Hearts: Classic Card Game

Hearts the way it has always been played: four players, each on their own, no trumps — and the lowest score wins. Pass three cards, dodge the hearts and the queen of spades, and when the hand is right, shoot the moon.

FOUR WAYS TO PLAY

Classic — pass three cards left, right, across, then keep; a point for each heart, thirteen for the queen of spades. Jack of Diamonds — the jack of diamonds takes ten points off whoever wins it. No Passing — keep the hand you are dealt. Spot Hearts — each heart counts its number and the queen of spades 25, played to 500.

THE RULES YOU KNOW

The two of clubs opens. No points in the first trick. Hearts can't be led until one has been played. Shoot the moon and everyone else takes 26 — unless that would lose you the game; then 26 comes off your own score instead. Choose how your table plays: whether the queen of spades breaks hearts, whether points may go into the first trick, how the moon is scored, and a game to 50 or 100. The rules page always says what your table plays.

SEWN, NOT FLASHING

The game is drawn as a cross-stitch sampler on linen. Every heart a player takes is stitched on their tag, the queen of spades as a dark spade, and a player going for the moon gets a small crescent. After each hand the score sheet sews itself, and a moon is embroidered across it. The court cards are stitched in the sampler's threads. No coins, no chips, no timers. A dark mode turns the work over: indigo linen, cream thread.

OPPONENTS THAT PLAY HEARTS

Three levels. The bots pass the queen away, duck with the highest card that loses, throw the queen when they can and take a heart to stop your moon. Normal and Hard play out possible deals before every card.

EASY TO LEARN

In your first hands the table explains why a card can't be played. The last trick is one tap away, and there is a how-to-play page and your record: games, wins, points a hand, moons shot, queens taken and your lowest final score.

PLAY IT YOUR WAY

Three game speeds. Small, normal or large cards. A four-color deck. Calm music, with separate sound and music levels.

HEARTS PREMIUM

An ad appears only between hands. An optional one-time purchase, Hearts Premium, removes the ads and adds the Ottoman and One Thread decks and three more card backs. It changes how the cards look, not how the game plays.

YOUR DATA

Everything stays on the phone: settings and your record. No account, no sign-in. The ad SDK uses the Android advertising ID; the privacy policy says exactly what is used and why.

Plays offline, in English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, German and Turkish.