** Hearts 101 Tutorial File, updated 8/14/03, DO NOT DELETE!
Welcome to the Hearts 101 Interactive Tutorial! This tutorial will walk you through and let you play a typical hand of Hearts. It will cover the rules as well as give some basic card play tips. The game starts by dealing all 52 cards, giving 13 to each player. To continue, click anywhere on the screen (or press Enter). To exit the tutorial at any point, choose New Game under the File menu.
Although there are many variations, this tutorial will play standard Hearts with the Dark Lady. The game is called Hearts because each Heart taken counts as 1 penalty point. Taking the Dark Lady (Queen of Spades) counts as 13 penalty points. The game ends when any player reaches 100 points. Unlike most games, in Hearts, the winner is the player with the FEWEST points. Click to continue.
The first step in every Hearts hand is the Passing phase. Here you must select three cards to pass to your opponents. Generally, passing away high cards and/or the Dark Lady is a good rule of thumb. As you will learn later, being short (few cards) in a suit is very desirable. Therefore, for this hand pass the QS, QC, and 6C by clicking on them and then confirm your selections to continue.
Good job passing! The cards you received in exchange are raised briefly for review and are then added to your hand. Now that you have entered the playing phase, each player must play one card in what is called a trick. In Standard Hearts, the Two of Clubs must be lead first and then the other players follow suit (also play a Club) in clockwise order. Since you have the 2C, you must lead it now.
ProfPlum played the Ace on that last trick and won the trick. You can review this using Last Trick under the View menu. Since no Hearts were played, he does not take any penalty points, but he does get to lead the next trick. In this case, he led a low Spade (probably in an attempt to draw out the Queen of Spades). Since Hearts rules require you to follow suit, you must play the TS.
Ok, you won that last trick (and without any Hearts penalty points!) so you get to lead the next trick. Which card should you lead? Hearts cannot be led until they are broken (played on a different suit first), so Hearts are out. You are void in Spades, leaving Clubs and Diamonds. Since you would also like to be void in Clubs, lead your only remaining Club, the 3C, by clicking on it.
Excellent lead! ProfPlum was void in Clubs and so he dumped the KS (to avoid taking the QS later, no doubt). If someone is void in the led suit, they can play ANY card in their hand, including Hearts. Since MsPotts has now been kind enough to lead Spades, and you do not have any, get rid of that AH. This will 'break' Hearts and the Heart suit can now be led in future tricks.
Ouch! Ricky just got stuck taking the QS (plus your Heart!) on that last trick since Spades was led and he did not have any lower ones to play. This is a good reason to keep a low Spade when passing in case you do get passed the Queen. Since high Diamonds have already been played on this trick and there are no points in the trick, you should play your highest Diamond, which is the 9D.
Note that on the previous trick (under the View menu) everyone played their high Diamond. Odds are high that every player will have at least one card in each suit, so leading and playing your highest on the first round is often a good choice, saving your lower cards for later rounds. Just keep playing your highest card in suit that will not take the trick. In this case, the 5D.
MsPotts is quite crafty. Looking at all those Hearts in your hand, you might get nervous, but you still have many options. Since Hearts were 'broken' by being played two tricks ago, MsPotts may now lead them. Leading a low Heart is a good way to stick someone else with four Hearts and 4 points. Luckily, you have plenty of low Hearts, so play your highest that will not win the trick, the 3H.
If you review the last trick (under the View menu above), you will note that the Professor took that trick with his highest Heart. Since he had to take the trick regardless, saving his lower cards for later is a smart play. Once again you are void in the led suit (Spades), so get rid of another high Heart (the Jack) to the good Professor.
Make sense so far? You pretty much have this hand in the bag at this point. One important additional rule unique to Hearts that you need to know about is that if any player takes ALL the points (not necessarily all the tricks) in a given hand, they have SHOT THE MOON and everyone else gets assessed a 26-point penalty. Play your final Diamond under MsPotts' play and try not to gloat.
Well played! MsPotts was not too happy to take the lead and so she is cleverly coming back with a pretty low Heart. Luckily, you have an even lower one so you need not worry about taking a trick loaded with points. Play your 5H and smile as someone else gets stuck with the points.
If you are astute (or look at the hand points at left), you will note that Ricky and ProfPlum have each taken tricks with points. When the 'points are split', it is no longer possible for any player to shoot the moon. If someone was shooting, you might play your high Heart here and sacrifice taking a 2-point trick to prevent the 26-point moonshot. However, since a moonshot isn't possible, you play your 7H.
This hand was tricky with all those Hearts, but you managed to play well and avoid all the point-card tricks. Drop your 9H and breathe a sigh of relief. Hopefully this tutorial has given you a basic feel for the game of Hearts.
Congratulations! You have almost won your first hand of Hearts. Select your last remaining card and the hand will end and show the hand scoring summary. You will see that you successfully avoided taking any points and that you are now tied with MsPotts for the lead! Remember, the goal is the lowest score. From the scoring dialog, click Continue to exit the tutorial and start a new game.
