Hearts

[Dog--]

Ok, so I play the windows card games whenever I'm bored, or waiting for something to load, and I've learned how to play Solitaire, Free Cell, and Spider Solitaire, but I can't figure out hearts.. The help file explains it, but I can't understand the objective.. I know getting a low score is good. In fact I just played (well, tried), and I got 0, which is the best, but I don't even know how I got it..

So can someone explain this game to me?

 

[CyberPitz]

I could never seem to get that game down

 

[Dan]

These are the rules of the computer version. There are a lot of variations in real life.

You play in "tricks". There will be 13 tricks in a hand (one round). Every trick, each player has to put down a card. You "win" the trick by having the highest card that matches the leading suit (the suit of the first card played in that trick). If you have a card that matches that suit you have to play it. If you don't have a card that matches the leading suit, you can throw in whatever you want, and you are guaranteed not to win the trick. The winner of the trick picks up all of the card from that trick. They go into a pile beside him or her, and that person starts the next trick. The first trick is started by whoever has the 2 of clubs. You don't want points (most of the time). You get a point for every heart in your pile. You also get 13 points for the queen of spades so you usually want to avoid that.

However, if you collect all of the hearts and the queen of spades, you shoot the moon and you get 0 points. All of your opponents get 26 points. But if you are one card short then you are ****ed and get all the points as normal.

The game ends whenever someone passes 100 points.

Before each turn, there is a trading period, where you can give away 3 cards. The order of this is pass right, pass left, pass across, pass to nobody.

In the first trick of the hand, it is illegal to play a queen of spades or a heart, so it is usually a good idea to play your highest club and get control for the next trick. High aces are usually pretty safe for the second trick, but after that be careful of leading high. You may not lead with a heart until after the ice has been broken. Someone must play a heart before you can lead with hearts.

The computer will always play the strategy of "get the bitch" meaning that the first couple tricks you can expect them to lead spades. It is usually a good idea to hold onto your spades unless you are giving away the queen king and ace.