Overview
Hearts is a card game meant for four players. The game is played using a standard deck of cards (52 cards, no jokers). This implementation of the game allows for one to four players to play, while untaken player positions are played by the CPU players. The CPU players monitor the game at all times. Thus, players can join and leave the game at any given time without actually disturbing the game play.

Object of the Game
The main object of the game is to avoid receiving penalty points. In addition to the Hearts, the Queen of Spades is a penalty card:

• The Hearts count 1 point each
• The Queen of Spades counts 13 points.

Thus, the focus of play is to avoid taking the Queen of Spades.

Playing the game
The cards are ranked A, K, Q, J, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2 in descending order.

After the deal each player must select three cards from his or her hand to pass to an opponent. The cards must be selected before looking at the cards being received from an opponent. The direction of the pass alternates for each deal:

• The first deal is passed left.
• The second deal is passed right.
• The third deal is passed across.
• The fourth deal has no pass and players are stuck with what they are dealt.
• The next deal then restarts the loop with pass left.

The opening lead is made by the player holding the 2 of Clubs. Each player after the lead must follow suit if (s) he can. If (s) he cannot, (s) he may play any card (s) he desires. Tricks are won by the highest card played of the suit led. The winner of a trick leads the next. Hearts cannot be led until Hearts have been broken (a Heart has been discarded on a previous trick). Obviously, if a player only has Hearts in his/her hand, (s)he can lead a Heart even if they have not been broken.

Scoring
Once the hand is over, players get penalty points for each penalty point rewarding card in the tricks they took.

When nobody shoots the moon (as described below), the points taken by each player are added to their running total on the scoreboard (1 point for each heart and 13 points for the Queen of Spades).

Shooting the moon
If a player takes all thirteen Hearts and the Queen of Spades, this player scores 0 points and all other players score 26 points.

Winning the game
The winner of the game is the player with the lowest score, when one or more players have reached a total of at least 100 points. If two or more players have the same score when this happens, additional hands will be played until a distinct winner can be declared.

The controls
At any time during the game the players can activate the controls described below:

• Status
• Last Trick
• Chat
• Scoreboard

Status
The status field contains information on the current situation, e.g. who starts this round, who took the trick, did someone shoot the moon and so on.

Last Trick
The last trick field displays the last trick at any given time.

Chat
The Chat field contains user chat messages and certain system messages not directly related to the ongoing game.

Scoreboard
The scoreboard shows the score development. The bottommost line always shows the running total score for all of the players.

Other features
The Rules button shows this page in a new browser window.

The Exit button exits the game immediately.