Hearts is one of the great classic trick-taking card games — a game of careful avoidance where, unusually, you are trying not to win tricks that contain points. Four players (you and three AI opponents) are dealt the full 52-card deck and play it out trick by trick.
Every heart is worth a penalty point and the Queen of Spades a brutal thirteen, so the whole table spends each hand ducking the dangerous cards and slipping them to someone else. It's tense, social and endlessly replayable. Play free online Hearts in your browser with no download, no sign-up and three AI skill levels.
Hearts descends from Reversis, a Spanish-French card game of the 1600s in which avoiding tricks was already the whole point. The American game took its modern shape in the late 1800s, and the "Black Lady" twist — making the queen of spades worth a crushing thirteen points — became standard early in the twentieth century. Bundled with Microsoft Windows from the 1990s onward, Hearts became one of the most-played computer card games in history.
Good Hearts players think in suits, not single cards. Counting how many spades have fallen tells you whether the queen still lurks; keeping one low heart protects you from being forced to win a late, point-heavy trick; and the boldest play of all — shooting the moon — flips the scoring on its head by deliberately capturing every point in the hand.
Finish with the lowest score. The game ends when a player reaches the point limit (50, 75 or 100 by difficulty); the player with the fewest points wins.
Click or tap a highlighted card in your hand to play it — only legal cards glow. You must follow the suit that was led if you can; otherwise you may play anything. Each heart scores 1 point and the Q♠ scores 13. Hearts cannot be led until they have been "broken" by being discarded.
Lowest total wins. Special play: "shoot the moon" by capturing all 26 points in a single hand, and every other player takes 26 instead — a high-risk, high-reward gamble. Wins are recorded.
Void yourself in a suit early so you can dump the Queen of Spades on an opponent, and avoid taking the last trick when points are on the table. Raise the difficulty for opponents that duck, lead and hunt the Queen far more cleverly.
What is shooting the moon in Hearts?
Capturing all 13 hearts plus the queen of spades in one hand. Instead of taking 26 points yourself, every opponent is charged 26 — a risky but devastating swing.
Why can't I lead a heart?
Hearts must be broken first — someone has to discard a heart on another suit's trick before hearts may be led, unless your hand leaves you no other choice.
How does a game of Hearts end?
Hands are played until someone reaches the point cap — 50, 75 or 100 depending on difficulty. The player with the lowest total at that moment wins.
More classic games: Spades, Whist, Euchre, Gin Rummy, Crazy Eights, and all 100 free games.