Hearts Cards for PC and Mac

Software Reviews and Criticism

• By Robby's Dad

  Great fun, but program could be smarter.

  Write something into the algorithm so that when the game player passes low hearts or low spades the opponents recognise that he is probably setting up to run. Then defend against that early in the game. It's too easy for the game player to run the hand. You can obviously make this game more challenging my cheating with the algorithm so that the opponents know things that they wouldn't normally know in a real game situation. I've played Hearts apps that do that. It's frustrating. But with the modification I mentioned above, the opponents can pick up on real world clues that a sharp player normally would, and make it harder to run. I like hearts, and have been playing it for years and years. It's one of my favorite games with friends and family members. But no player should be ablet to win 70% of the matches.

  
  
• By Veteran Hearts Player

  Hearts Cards is fun, but too easy

  This game is fun and challenging enough that I play it frequently. But my “opponents” (i.e., the app and its algorithms) make a lot of mistakes. They pass very predictably, and if you’re thinking about shooting the moon, you can be pretty sure of getting three big cards (often hearts) in the pass. I almost always run it once or twice per game, and I win 75 to 80 percent of the time. That’s good for my ego, but it suggests that the algorithms need a bit of refinement. My “opponents” in this game try to shoot the moon way too often, even though they have loser hearts. If you have the ace, king, and six of hearts, that ace and king may look impressive, but that six is the kiss of death. No experienced hearts player will let you get away with running it when you hold such small hearts. The game has some curious quirks. For example, suppose someone is clearly shooting the moon. You hang onto your biggest heart and eventually, voila: you take the trick because the would-be runner leads her loser heart. You think you've made a sensible sacrifice, taking a few points to keep yourself from taking 26. But then the next player plays a higher heart, even though he’s holding a low heart, too,and could go under your card. He’s thus taking points he doesn’t have to take. I’m prefectly happy to let someone fall on their sword to stop a run I’ve already stopped, but it’s a dumb play.

  
  
• By Old Dog Dave

  Needs a Little Work

  Many of the comments from others are right on point: A veteran Hearts player almost never passes low Spades (only if you plan to run); the passes from the computer players are consistently high, with little variety—they are predictable; overall, the game is fairly easy, though if the passing is changed it might be a little less so. The game functions otherwise very well, and I’ve not come across any glitches or obvious errors. I do use this version often, largely because of the ease of set up and play. But, a few relatively minor changes (particularly to the passing) would make the games more challenging.

  
  
• By HJB0220

  Passing cards needs revamping

  (1) Why low spades are passed is beyond me. No one that is a winner passes low spades. Even if you are attempting to shoot the moon, passing of low spades is just a give away of one’s intetnions. I’ve found that when your algorithms pass me low spades, the one passing them is NOT attempting to shoot the moon. I’ve four different applications of HEARTS and none of the others pass small spades. (2) Also, when cards are passed those being received are not on display very long. I should have some time to recognize what was passed and assmilate a strategy as to why they were passed to me. Hold the passed cards to be distinctive until I play my first card on the two of clubs. (3) It would be nice to see both the running scores and the hand scores throughout the game. I dislike having to go to a separate page to see if a heart has been played yet. For some of us that are older our retention is concerning.

  
  

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