Board and Card Games Stack Exchange
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Questions tagged [hearts]

Hearts is a trick-based card game where the players compete against each other to avoid taking Hearts and the Queen of Spades.

Hearts is a trick-based card game where the players compete against each other to avoid taking Hearts and the Queen of Spades. It is played with a standard deck of cards and typically 4 people, although variants exist for other numbers.

One point is awarded for each heart and 13 for the Queen of Spades, but it is possible to take all 26 points and shoot the moon, which subtracts 26 points from your score (or gives 26 to each opponent).

The winner is the player with the lowest score when the first player reaches 100 points.

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What are effective strategies for passing cards in Hearts?

In Hearts, before three out of every four hands you get to pass three cards to another player. Some people seem to always pass the Queen of Spades while others like to keep her under certain conditions. Some people like to drain themselves of a…
Adam Wuerl
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Is there a limit on how good you can get at Hearts?

If you had the best players in the world, and they knew everything about Hearts and had decades of experience playing it, then if they were to each play the same identical game, would they all play the game exactly the same? That in my eyes would…
RoboShop
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In Hearts, impossible to play first hand?

I understand that this is extremely unlikely, but what happens in a game of hearts if you only have point cards in your hand after the deal. For instance, what if your hand is every heart in the deck, or 12 of the hearts and the queen of spades. The…
Hugo
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When should I get rid of the queen of spades in Hearts?

Whenever I play the QS on the 3rd or 4th round everyone gets mad at me and says that's a low down nasty thing to do! I thought the QS should be dumped asap so as not to get stuck with it myself - which has happened more times that I care to recall,…
barbara
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What are the chances of shooting the moon in Hearts?

In Hearts, we just want to avoid getting any heart card or the Queen of Spades. But if we can get all 14 cards, we shoot the moon and everybody else gets 26 points. So, given a fair shuffle, what's the chance that we can actually get a shot to the…
markovchain
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"Taking the rest" in the card game Hearts

So I understand most of Hearts and love to play it on my phone. That's where I learned it. There is one thing that I don't get, though. It seems like when a player takes the trick 3 times or so in a row he/she will "take the rest". I was trying to…
Davlog
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What is the current state of the art in hearts AI?

Occasionally I google around looking for the latest research into hearts AI, and I never find anything. As far as I can tell the best hearts AI out there is still far below the level of an expert human. I'm wondering if anybody knows of any recent…
dshin
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When is it best to break Hearts?

I usually break them as soon as I can't follow suit but others have told me that's not "appropriate." Also, when is it appropriate to play the Queen of Spades? I usually do the same, play it when I have my first opportunity to do so.
user18227
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How could allowing a moon shot in hearts benefit the other players?

I was playing online with experienced players. The high guy was about 55; the other three were between 15 and 25. The high guy attempted to shoot the moon; I prevented him. I was roundly criticized by another player for stopping the moon shoot. The…
Honest Abe
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