My kids are constantly inviting me to play card games with them, primarily Hearts and Spades. Can you tell me a bit about each, how they are different, where I can find online versions to learn how to play so I have a chance at winning when I play with my kids?
There are few entries in the toys and games area with more versatility than a regular 52-card deck of playing cards! From simple children’s games (matching, Go Fish) to complex solitaire games (like Klondike) and multi-player strategy games (Bridge, Rummy), a $3.00 deck of cards can bring hours of entertainment. It’s also universal, with card games played in almost every country around the world, even if the cards look a bit different from place to place.
And that’s not to mention the hundreds of gambling games that have evolved from the simple odds of picking a specific card, suit, or rank, from a deck, some of which have built casinos and helped fuel cities like Las Vegas and Monte Carlo.
THE HISTORY OF CARD GAMES
Playing cards have been part of our society for a surprisingly long time, going back even before the 1400s. Even without printing presses, hand-made decks of cards offered even the poorest of people a chance to play and be entertained. One of the first styles of cards were German and featured four suits: leaves, bells, hearts, and acorns.
The French adopted that, changing the suits to more reflect their cultural milieu, with the four suits we know today: clubs, diamonds, hearts, and spades. By the mid-1700s one of the most popular games to play with the “French” playing cards was a game called Reversis, which beget Hearts in the late 1800s. Spades, on the other hand, comes from Whist, a straight trick-taking game that is also related to Bridge and Euchre.
DIFFERENCES BETWEEN HEARTS AND SPADES
Though they sound like the same game with a different suit as the most powerful, they’re rather different. Spades is easier to explain, and it’s sort of a simplified version of Bridge: Players pair up on teams, and, based on their cards, predict how many ‘tricks’ they’ll be able to take with their hand and their partner’s hand. A card of the spades suit always outranks any other card from a different suit, and higher cards are better than lower.
On a round-by-round basis, each player places a card face up in the center of the table, with the highest card (by rank, with spades being extra powerful) winning that round. That’s a “trick”, so a full game consists of 13 possible tricks. Teams play to a set point limit. Pretty easy.
Hearts is a bit more complicated! Hearts aren’t more powerful, tricks are decided by rank (numeric) value, with the suit of the first card played the ‘trump’ suit for that trick, and you also want to avoid taking tricks that contain hearts (or the queen of spades) lest they penalize you. Hearts also doesn’t have teams: It’s everyone out for themselves. You also pick your three worst cards and pass them to a neighbor between rounds, keeping the game lively and unpredictable.
HOW TO IMPROVE YOUR GAME
Here are some handy tips for winning both games. Let’s start with how to win at Spades:
- Don’t overbid: Bidding too much and failing to take that many tricks can be just as bad as bidding too low. Try to anticipate the probable sequence of cards played and bid as accurately as possible.
- Use spades wisely: Each is a super powerful card, so if you don’t need it to take a trick (or lose a trick if you’ve already hit your bid) then save it. Remember that a 7♠️ will also beat a 4♠️, so just having spades isn’t a guarantee of winning a trick.
- Learn to read your partner: Spades is a team game, so learning how to subtly communicate with your partner will help the two of you hit your trick target and win.
- Count cards: If you can, keep track of what high cards have been played. Having the J♠️ is more valuable when you know that the Q♠️, K♠️ and A♠️ have already been played!
Practice, of course, will improve your game too.
How about Hearts? Same strategies? Not at all. Here are my recommendations:
- Get Rid of One Suit Quickly: Whatever card is placed first is the ‘trump’ card for that round; if you’ve already dropped all of yours in that suit, you can avoid inadvertently winning unwanted tricks.
- Lead Spades If You Don’t Have the Queen: The Queen of Spades is the most powerful card, so you can force another player to waste it if you lead with spades later in the game.
- Avoid Leading Hearts: Play hearts too early and everyone else will dump their cards on you, helping them hit their target, but dooming you to win with middling starter cards.
- Count Cards: Same as with Spades, above.
WHERE TO PLAY THESE GAMES ONLINE
Perhaps surprisingly, there are a number of options for playing these games online:
Spades can be played at Solitaired.com/Spades, Spades-Game.online, and Internetgames365.com/board-games/spades.
HeartsGame.com
You can play Hearts online at CardGames.io/hearts/, HeartsGame.com, and HeartsCardClassic.com.
I recommend HeartsGame.com (shown above) for Hearts and Spades-Game.online for Spades out of those options.
The important thing is to have fun, and if you can beat your kids while you do it, even better! 🙂
Pro Tip: Don’t forget to check out my other game and computer tutorials in the fun d) None of the Above category here on the site!
I would recommend Trickster, a free site with ads where you can learn and practice over 10 card games. After learning to play real players are available. Play in clubs with friends and the site is always improving.