Game play overview

Hearts is a very simple game to learn, but a difficult one to master, which is what makes it so addictive.
The game is played with 4 players, each out for themselves, no partners here.
The objective of the game is to be the player with the lowest score when one of the other players reaches enough points to go out.
In other words, you want to avoid scoring points at all times, unless you are shooting the moon, which will be discussed later.
In hearts, the only cards that count as points are the hearts and the queen of spades.
Each heart is worth 1 point, and the queen of spades is worth 13.
You definately want to make sure you avoid the nasty queen of spades at all costs.
A couple of definitions here to make sure we're on the same page.
When a new hand starts, each person is dealt 13 cards. This is the start of a new hand.
The hand is over when all players have played all their cards.
One round of playing is called a trick.
The player that wins the trick will lead the next trick.
Before game play begins, each player selects three cards to pass to another player.
You pass to your left the first hand, to the right second hand, and across the table third hand, with no swap for fourth hand.
Subsequent hands repeat this sequence.
For example, after swapping, a trick might start with player 1 leading the 2 of clubs, player 2 plays the jack of clubs,player 3 plays the nine of clubs,and finally player 4 plays the king of clubs.
In this example, player four wins the trick because they had the highest card of the suit that led.
If there are any points in a trick, the player that won the trick collects those points.
In hearts, you must follow suit, which means if a player starts a trick with a spade, you must play a spade if you have one.
However, if you do not have the suit that is lead, you can play any card you wish.
Lets look at another example:
We'll use players Adam, Beth.Charlie and Don for our examples from here on out.
Adam leads the seven of clubs, Beth plays 10 of clubs, Charlie plays 4 of clubs and Don plays Ace of hearts
Who won the trick, and for how many points?
Even though Don played the highest card, it was not in the suit that led, so he doesn't win the trick.
Since Beth played the highest card in the suit that led, she wins the trick and collects one point for taking the king of hearts, remember, all hearts are worth 1 point each.
Another example:
Adam leads 4 of spades, Beth plays Ace of hearts, Charlie plays queen of spades and Don plays 3 of hearts.
Who wins the trick and for how many points? Since Charlie had the highest card in the suit that led, he wins the trick.
He gets 1 point for winning the 3 of hearts, and 13 for taking the queen of spades. Tough luck there Charlie.
Once all 13 tricks have been played, points are added up and a new hand starts, unless one of the players has gone over the maximum number of points.
Once one player goes over the maximum number of points, the game is over and the player with the lowest point count is the winner.
So generally, you want to avoid collecting any points, however the one case where you want to get points is called shooting the moon, and to shoot the moon, you must get every point in the hand.

Shooting the Moon

There are 13 cards of each suit in every hand, from 2 to Ace. therefore there are 13 hearts, totaling 13 points.
Additionally, the queen of spades is worth 13 points all by her lonesome, so we have a total of 26 points in every hand that can be won.
If you can win every heart and the queen of spades, you have shot the moon, and you will get no points at all for that hand, which is a good thing.
The even better thing is every other player will get 26 points, a devestating blow.
It is a wonderful thing to shoot the moonbut usually quite difficult, as the other players will realize what you are doing eventually and try to stop you by taking away one or more of your points.
Check the tips and hints section for help with shooting the moon.

So let's play already!

After registering and loging in, you can find a game to join on the open tables link, or create one yourself with the new game link.
To join a game, find a table with an open slot and press the join button.
The game will launch and soon you will be sitting there with the other players ready to get it on.
The open games are in a table of rows, showing the following information:
Table name, Max score, timelimit if any, the four player slots and a join button.
If you decide to create your own game, you will have a field for naming your table, combo boxes for max score and time limit for playing and drop down boxes if you want to reserve a seat for a friend.
To reserve a seat, your friend will need to be registered. Simply select their name from the drop down list, once the table is created, they will be sent an email informing them of the game.
You can also set the start time for the table. For example if you want to invite a couple friends for a game on Saturday at 3 PM, just select the friends, then the time.
By default the tables are created and set to start immediately, if you want to set your own time, deselect the start game now option.
after all parameters are set, press the create button and away you go.

