Play Hearts online

How multiplayer Hearts works

Playing Hearts online with other people, step by step: the code, the seats, the table rules, and what happens when somebody drops out.

Inviting the table

The host opens the table, which needs a free account, and shares its six-character code or the link from "Copy link". On a phone "Challenge a friend" stands beside it, and hands that invitation straight to Messenger, Instagram, Snapchat or whatever else you chat in. Everyone who follows it picks a name and sits down as a guest; nobody else needs an account.

Hearts here needs three players and seats up to six. Everybody should be in the lobby before the first hand, because a game in progress cannot be joined. If the table is short, the host can press "Add an opponent" to seat a bot.

How many players, and what changes

Four is the classic game, with the full deck of 52. With three, five or six at the table the site takes out one or more of the twos and threes of diamonds and clubs so the cards deal evenly — never a heart and never the queen of spades, so there are always 26 points to avoid. The first trick is led by whoever holds the lowest club still in the deck.

The host chooses whether the game ends at 50 or at 100 points, and everyone sees the choice. When somebody reaches it at the end of a hand, the lowest score wins.

The pass

Every hand but one starts with each player choosing three cards to pass. Players sit in the order they joined, and the direction turns each hand: left, then right, then across, then a hand with no pass. At a table of three there is nobody across, so it goes left, right and no pass.

Everyone chooses at the same time, and the table shows who it is still waiting for. The cards you receive arrive only when everyone has passed, so nobody can pass in reaction to what they were given.

After each hand

The table shows what every player took and what the hand cost them, including a moon if somebody shot it. The next hand is dealt once everyone has pressed "Ready for the next hand" — nobody is rushed past the scoresheet.

There is no chat at the table. A good hearts table talks anyway, but a player telling the others who holds the queen is playing a different game.

If somebody drops out

A player whose connection drops is shown as away and waited for twenty-five seconds. After that a bot plays their cards until they return, and opening the table again gives them their seat back. A player who presses Leave mid-game is replaced by a bot for the rest of it.

If the host leaves, hosting passes to whoever has been sitting longest. A table with no activity for six hours is cleared away.