This is the typical game of Hearts where you are playing against three other players in an attempt to have the lowest score when one of the players reaches a score of 100. In this version of the game, the other three players are the computer.

The object of Hearts is to have the lowest score at the end of the game.

Hearts is a four player game. If you are connected to a network, you can have other players on other computers on the network. If you're not connected to a network, you can let your computer play the other three hands.

To play Hearts

1. Choose three cards to pass to an opponent (except for every fourth hand, when no cards are passed). To select a card to pass, click it. To cancel the selection of a card, click it again.
2. The player who has the two of clubs starts the play by leading with it.
3. Each player, moving clockwise, clicks a card to play. You must play a card in the same suit. If you do not have one, you can play any card, except that you cannot play a heart or the queen of spades on the first trick (The cards you collect when you play the highest card that is the same suit as the first card played in a round.).

Note

• The person who plays the highest card of the same suit as the first card played takes the trick. That player starts the next trick by clicking a card to lead. You cannot lead with a heart until a heart has been played on a previous trick.

To score Hearts

• At the end of each hand, you get one point for each heart in your hand and 13 points for the queen of spades. The game continues until one player gets 100 points or more, or until the dealer quits the game.
• If you win all the hearts and the queen of spades in one hand (called Shooting the Moon), then you score zero points and each other player scores 26 points.

Strategies and tips

• Avoid taking a trick (The cards you collect when you play the highest card that is the same suit as the first card played in a round.) containing hearts or the queen of spades. The only time you will want to take such tricks is when you are trying to Shoot the Moon or trying to prevent someone else from successfully Shooting the Moon.

To Shoot the Moon is to collect all the hearts and the queen of spades. When that happens, you score zero points and each other player scores 26 points. Your chances of successfully Shooting the Moon are best if your hand contains a large number of high-value hearts and spades.

• On hands that begin by passing cards to an opponent, pass cards with high values, such as aces or face cards.
• Play your highest cards early in the game, while your opponents are likely to have some cards in each suit and will have to play those cards instead of hearts. Tricks that do not contain any hearts or the queen of spades do not add to your score.
• Keep track of which cards have been played, particularly whether the queen of spades has been played and whether hearts have been broken (that is, whether a heart has been discarded on an earlier trick).

 Hughes Glantzberg