Hearts Help

Quick Introduction

Here is a quick summary to get you started. The highest card of the suit led wins each trick. Every heart you take adds 1 point to your score, and the Q♠ adds 13 points. Low scores are better. The game ends when at least one player reaches 100 points, and the player with the lowest score wins.

If one player takes all 26 points in a hand, that player has shot the moon, also known as running. The shooter scores 0 for the hand, and each opponent scores 26 points. At the beginning of most hands, you pass 3 cards to another player and receive 3 cards in return.

See Standard Hearts Rules for complete instructions. You can also request a hint at any time to see how the computer player would pass or play.

Standard Hearts Rules

Hearts is a 4-player game played with a standard 52-card deck. Each player begins with a score of 0. Points taken in each hand are added to the players' total scores. When at least one player reaches 100 points, the game ends and the player with the lowest score wins.

Each hand consists of four stages: dealing, passing, playing, and scoring.

Dealing

At the start of the game, the dealer is chosen randomly. The deal then rotates clockwise after each hand. Each player is dealt 13 cards.

Passing

The pass direction follows a four-hand sequence: left, right, across, and hold. On the first hand, each player passes 3 cards to the player on the left and receives 3 cards from the player on the right. On the second hand, each player passes right and receives from the left. On the third hand, players exchange cards with the player sitting across from them. On the fourth hand, everyone holds their cards and no cards are passed. The sequence then starts again with a pass to the left.

Play

The hand consists of 13 tricks. Each trick contains 4 cards, one played by each player. Every trick has a leader, a suit led, and a winner. The leader plays the first card, and the suit of that card is the suit led. The highest card played in the suit led wins the trick.

Within each suit, cards rank from low to high as follows.

2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, J, Q, K, A.

The player holding the 2♣ leads it to begin the first trick. Play continues clockwise, with each player playing one card in turn. Players must follow the suit led when able. A player who cannot follow suit may play any card, except that a positive-point card cannot be played on the first trick.

The winner takes the four cards in the trick and sets them aside for scoring, then leads the next trick. Hearts cannot be led until they have been broken. A heart is broken when a player who cannot follow suit plays a heart. Under the standard rules, playing the Q♠ also breaks hearts. After hearts have been broken, they may be led like any other suit. A player whose hand contains only hearts may lead a heart even if hearts have not been broken.

Play continues until all 13 tricks have been played and the players have no cards remaining.

Scoring

Each heart taken is worth 1 point, and the Q♠ is worth 13 points. All other cards are worth 0 points, for a total of 26 points in the hand.

If one player takes all 26 points, that player has shot the moon, also known as running. The shooter scores 0 for the hand, and each of the other three players adds 26 points to their total score. If no one shoots the moon, each player adds the points they took directly to their total score.

If no player has reached 100 points, another hand is dealt and the game continues.

Preset Game Rules

NeuralPlay Hearts includes the following ready-to-play rules. You may start with any preset and customize it further in Rule Options.

