Hearts is a four player game where you're trying not to win tricks. Every heart you get stuck with costs you a point, and the queen of spades costs you 13. Whoever has the fewest points when someone hits 100 wins the whole thing.
That flip is what makes it fun. A hand full of aces and kings would be great in most card games. Here it's a problem, because high cards win tricks and winning tricks is how you end up holding things you don't want.
Before anyone plays, everyone picks three cards out of their hand and gives them to a neighbour. Left on the first hand, then right, then across, then no passing at all, and the cycle repeats.
This is where a lot of hands are decided. You're trying to get rid of the cards that'll hurt you without handing the person next to you something they can hurt you with.
The two of clubs always leads first. You have to follow the suit that was led if you can. If you can't, you can play anything you want, and this is usually when the queen of spades shows up on somebody's trick.
Highest card of the suit led takes the trick and leads the next one. After 13 tricks you count up what you got stuck with. There are 26 points in every hand, 13 hearts worth one each plus the queen at 13.
There's one way to flip the whole thing around. If you take all 26 points yourself, you score zero and everyone else takes 26.
It's rare and it's risky, because missing by one card means you just took a terrible score. But you have to watch for it. If somebody has swept every trick so far, someone at the table needs to take a point to stop them, even though nobody wants to be the one who does it.
Hearts rewards paying attention more than it rewards memory. Counting the spades that have gone, noticing somebody is out of diamonds, keeping track of whether hearts have been broken yet. None of that is hard, but all of it matters, and a game only takes about fifteen minutes.
Three bots fill the other seats so you can start right now. If you want the full rules with scoring and strategy, read how to play Hearts.
Hearts has been played in more or less this form since the late 1800s, and the version with the queen of spades as a 13 point penalty is sometimes called Black Lady. It became familiar to a lot of people through the copy that shipped with Windows for years.
This version is written from scratch to run in a browser. There's no download and no account, it works on a phone as well as a desktop, and empty seats are filled by bots so a game starts the moment you want one. The full rules, scoring and strategy are on the Hearts rules page.
Who goes first?
Whoever holds the two of clubs plays it on the first trick.
When can I lead a heart?
Only after hearts are broken, which means after someone has discarded a heart on a trick of another suit. If hearts are all you hold, you can lead one anyway.
Does the highest score win?
No, the lowest. Points are penalties, and that catches almost everyone the first time.
What is shooting the moon?
Taking all 26 points yourself. You score zero and everyone else takes 26.
If something here is broken, or a rule doesn't match the way you play, email hello@turngames.io. Saying which game and what you were doing helps. Requests for new games are welcome too.