Hearts Strategy: How to Win

From an increase in mental health to a stronger memory to improved personal development, there are many benefits to regularly playing cards.

If you're someone who loves to reap the benefits of a great card game, you're likely looking for new ways to challenge yourself. Hearts is one of the most engaging and interesting card games that you can play. Whether you want to play with others or against a CPU online, this game is a great way to relax and unwind.

Here, we're going to talk about some Hearts strategy tips so that you can be as successful as possible at this game! Read on to start winning and having fun.

Object of the Game

In many card games, your goal is to accumulate more points than other players. However, this isn't the case in hearts. Instead, you want to get the smallest possible amount of points in the game.

To do this, you'll need to use a standard 52-card deck. No cards have any point value except for those in the heart suit. These cards each have one penalty point attached to them. Additionally, the queen of spades is worth 13 penalty points, so you're going to want to avoid it at all costs!

Basically, there are 26 points total in every round. You want to get none of them if possible!

How to Win

Hearts is played with four players. When you use our online program, you can play against three computerized players if you prefer. This means that you can play and practice your Hearts strategy, even when you're all by yourself!

At the start of the game, 13 cards will be dealt out to each player. This is the entirety of the deck. The players will each choose three cards to pass on to an opponent at the beginning of each round.

After that, the game can begin!

The person who has the two of clubs is required to start the first turn with that card. The players then each put down a card until there are four cards in the center. If people have a club, they are then required to put down that club. If the players do not have clubs, they can put down whatever they like. However, the person who puts down the highest club will get the pile of four cards.

Note that aces are high in Hearts, so if someone puts down an ace, they get the cards.

You will keep doing this until you run out of cards. Once everyone runs out of cards, the round is over. You will continue to play until a player reaches 100 points. The person with the lowest point total at this point will win!

Hearts Strategy and Tips to Win

Now that you know how to play Hearts, it's time to delve into some Hearts strategy tips to ensure that you do your best. After all, you don't want to reel in those pesky points! Read on for some ideas on how you can win at Hearts, whether you're playing against other people or a computer.

Give Away Your Worst Cards

At the beginning of a round, you give three of your cards to an opponent. It makes sense that these three cards should be the worst ones that you have.

But what cards are the worst to play?

Generally, you’re going to want to get rid of any cards that rank highly when being put down. This means that aces, kings, and queens need to go. Passing these cards off to an opponent makes it less likely for you to lose the hand. This means you won't need to take as many penalty points that are played for the rest of the round!

Drop a Suit Immediately

One good Hearts strategy is to try getting rid of one of your suits as fast as possible. You want to get rid of your high cards and point cards at every opportunity that presents itself, and getting rid of a suit early on means that you can play high and point cards when that suit is played.

Since the four cards go to the person who played the highest of the original suit, you can put down a heart after someone plays a club. You can only do this, however, if you have no clubs. Therefore, you'll want to eliminate your clubs earlier on so you can play hearts whenever the clubs come up. That way, they'll go to someone who put a club down!

Shoot for the Moon

In Hearts, there's something called 'shooting for the moon'. This is a play where you try to get all 26 penalty points in play at the same time. If you manage to get all 13 hearts and the ace of spades, then you actually get no penalty points at all. On the contrary, everyone else at the table gets 26 points because of your awesome play!

This is a somewhat dicey strategy, though. If you miss getting even one heart, you're going to find yourself with a ton of penalty points and are much more likely to lose the game. 

Implement Hearts Strategy Tips Today!

If you like to play card games and work with numbers, Hearts is definitely the game for you. Experiment with new strategies and find out which one works best for you!

Now that you know how to play Hearts and have some Hearts strategy tips on how you can win, it's time to get started. Click here to play Hearts online with us. It's a great game to play both alone and with friends, so get excited!