• Standard. The standard Hearts rules described above.
• Standard (no Q♠). Standard Hearts, except the Q♠ is worth 0 points. This rule set can be helpful when learning the game.
• Standard (10♣). Standard Hearts with the 10♣ as a doubler. The hand score of the player who takes the 10♣ is doubled.
• Standard Team. Standard Hearts with the players sitting across from one another playing as partners. Partners' scores are combined.
• Omnibus (J♦). Standard Hearts with the J♦ as a −10-point bonus card.
• Omnibus (10♦). Standard Hearts with the 10♦ as a −10-point bonus card.
• Hooligan. Standard Hearts with the 7♣ as an additional 7-point penalty card.
• High Hearts. The 2♥ through 10♥ are worth 1 point each. The J♥ is worth 2, Q♥ is worth 3, K♥ is worth 4, A♥ is worth 5, and Q♠ is worth 13.
• Spot. Hearts are worth their rank values: 2♥ is worth 2 points through 10♥ worth 10, J♥ is worth 11, Q♥ is worth 12, K♥ is worth 13, and A♥ is worth 14. The Q♠ is worth 25 points, and the game ends at 500 points.
• Spot (faces 10). The 2♥ through 10♥ are worth their rank values. The J♥, Q♥, and K♥ are each worth 10 points, and the A♥ is worth 15. The Q♠ is worth 25 points, and the game ends at 500 points.
• Pip. Hearts are worth their rank values from 2 through 14, as in Spot, but the Q♠ is worth 0 points. The game ends at 500 points.
• Black Maria. Hearts are worth 1 point each, the Q♠ is worth 13, K♠ is worth 10, and A♠ is worth 7. Cards are always passed to the right, the player to the dealer's left leads, points may be played on the first trick, hearts may be led anytime, and shooting the moon is disabled. The game ends at 100 points.
• Dutch Hearts. The 2 through 6 of every suit are removed, leaving a 32-card deck. Hearts are worth 1 point each, the Q♠ is worth 5, and the J♣ is worth 2. There is no passing, the player to the dealer's left leads, points may be played on the first trick, and hearts may be led anytime. The game ends at 100 points.

Learning Features

NeuralPlay Hearts offers many features to help you learn and improve your play. These features may be enabled, disabled, or adjusted in Settings. The features include the following.

• Hints. By default, the AI shows a hint when you ask for one. In Settings, you may ask the AI to always show a hint, or ask the AI to check your pass or play and show a hint only when its choice differs from yours.
• AI points taken estimate. When enabled, the AI shows the estimated number of points that will be taken for each legal play. The AI-suggested play may differ from the play with the lowest estimate because the AI also considers strategy and the overall score. For example, it may try to give points to a player with a lower score. Differences may also result from simulation noise.
• Card counter. When enabled, a counter shows which cards have been played.
• Competitive mode. Enable competitive mode to play without assistance. Hints, undo, viewing all hands, and other learning aids are disabled.

Rule Options

Perhaps you prefer a passing sequence without hold hands, want the player to the dealer's left to lead, or would like the A♥ to be worth 5 points and the Q♠ to be worth 10. NeuralPlay Hearts offers many rule options so you can design your own variation. Options include the following.

Dealing

• Deck. Choose the standard 52-card deck or a 32-card deck containing only ranks 7 through A.

Passing

• Pass directions. Choose left-right-across-hold, left-right-across, left-across-right-hold, left-across-right, across only, hold only, left only, or right only. The selected sequence repeats as hands are played.
• Number of cards to pass. Choose from 1 through 5 cards.
• Q♠ cannot be passed. Require the player holding the Q♠ to keep it during passing.

Playing

• Initial leader. Choose the player holding the lowest club, the player to the dealer's left, or the player holding the lowest spade. With the 52-card deck, the lowest club or spade is the 2.
• Allow points on the first trick. Allow a player who cannot follow suit to play a positive-point card on the first trick.
• Q♠ breaks hearts. Choose whether playing the Q♠ breaks hearts. When disabled, only playing a heart breaks hearts.
• Q♠ must be played ASAP. Require the Q♠ to be played at the first safe opportunity, when it will not take the trick. This prevents a player from saving it for later when a safe play is already available.
• ♥s may be led before broken. Allow hearts to be led anytime. Otherwise, hearts must be broken before they can be led, unless a player has no alternative.
• May discard Q♠ before ♥s are broken. Choose whether a player who cannot follow suit may discard the Q♠ before hearts have been broken. When disabled, the Q♠ must be kept if another legal card can be played.
• May lead Q♠ before ♥s are broken. Choose whether the Q♠ may be led before hearts have been broken.
• Must lead Q♠ with only ♥s and Q♠. When a player holds only hearts and the Q♠, choose whether the player must lead the Q♠ or may lead any card.
• Finish hand when all points are taken. End the hand as soon as all point cards have been taken, rather than playing the remaining tricks. This can speed up play.

