Microsoft hearts

Is anyone else addicted to Microsoft hearts besides me? Maybe "addicted" is putting it too strongly, but I waste way too much time on the game. On my new computer I'm 71 for 151 (47%). I'm trying to make it to 50%. I have no basis of comparison to know how good 47% is. My lowest score is 1. I'd be interested to hear other hearts stories.

Before I found this site, and managed to start wasting spending so much time here, I wasted a LOT of time on Hearts, as well as Solitare, and Spider Solitare.

A score of ONE? Lightweight!

Admin note: removed image www.djteddybear.com/images/hearts.JPG

I'm still trying to get one where I scoop all four hands....

Wow, you shot the moon the first three games, nice! I've shot the moon twice in a row a few times, including the game with the 1 score, but never three in a row.

Once upon a time I played it a lot. I even went into online gaming sites where I could play against other people. Maybe the program is easy to beat, because I got very low scores all the time and zeros very often. I also managed to shoot the moon four hands in a row several times (four hands of course is the limit). Luck is involved in the hand where no cards are traded. That makes it more difficult, but not impossible, to stick everyone else with 26 points each.

I didn't do nearly as well against live opponents, but I won often enough. In the end I quit playing online due to slow connections (remember the 56k modems?) and overly chatty players.

I play it on the PC now and then, but nowhere near as often as I once did. These days I go more for casual games I download off the web, and some practice of casino games.

With some practice, you should be able to shoot the moon against the ms hearts game 4 times in a row once every few tries. I used to play too much... I got a lot of practice playing team hearts with my cheating friends

Correct me if I'm wrong, but do you think the secret of a high rate of shooting the moon has to do with feeling out how the computer is programmed to play? Sometimes I just shake my head wondering why it makes a move. For example, often it will pass low cards, despite having no reasonable chance to shoot the moon. I think it is because it puts too much of an emphasis on having a short suit. Other times the computer player with the queen of spades will lead with other spades, only increasing the probability another player will smoke out the queen. Perhaps it is an effort at confusing the other players, but I think at too high a cost.

Quote: Wizard

Correct me if I'm wrong, but do you think the secret of a high rate of shooting the moon has to do with feeling out how the computer is programmed to play?

Could be. When I started playing online a few players remarked I played them as I would the Windows game.

What I can say of my own experience is that I took no notes and kept no track of cards. Perhaps I just got used to it subconsciously. My older brother played a lot, too, and he had similar results.