Hearts Deluxe

Hearts Deluxe is played by four players, and unlike most card games, the goal is to score as FEW points as possible.

Each heart card is worth 1 penalty point, and the Queen of Spades is worth a painful 13. The game is played over several rounds, and it ends when a player reaches 100 points — the player with the lowest score wins!

Each player receives 13 cards. Before each round begins, you pass three cards of your choice to another player — to the left, to the right, or across the table, changing every round (every fourth round, no cards are passed). This is your chance to get rid of dangerous cards... or set a trap!

The player holding the Two of Clubs leads the first trick. You must follow the suit that was led if you can. If you don't have that suit, you can play any card — this is the perfect moment to dump your hearts or the Queen of Spades on an unlucky opponent! The highest card of the suit led takes the trick, and all the penalty points in it.

Remember two important rules: you can't play a penalty card on the very first trick, and you can't lead with a heart until hearts have been "broken" — that is, until someone has discarded a heart on another trick.

And now the famous twist: if you manage to collect ALL the hearts and the Queen of Spades in a single round, you "Shoot the Moon" — instead of getting 26 penalty points, all your opponents get 26 each! It's the riskiest and most satisfying move in the game.

Count the cards, watch what your opponents discard, and know when to play it safe and when to go for glory.

Have fun and good luck playing Hearts Deluxe!

Hearts belongs to a family of card games with a long and noble history. Its oldest ancestor is "Reversis", a game that became popular in Spain and France in the 17th and 18th centuries. Reversis introduced the revolutionary idea that turned card games upside down: winning tricks was bad, and avoiding them was the way to victory.

The game we know as Hearts took shape in the United States in the 1880s, where it quickly became a favorite in homes and social clubs. Around 1909, an American variant called "Black Lady" added the game's most feared card — the Queen of Spades, worth 13 penalty points. This version proved so popular that it eventually became the standard way to play, and it's the version played all over the world today.

Like Solitaire and Minesweeper, Hearts owes its worldwide fame to Microsoft Windows. "Microsoft Hearts" was included with Windows 3.1 in 1992, and it was actually ahead of its time — it was one of the first games designed to show off network play, letting players compete against each other over an office network. For millions of people, Hearts became a daily ritual and one of the first multiplayer computer games they ever played.

Today, Hearts remains one of the most popular card games in the world — easy to learn, endlessly strategic, and famous for the drama of the Queen of Spades landing on the table.

With Hearts Deluxe, you can enjoy this timeless classic anywhere — no installation needed!