Scoring

• Partnership. Play in teams with partners sitting across from one another. Partners combine the cards and points they take. By default, a team shoots the moon when its opponents take no positive points.
• Players must shoot alone in partnerships. Require one partner to take all penalty cards to shoot the moon. That player must also take any required bonus card, and must take every trick to shoot the sun.
• Shooting the moon. Choose to add the shoot value to each opponent, subtract it from the shooter's score, let the shooter choose between adding and subtracting, add it to the opponents unless doing so would cause the shooter to lose—in which case it is subtracted from the shooter—have everyone score zero for the hand, or disable shooting the moon.
• Require bonus card (J♦/10♦) to shoot. Require the shooter to take every negative-point bonus card in addition to all penalty cards. This option has no effect when no bonus card is configured.
• Shooting the sun. Require a player to take every trick as well as all point cards. This is disabled by default. When enabled, a successful shoot scores either twice the shoot-the-moon value or 1.5 times that value—52 or 39 points under the standard rules.
• Scoring triggers. Choose no trigger, subtract 50 when a score reaches an exact multiple of 50, subtract 100 at an exact multiple of 100, or subtract 50 at an exact multiple of 100.
• Score for taking no tricks. Apply an adjustment of 0, −3, −5, −10, +5, or +10 points to a player who takes no tricks.
• Point assignments. Assign a negative, zero, or positive value to any card. This supports variations in which hearts have different values, the Q♠ has no value, or other cards such as the A♠ are worth points.
• Double points card. Choose any card as a doubler. The hand score of the player or team that takes that card is doubled. Choose None to play without a doubler.

Game Over

• Game over at. End the game when a player reaches a selected number of points, or after a selected number of hands.
• Points to game over. Choose the number of points at which the game ends.
• Hands to game over. Choose the number of hands to play.

Computer Players

NeuralPlay computer players offer 6 levels of play. Level 1 is reasonably easy and good for beginners. Level 3 should be fun for most players. Level 6 is the most challenging.

The computer players use different AI methods depending on the level. Levels 1 and 2 use simple methods designed for beginners.

Level 3 uses a rule-based AI. Its rules include examples such as "In first seat, lead a low spade when I do not have the Q♠" and "In fourth seat, play just low enough to avoid taking the trick when it contains points." These rules provide consistent, logical play.

Levels 4 through 6 use Monte Carlo simulation to determine the best play. The AI deals the unknown cards randomly, tries each legal play, and plays the hand to the end to get a result. This is repeated for many possible deals. The average result for each legal play is computed, and the play with the best average result is chosen.

Levels 4 through 6 differ in how many possible deals they simulate. In general, more simulations produce more accurate estimates and better play. The tradeoff is that more simulations take more time, so level 6 may play more slowly than level 4, depending on the device.

Because levels 4 through 6 do not follow a fixed set of rules, you may observe either surprisingly good plays or odd mistakes that do not appear logical. Overall, our tests show that these levels play better than the rule-based level 3. The randomness also makes the computer players feel more human and less predictable.

If you prefer more consistent, logical, and predictable computer opponents, level 3 may be best.

We continue to research and develop improvements to the computer players.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I change the hand sorting?

See Settings → Hand Sorting. You can change the rank order and suit order, and choose to alternate red and black suits.

How do I reset my game settings to the defaults?

Go to the main screen and choose Menu → Reset.

What are North, South, East, and West (and N, S, E, and W)?

These are the player positions around the table. You are always South. The computer players occupy the West, North, and East positions. In partnership games, North is your partner.

Can I see the hearts/points a player has taken during a hand?

Yes. In Settings, enable Show Points Taken.

What does "claim" mean?

Claiming means that you expect to take all the remaining tricks. When your hand is clearly high, you may claim to speed up play. The AI checks the claim; if it succeeds, you receive the remaining tricks and the hand ends.

How do I contact NeuralPlay with suggestions and feedback?

Please contact us at support@neuralplay.com.