Help is organized in the following sections.
Here is quick summary to get you started. In Hearts, the highest card of the suit led wins the trick, each heart taken is 1 point against you, the Q♠ is 13 points, the first player to capture 100 or more points loses, and the player with the fewest points wins. If a player captures all 26 points then this player gets 0 points and the other three players each get 26 points. This is known as 'running' or 'shooting the moon'. At the beginning of each hand you pass three cards to an opponent and will receive three cards from an opponent. For more details, please see the standard hearts rules section. Also, at any time your may use the 'hint' option to see how the computer AI would play or pass.
Hearts is a 4 player game played with a standard deck of 52 playing cards. The play is broken down into hands. Hands are played until the game is over. Each player starts with a score of 0 points, points are accumulated each hand and are added to each player's total score. When at least one player's score reaches 100 points, the game is over and the player with the lowest score wins.
Each hand consists of four stages: dealing, passing, playing, and scoring.
In the deal stage, the cards are dealt face down evenly to all players, giving each player 13 cards.
In the pass stage, there are four different pass directions that alternate in sequence as hands are played: left, right, across, and hold. The pass direction of the first hand is left, the second hand is right, the third hand is across, and the forth hand is hold. The fifth hand starts over again with left and the sequence repeats. When the pass direction is left, right, or across, players choose 3 cards from their hand to pass to the player to their left, right, or across direction respectively. After choosing 3 cards to pass, players will receive 3 cards from the player at their right, left, or across direction respectively. When the pass direction is hold, players keep their cards as is without passing. Next, the hand continues to the play stage.
The play stage consists of thirteen tricks. A trick consists of 4 cards, 1 card from each player. For each trick, there is a leader, a suit led, and a winner. The leader is the player who played the first card, the suit led is the suit of the card played by the leader, and the winner of the trick is the highest card played of the suit led.
The player with the 2♣ in hand begins the play stage. He places the 2♣ on the table face up. This is the first card of the first trick. Play continues clockwise to his left with each player playing a card in turn. Players must play the suit led if they have it. If they do not have the suit led, they can play any card, with the exception that a positive point card (point cards discussed later) cannot be played on the first trick.
After each player has played a card on the trick, the player with the highest card of the suit led takes the trick and places it aside until the scoring stage. This player is the leader of the next trick. For the lead of the next trick, any card in the player's hand can be chosen except for a heart. Hearts are special and cannot be led until hearts have been "broken". Hearts are broken by someone playing a point card when not leading (or by playing the Q♠). After some positive point card has been played, hearts can be led just like any other suit.
The play stage continues until players have no cards left in their hands. Next, the scoring stage begins.
In the scoring stage, players look at the tricks they have taken, count the points in these tricks, and total the points that each player has captured. The points are counted as follows: 1 for each card of the hearts suit, and 13 for the Q♠. All other cards are worth 0 points. There are a total of 26 points.
Player's total scores are now updated. If one player has 26 points for the hand, he has taken all the point cards, and has successfully "shot the moon" (also known as "running"). This player gets zero for this hand and the other three players each add 26 points to their total scores. If no one has shot the moon then the points taken for this hand are added directly to each player's total score.
If the game is not over (did a player reach 100 points?) then another hand is dealt and the game continues.
NeuralPlay Hearts offers many features to help you learn and improve your play. These features may be enabled, disabled, and/or adjusted in settings. The features include the following.
You don't like hold hands? You prefer that the left of the dealer leads? Or, perhaps you would like to value the A♥ at 5 points and the Q♠ at 10 points?
Design your own hearts variant with the custom rule settings.
We are continuing to add new options. Some of the options are described here.NeuralPlay computer players offer 6 levels of play. Play at level 1 is reasonably easy and good for beginners. Play at level 3 should be fun for most players. Play at level 6 will be the most challenging.
The AI bots employ different AI methods depending on the level. Levels 1 and 2 use simple methods to provide an introduction to beginners. We will not describe them in detail here.
Level 3 uses a rule-based AI. The AI consists of rules such as: "In 1st seat, lead a low spade when I do not have the Q♠" and "In 4th seat, play just low enough to avoid taking the trick when there are points on it", etc. We find the rules work quite well and can provide good play.
Levels 4+ use Monte Carlo Simulation to determine the best play. Basically, the AI will deal out the unknown cards randomly. The AI will then try each legal play and play the deal to the end to get a result. This is repeated for many deals of the unknown cards. The average result for each legal play is computed and the legal play with the best average result is chosen.
Levels 4+ differ in how many times the unknown cards are dealt out. In general, the more deals the more accurate the simulation. This results in better quality plays. The trade-off is that more deals take more time, play may be slower on level 6 than level 4 depending on the device.
Since levels 4+ do not use rules, you may observe either surprisingly good plays or odd mistakes that may seem not to follow any logical rules. Overall, our tests show that the levels are better than the rule-based level 3. We also find the randomness makes the computer feel a bit more human-like and fun.
If you prefer a more consistent, logical, and predictable partner AI and/or opponent AI, then level 3 may be best.
We are continuing to research improvements and new computer AI algorithms. We continue to update the bots as we develop improved algorithms.
See Settings -> Hand Sorting. You can change the rank order, suit order, and choose to alternate red and black suits.
Go to the Main Screen and choose Menu -> Reset.
These terms are used in bridge games. You are always South and your partner is always North. The terms You and South are used interchangeably.
Yes. Choose settings and enable the "Show points taken" option.
Claim means you will take the remaining tricks. When your hand is clearly high, you may claim the remaining tricks to speed up play. If the claim is successful (the AI will check), you will receive the remaining tricks and the hand will end.
Please contact us at support@neuralplay.com.