Hearts: play online for free (solo & multiplayer)

Play Hearts online to your heart's content. You can pair up with people by joining one of our tables, play by yourself against our bots or create a private table and invite your friends and family to play. The game is free to play and is played online, so no download or registration is required.

Hearts is a 4-player trick-taking card game, much like Spades. However, unlike Spades, the goal is to avoid taking hearts and the Queen of Spades, the cards that score points. Because of this, it's known as a game of evasion.

Hearts by the numbers

Real totals from every game of Hearts played on World of Card Games, updated October 2026.

Rules

Here's everything you need to play your first game. If you want the full reference or prefer learning by doing, our guide on how to play Hearts has the complete rules and an interactive tutorial that walks you through a real game.

Objective

Hearts is a game of avoidance. Every heart card you take is worth 1 point and the Queen of Spades is worth 13. Points are bad. The game ends when someone reaches 100 points. The player with the lowest score wins.

The deal and the pass

Four players each get 13 cards from a standard 52-card deck. Aces are high. Before play starts, everyone picks 3 cards and passes them face down. You pass to the left on the first hand, to the right on the second, across on the third, and nobody passes on the fourth. Then the cycle repeats. Tables using tournament rules skip the no-pass hand.

The play

Whoever holds the 2 of Clubs leads it to start the first trick. Play goes clockwise and everyone must follow suit if they can. If you can't, you may discard any card, with one exception: no point cards on the first trick. Some tables run the "First-trick hearts" option, which lets a player with no clubs drop a heart on that first trick. When you browse tables, a mark shows those tables. The highest card of the suit that was led wins the trick and the winner leads the next one.

You can't lead hearts until hearts are "broken". That happens the first time anyone plays a heart or the Queen of Spades, whether they lead it, follow suit with it or discard it. After that, hearts can be led like any other suit.

Scoring and winning

When all 13 tricks are played, everyone counts their points, 1 per heart and 13 for the Queen of Spades. If one player manages to take every point card, they've "shot the moon" and the other three players get 26 points each instead. Take all 13 tricks and you've "shot the sun", which hands everyone else 39. If that wouldn't leave the shooter with the lowest score, or tied for it, the shooter's own score goes down by 26 or 39 instead. Hands are played until someone reaches 100 points. The lowest total wins the game.

How to win at Hearts

These tips come from our Hearts strategy guides and from real games on this site. The two big skills are passing the right cards and reading where the Queen of Spades will land.

Passing:

• Pass your high cards first. Aces, Kings and Queens win the tricks you don't want.
• Don't pass everything high, though. If you give away all your Aces, you can hand an opponent exactly what they need to shoot the moon.
• If you have the Queen of Spades with 3 or more other spades, keep her. You can feed your low spades safely. With fewer, pass her on.
• Passing the Queen of Spades to your right is fairly safe. Passing her to your left is asking to get her back on a trick you win.
• If you hold fewer than 3 cards in a suit, consider passing them all. A void lets you dump dangerous cards the moment that suit is led.

Playing:

• No points can be played on the first trick, so it's the one safe moment to burn your highest card.
• Play high cards early in a hand, while opponents still have to follow suit.
• Count the spades above the Queen and remember which high cards have been played. Once you know who holds her, you can play around her.
• Aim your points at the "low man", the player with the lowest score. Dumping the Queen on whoever happens to be handy just helps the leader win.
• If you sit to the left of the low man, don't lead spades. It lets them safely ditch the King or Ace of Spades instead of eating the Queen.
• Sometimes you're last to play, the trick has points, and even your lowest card would win it. When that happens, throw your highest card of the suit. You take the same trick either way and get rid of a bigger risk.
• Watch for a moon in progress. If one player is sweeping every point, take a heart early. One point to you beats 26 to everyone.

Frequently asked questions

What is "breaking hearts"?

Hearts are broken the first time someone plays a heart or the Queen of Spades. Until then you can't lead a heart, unless you hold nothing but hearts. Tables using tournament rules also let you lead one when you hold nothing but hearts and the Queen of Spades. You can lead the Queen of Spades at any time, even before hearts are broken.

What does "shooting the moon" mean?

Shooting the moon means taking every point card in a hand, all 13 hearts plus the Queen of Spades. Instead of scoring 26 yourself, the other three players get 26 points each. If that wouldn't leave you with the lowest score, or tied for it, the game subtracts 26 from your score instead. It chooses for you automatically.

What is the difference between "shooting the moon" and "shooting the sun"?

Shooting the sun is a rarer and more difficult feat than shooting the moon. To shoot the sun, a player must take all the cards in a round, both point and non-point. If successful, the other players are penalized with 39 points. If that wouldn't leave the shooter with the lowest score, or tied for it, the game subtracts 39 from the shooter's score instead.

How do I play Hearts with friends?

Host a private table and invite your friends. Click the round yellow Play button at the table's top left to open the Play menu. Choose "Host table", turn on "Private table" and type a table name. At your new table, click "Invite players" and copy the link for your friends. Friends can also choose "Join private" in the same menu and type the same name.

Can I play Hearts against the computer?

Yes. This page starts you in a game against three bots right away, which is a good way to learn the game before facing live players. For another game, click the round yellow Play button to open the Play menu and choose "New game".

Can 2 people play Hearts?

Hearts is a 4-player game, so two people can't play it alone. You and a friend can share a private table and fill the two remaining seats with bots.

How long does a game of Hearts take?

About 25 minutes on average across the millions of games played on this site. A single hand takes a few minutes and games run until someone reaches 100 points.

Is Hearts free to play here?

Yes. Hearts is free in your browser with no download and no signup. You only need an account if you want to keep long-term stats or play ranked games.

What games are similar to Hearts?

If you enjoy Hearts, try the site's other trick-taking games, such as Spades, Euchre, Whist, Bridge and Pinochle.