The online hearts interface

I have tried to make as efficient and elegant an interface as possible for hearts, and most of it is focused around the num pad or arrow keys along with the enter key.
To find a card to play, use the arrow keys or num pad arrows, which are the 8, 6, 2 and 4 keys for up right down and left respectively.
The four suits are laid out in 4 rows up and down.
SO to go from clubs to diamonds, simply move up one row.
Once you are on the suit you want, just move left and right to select the card in that suit you want.
From top to bottom the suits are clubs, diamonds, hearts and spades.
The first hand of each round will start with you swapping 3 cards with the person to your left.
The second round you will swap to the right, third round you will swap acrosss the table, and fourth round there will be no swap.
Subsequent rounds will repeat this pattern.
To select cards to swap, find the card you want with arrow keys, then press enter on that card. When you highlight that card again, it will say selected.
If you change your mind and want to unselect a card, just hit enter on it again.
During the swap process, a fifth row of cards will be added called the swap row, this row will contain the cards you have selected so far to swap.
Once you have three cards selected to swap, press shift S to send them
After everyone has received their swap cards, the hand will begin with the person that has the two of clubs leading out.
To play a card, simply highlight it with the arrow keys and press enter.

There are two ways to review what has been played in the current trick You can press the 7 and 1 keys on the number pad to go up and down in the card buffer respectfully.
Additionally, you can press the r key to hear all cards played in the current trick After a trick is played, you can press r to review what was played before the next card is led.

Additional key commands

Press the w key to hear who's turn it is.
S key to hear what suit led.
c key to hear how many cards you have left in your hand.
D key will tell you who you are swapping cards with.
A. key to review what three cards were sent to you during the swap
The f1 through f4 keys will tell you the total score of each player in order.
V key will tell you if more than one person has points that hand, this is good for determining if someone is trying to shoot the moon.
For those that are using laptops and don't have easy access to a number pad, you can use the following keys on the main keyboard:
J K L and I can be used as left, down, right and up arrow keys.
U and O will review the game buffer down and up respectively
F11 will allow you to select your screenreader, current selections are SAPI, Jaws and Window Eyes.
To quit the game, press alt f4

Playing the monkies

You can play hearts by yourself, or with as many players as you want up to four.
Once all human players have sat down, even if this is you by yourself, press f5 to summon the monkies
You'll hear the monkies come in and take their seats, they will fill up and empty seats and play will begin.
Notice that the hearts points you get are different if any monkies are sitting at the table.
Basically, you have to come in first to gain any hearts points.
If you come in last, you will lose 2 rank points.
Refer the the section on hearts points for more info
To speed up the play of the monkies, press f6, they will play very rapidly at the fast setting.

Hearts points

The web site keeps track of each players hearts points, for bragging rights and to see who is dominating the cards
With 4 human players, here is how hearts points are awarded:
You get 4 HP for first place
2 for second, and 1 for third.
If you come in last place, you lose 2 HP, so avoid that at all costs.
There is a multiplier for games with a max score of more than fifty points, so the HP doubles for every fifty points over the base of fifty.
So for instance, if the game is set to 100 points, you will get 8 hearts points for coming in first
The multiplier does not apply to coming in last, so no matter what the max points, you will only lose 2 HP for coming in last.
If there are any monkies that started the game with you, you can only get HP by coming in first place, in which case you get 2 HP no matter the max score.
Note that 4 HP will be subtracted from your total after the first hand has started, these points will be given back to you at the end of the game.
This is to avoid people quitting the game to avoid losing points when it looks like they will come in last place.

Chatting

To get into chat mode, press the spacebar.
You will hear "chat mode", then type your message and press enter to send it.
you can use the standard editing keys to edit your message before sending, such as backspace, control left and right arrow, etc.
To review your message before sending, press the up arrow while in chat mode.
If you decide to cancel your chat message, press escape and you will go back to play mode.
To review the chat history, use the number keys on the top row, with 1 being most recent message and 9 being the furtherest back.
To send an action instead of a chat, hold down control while tapping the spacebar.

The mailing list

Our mailing list for hearts is an excellent resource for getting info on game updates, finding other players to meet up with and scheduling games.
To subscribe, click this link to send a blank message, after sending you will receive a confirmation email, just reply to that and you are subscribed
Subscribe to hearts mailing list
Hope to see you on the tables soon!