OBJECTIVE OF 2 PLAYER HEARTS: Be the player with the lowest score at the end of the game
NUMBER OF PLAYERS: 2 players
NUMBER OF CARDS: 28 card deck
Hearts is a trick-taking card game played by four players. This card game as currently known, originated with a family of associated games called Reversis, which were popular around 1750 in Spain. The game has become popular in live play among grade school students in Canada, and has increased in popularity through Internet gaming websites. The card game Hearts has an unusual scoring system: the winner is the player who accumulates the fewest number of points, by avoiding the Queen of Spades (13 points) and every Heart card (one point per card). However, if a player 'shoots the moon' by taking every point card, he or she will instead collect no points at all, while giving 26.
RANK OF CARDS: 2 (low) – Ace (high), hearts are always trump
TYPE OF GAME: Trick avoidance
AUDIENCE: Adult
INTRODUCTION OF 2 PLAYER HEARTS
Hearts is a trick avoidance game traditionally played with four players. Each player is trying to score as few points as possible. In this game, taking tricks is a bad thing unless you can all of them. Although it is played with a heavily modified deck, 2 Player Hearts still captures the overall strategy and enjoyment of the traditional game. Sometimes it is difficult to find four players. This two player version makes the game a little more accessible.
THE CARDS & THE DEAL
Begin with a standard fifty two card deck and remove the 3, 5, 7, 9, J, & K from all suits. This will leave you with a twenty eight card deck.
Deal one card to the side. This is a dead card, and it will not be used. Then deal thirteen cards to each player one at a time. The remaining card is also dead and placed to the side.
THE PLAY
The player with the two of clubs goes first and must lay that card. If neither player has the two of clubs, the player with the four of clubs goes first. If both the two and four of clubs are dead cards, the player with the six of clubs goes first. This is highly unlikely, but it is possible.
The second player must follow suit if able. Since a club was led, the second player must also lay a club if they can. If the player does not have a club, they may lay any card that they want.
Whoever plays the highest card in the suit that was led, or the highest heart takes the trick.
To begin with, hearts cannot be played until that suit is broken. Hearts are broken when a player cannot follow suit or only has spades left in their hand.
Whoever takes the trick leads. Play like this continues until all thirteen cards have been played.
QUEEN OF SPADES
The queen of spades is a special card in this game. It is worth 13 points. The queen of spades can be played at any time.
SCORING
A player earns one point for each heart they have taken. A player earns 13 points if they took the queen of spades.
If a player takes all of the hearts and the queen of spades, this is called shooting the moon. If a player successfully shoots the moon, they earn zero points, and their opponent earns 20 points.
Game Of Hearts App
It is possible for hearts or the queen of spades to be buried in the dead card pile. If this is the case, shooting the moon simply means that the player took all of the point cards in play.
AUDIENCE: Adult
INTRODUCTION OF 2 PLAYER HEARTS
Hearts is a trick avoidance game traditionally played with four players. Each player is trying to score as few points as possible. In this game, taking tricks is a bad thing unless you can all of them. Although it is played with a heavily modified deck, 2 Player Hearts still captures the overall strategy and enjoyment of the traditional game. Sometimes it is difficult to find four players. This two player version makes the game a little more accessible.
THE CARDS & THE DEAL
Begin with a standard fifty two card deck and remove the 3, 5, 7, 9, J, & K from all suits. This will leave you with a twenty eight card deck.
Deal one card to the side. This is a dead card, and it will not be used. Then deal thirteen cards to each player one at a time. The remaining card is also dead and placed to the side.
THE PLAY
The player with the two of clubs goes first and must lay that card. If neither player has the two of clubs, the player with the four of clubs goes first. If both the two and four of clubs are dead cards, the player with the six of clubs goes first. This is highly unlikely, but it is possible.
The second player must follow suit if able. Since a club was led, the second player must also lay a club if they can. If the player does not have a club, they may lay any card that they want.
Whoever plays the highest card in the suit that was led, or the highest heart takes the trick.
To begin with, hearts cannot be played until that suit is broken. Hearts are broken when a player cannot follow suit or only has spades left in their hand.
Whoever takes the trick leads. Play like this continues until all thirteen cards have been played.
QUEEN OF SPADES
The queen of spades is a special card in this game. It is worth 13 points. The queen of spades can be played at any time.
SCORING
A player earns one point for each heart they have taken. A player earns 13 points if they took the queen of spades.
If a player takes all of the hearts and the queen of spades, this is called shooting the moon. If a player successfully shoots the moon, they earn zero points, and their opponent earns 20 points.
Game Of Hearts App
It is possible for hearts or the queen of spades to be buried in the dead card pile. If this is the case, shooting the moon simply means that the player took all of the point cards in play.
The first player to reach one hundred points loses. In the rare even that both players reach one hundred points or more at the same time, play until the tie is broken.
For all three difficulty levels the cards are dealt completely at random to both you and to the computer players. Computer players are not given any special advantage and they do not know what cards are in your hand or in any other players' hands. The difference between the easy, standard, and pro players is the strategy used to choose their plays. If you are finding that the computer is beating you, you will likely benefit from understanding how the computer chooses its next move.| Passing: | Chooses a random set of cards. |
| Playing: | Chooses a random valid card. |
| Passing: | Chooses the three highest valued cards where value is determined by the card number (Ace, King, Queen, etc...) and suit (Spades, Hearts, Diamonds, Clubs). |
| Playing: | When playing first, chooses the lowest card in hand. When playing 2nd or 3rd, plays the highest card that will not take the trick, otherwise, plays the lowest card of suit. When playing last, if there are points in the trick, plays the highest card that will not take the trick or if it must take the trick, plays the highest card of suit (avoiding the Queen of Spades). If playing last and there are no points in the trick, plays the highest card in hand. When the player is void in the lead suit, it will play its highest valued cards starting with QS, AS, AH, AD, AC, KS, KH, KD, KC, QH, QD, QC, etc... |
Game Of Hearts Free
The Game Of Hearts
| Passing: | Chooses the three highest valued cards where value is determined by the card number (Ace, King, Queen, etc...) and suit (Spades, Hearts, Diamonds, Clubs). |
| Playing: | The pro computer evaluates each valid play by simulating random card distributions of the unseen cards taking into account which players are known to be void in particular suits. When simulating a game, each player plays the rest of the round using the Standard Playing algorithm (see above). At the end of each simulated round, the final score is recorded and the average round score is determined for each valid play. The play that results in the lowest average simulated round score is used. |
