Play the classic Hearts card game online free against three sharp CPU opponents. Duck every heart, dodge the Queen of Spades, pass three cards before each hand, and if you dare, take all 26 to shoot the moon.
About Hearts
Hearts is a trick-taking game about losing gracefully. Every heart you win costs a point, the Queen of Spades costs thirteen, and the game ends the moment somebody reaches 100 — so the winner is whoever collected the least. Each hand opens with a pass: three cards to your left, then right, then across, then a hand with no pass at all, which is where the real thinking starts. The two of clubs leads the first trick, and from there you follow the suit led if you hold it and dump whatever hurts most when you don't.
The queen decides most hands. Held behind two or three low spades she is a weapon you can drop on whoever is winning a trick; held bare, the first two spade leads flush her straight out of your hand. The same instinct applies to hearts, where a low card is armour — a two or a three is a free duck under a trick you cannot afford to take.
Then there is the moon. Take all thirteen hearts and the queen in a single hand and you score nothing while everyone else takes twenty-six. It is the biggest swing in the game, and it is why the computer watches your pile as closely as it watches its own.
Where Hearts comes from
Hearts probably descends from Reversis, a trick-avoidance game popular in Spain around 1750, and emerged in the United States in the 1880s: the 1887 edition of The Standard Hoyle said it had only been played there for about five years. The Queen of Spades penalty and the passing of three cards were added in 1909 in the variant called Black Lady, 'shooting the moon' first appeared in Britain in 1939, and Microsoft shipped this form with every Windows from 3.1 to Windows 7. This version is 360 PlayZone's own take on the classic. Source.
Inside Hearts: what we checked
The numbers below come from Hearts's own source code, and the screenshots are from our own test run of the game (20 October 2026).
- The game enforces the rules and tells you why. Hearts cannot be led until a heart has been played, unless you hold nothing else, and the Queen of Spades does not break hearts. On the first trick no heart and no Queen of Spades may be played unless you hold nothing else.
- Cards you cannot legally play are dimmed, and the status line names the rule you hit, for example "Must follow ♣", "Hearts not broken" or "No points on the first trick".
- The three computer players play fair: each one looks only at its own hand, the cards already played and which players have shown they are out of a suit. None of them can see another hand.
- A computer player goes for all 26 points only when it has taken every point so far in the hand and holds at least 14 of them. It keeps chasing while a failed attempt (at most 25 points) cannot end the game for it, or when stopping would lose it the game anyway.
- Press H for a hint, Space to play the highlighted card and the arrows to move along your hand. Your games, wins, the number of times you shot the moon and your lowest final score are saved in this browser.
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How to play Hearts
Pass three cards at the start of each hand — left, then right, then across, then a hand with no pass. The two of clubs leads the first trick; follow the suit led if you hold it, and play anything you like if you don't. The highest card of the suit led wins the trick and everything in it, so the hearts and the Queen of Spades go to whoever takes them. Play on until a player reaches 100 points, and the lowest total wins.
Controls
Desktop: click three cards and then PASS, then click a card each turn to play it. Arrow keys move the selection, Space plays, H hints, N starts a new game, ? opens the rules and M mutes. Touch: tap three cards then the PASS button, then tap a card on each of your turns.
Tips & tricks
- Cover for the queen comes from spades below her, not above her. Two or three low spades let you play the suit safely; the ace and king only mean you win spade tricks you did not want.
- Keep a low heart or two back. When hearts are led you need something to throw under the trick, and a deuce is the cheapest insurance in the game.
- When you pass, empty a whole suit rather than half of it. Passing two of your three diamonds achieves nothing, but passing all three lets you dump the queen or a heart the first time diamonds are led.
- Watch for one player taking every point. If a single seat holds the queen and a run of hearts while nobody else has scored, take a trick off them — one point for you beats the twenty-six a completed moon hands out.
Frequently asked questions
Does Hearts save my progress?
Partly. Hearts keeps a running win/loss tally and your settings in this browser's local storage; there is no level progress to save. Nothing is uploaded and no account is involved — clearing your browser data is what resets it.
Is Hearts unblocked at school or work?
Hearts is a plain web page of about 71 KB — no plugin, no installer, no app store — so it loads on a Chromebook or a locked-down school or office laptop the same way any other page does, and the whole game arrives in one short download. Whether it opens comes down to your network's filter rather than the game itself.
Who made Hearts?
Hearts was built in-house by the 360 PlayZone team using open web technology (HTML5), which is why it runs instantly without any download.
Embed Hearts
From our blog
Hearts features in Hearts, Spades, Gin Rummy, Crazy Eights: Four Card Games Worth Actually Learning.