The History of Hearts

Hearts is an American card game, first recorded in the 1880s, and the version played in the United States today, with the Queen of Spades worth 13 points, dates from 1909. Its roots run back to the reverse games of 17th-century Europe, in which the aim was to take as little as possible.

The Reverse Games

Hearts belongs to the reverse games: trick-taking games in which you try not to win tricks, or the cards inside them. Card historians trace the family to Reversis, first mentioned in France in 1601 and fashionable through the 1600s. In Reversis, as in Hearts, the player who took the fewest points from tricks came out ahead. The game is usually named as a probable ancestor of Hearts, not a proven one.

Hearts in America

Hearts itself is American. The Standard Hoyle of 1887 reported that Americans had played it for only about five years, and thought it probably came from Germany. The game it described is close to the one played now, minus the Queen and the pass: four players, a full 52-card pack, no trumps, and the aim of taking as few hearts as possible.

Two rules have changed since. In the first Hearts the player on the dealer's left led any card to the first trick, and hearts could be led at any time. Players settled up in chips, paying for each heart they took. The 2 of clubs lead and the ban on leading hearts before they are broken came later, and some home tables still play the older way.

The Queen of Spades Arrives

The Queen of Spades joined the game in 1909. That year the card writer R. F. Foster described Discard Hearts, sometimes called Black Jack or Black Lady. After the deal, each player passed three cards to the left, and the Queen of Spades counted as 13 hearts. In the Black Jack form, the Jack of spades took her place and counted 10.

Black Lady is the game Americans now call Hearts, and computer versions nearly always play it under that name. Card books still keep the names apart: to them, Hearts is the older game in which only the hearts count.

Early Black Lady had no moon. The slam came later: when Ely Culbertson set out the rules in 1950, a player who took every point card simply scored nothing, and so did everyone else. Our game, like the Windows version before it, gives 26 points to every other player instead. Foster's pass always went to the left; the cycle of left, right, across, and hold that computer games such as ours use came later.

Black Maria, Omnibus, and Other Relatives

Britain went its own way. Black Maria, whose rules Hubert Phillips and B. C. Westall printed in 1939, adds the Ace and King of spades as penalty cards and suits three players. Phillips later claimed he had invented it during the First World War.

Omnibus Hearts added a bonus card, a diamond worth minus 10, and Culbertson reported in 1950 that it was rapidly becoming the most popular form of the game. In Australia the standard game is called Rickety Kate, and in China a relative, Gong Zhu, mixes bonus cards with penalty cards. Their rules are set out under Hearts variants.

Hearts on Windows

Microsoft first shipped Hearts in 1992, with Windows for Workgroups, and it remained part of Windows until Windows 7; Windows 8 left it out. The game it played was Black Lady: the Queen of Spades worth 13, the left, right, across, and hold passing cycle, and 26 points to every opponent when a player shot the moon.

Hearts on SuitedGames

Hearts was the first game built for SuitedGames, and it is one of three here with live online tables. You can play three computer players or real people, and every hand is dealt by a provably fair shuffle whose seed can be checked after the game. The Hearts rules compare our game with the common house rules.

Timeline

1. 1601Reversis, a game in which players avoid taking tricks, is mentioned in France.
2. 1600sReversis is fashionable in France and much of Europe.
3. 1887The Standard Hoyle describes Hearts as an American game played for about five years, probably of German origin.
4. 1909R. F. Foster describes Discard Hearts, also called Black Lady: a pass of three cards to the left, and the Queen of Spades worth 13.
5. 1939Hubert Phillips and B. C. Westall print the rules of Black Maria in Britain.
6. 1950Ely Culbertson reports Omnibus Hearts spreading fast, and scores a hand in which one player takes every point card as a wash.
7. 1992Microsoft ships Hearts with Windows for Workgroups. It stays in Windows until Windows 7.