into regional cousins as it migrated north, and by the late 1700s recognizable Hearts ancestors appeared in Slobberhannes — a German tavern game where the player who captured the Queen of Clubs paid out the round. The game crossed the Atlantic with European immigrants and settled into its American form during the late 19th century. Around 1880, a stroke of inspiration shifted the penalty queen from clubs to spades, and the rules acquired the distinctive Queen of Spades we still play with today. Card players in the salons of the Eastern Seaboard called the new variant "Black Lady" or "Black Maria," names that stuck in some circles for the better part of a century. Hearts became a global mainstream pastime almost by accident when Microsoft bundled a digital version with Windows for Workgroups 3.1 in 1992. The bundled Hearts quietly introduced the game to tens of millions of office workers who had never encountered it before, and by the time the internet matured Hearts already lived in the collective muscle memory of a generation.
Extended Guide
The deal distributes the entire 52-card deck evenly across four seats: thirteen cards per player. Before the first trick, each player selects three cards to pass to a neighbor. The pass direction rotates every round in the cycle left, right, across, hold — the hold round has no pass, and after the hold the rotation repeats. The pass is a core strategic moment: players typically dump their highest spades (especially the Queen) and their most dangerous high hearts to opponents.
Whichever player holds the Two of Clubs leads the first trick by playing it. Subsequent players must follow suit if they hold any card of the lead suit; if they cannot follow, they may play any card. The highest card of the lead suit wins the trick, and the winner leads the next trick. There is no trump suit in Hearts — the absence of trump is part of what makes the game an exercise in timing rather than raw card strength.
Hearts may not be led until they have been "broken." A heart is considered broken when somebody is forced to discard one on a non-heart trick (because they could not follow the lead suit). Until that happens, no player may lead a heart. The first-trick rule extends this protection further: most house-rule sets forbid playing any penalty card on the very first trick of the round, even when you would otherwise be allowed to discard.
Scoring uses a misère structure — low total wins. At the end of each round, players count the penalty cards they captured. Each heart is worth one point, and the Queen of Spades alone is worth thirteen. The maximum penalty in a single round is therefore 26 points (13 hearts plus the Queen). Play continues until any player crosses 100 cumulative points, at which point the match ends and the player with the lowest total wins.
The single dramatic exception to the misère rule is "shooting the moon." If one player captures every heart and the Queen of Spades in a single round — all 26 penalty points — they score zero for the round and every other player is charged the full 26 points instead. Shooting the moon is a high-risk, high-reward play that experienced opponents will work hard to stop by taking a single heart on purpose when they spot the attempt forming.
Hearts has several popular regional variants. Spot Hearts (also called "black lady scoring") assigns each heart its rank value rather than one point apiece, so the Ace of Hearts costs 14 points and the deuce costs only two. Omnibus Hearts adds the Jack of Diamonds as a ten-point bonus (negative penalty) that cancels out a Queen of Spades capture. Cancel Hearts uses two decks for six- or seven-player tables. Black Maria is the three-handed version with the deuce of diamonds removed for a clean 51-card division. The variant most players encounter first is the modern American standard — one point per heart, 13 for the Queen, three-card pass with rotation, no first-trick blood — which is the rule set our default tables ship.
The mobile layout puts the four seats in a portrait-oriented diamond and shows the four cards of the current trick in the center. Pass selection happens on the same surface — tap to highlight up to three cards, then confirm. Chat starts muted on matchmade tables (private tables default to chat-on) and any player can mute any seat at any time. The table state is server-authoritative: every move is validated on the backend before it shows up on anyone's screen.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the goal of Hearts?
Hearts is a trick-avoidance game. You want the lowest cumulative score across multiple rounds. Hearts cost one point each and the Queen of Spades costs thirteen, so the round is spent dodging penalty cards while still being forced to follow suit.
What does "shoot the moon" mean?
If you manage to capture every single penalty card in a round — all thirteen hearts plus the Queen of Spades — you score zero for the round and every opponent is charged the full 26 points. It is a high-risk, high-reward play that experienced opponents will work hard to stop by deliberately taking a single heart when they spot the attempt forming.
Can I lead a heart on the first trick?
No. Most house-rule sets we ship forbid playing any penalty card — hearts or the Queen of Spades — on the very first trick of the round, even if you would otherwise be allowed to. You may opt that rule off when you create a private table.
When are hearts "broken"?
A round starts with hearts unbroken, meaning no player may lead a heart until somebody has been forced to discard one on a non-heart trick. Once that happens, leading hearts is fair game. You may always discard hearts when you cannot follow suit, even before they are broken.
Do you support passing cards before each round?
Yes. Each round starts with a three-card pass: left, right, across, then hold (no pass). The rotation repeats. Pass selection is a core part of strategy — dump high spades or risky hearts to opponents.
What are the most common variants?
Spot Hearts scores each heart at its rank value (Ace = 14, two = 2) instead of one point apiece. Omnibus Hearts adds the Jack of Diamonds as a +10 bonus that cancels out a Queen of Spades. Cancel Hearts uses two decks for six- or seven-player tables. Black Maria is the three-handed version played with the deuce of diamonds removed. Our default tables ship the modern American standard rule set.
Is the play here free and ad-free?
Always. Cards4.net runs no advertising, no tracking pixels, and no upsells. You can play Hearts as a guest without creating an account, and your single-player progress stays on your device until you decide to sign in.
What happens if I lose my connection mid-round?
You have ninety seconds to rejoin from the same browser. The server holds your seat for the first thirty seconds, then a bot temporarily takes over so the table keeps moving. If you rejoin within ninety seconds the bot vacates and you pick up exactly where you left off.