Hearts program cheats! I've specifically caught the game cheating. Passed Ace & King Spades to the right & they ended up across the table. I think this is BULL I would expect a program to play by the rules!

Although it definitely cheats (the evidence is overwhelming), is there another way of thinking about this? I have played Hearts on other platforms (android, iPad etc) and these ones don't cheat, but they are just as frustrating, maybe more, because the virtual players play absolutely perfectly. Its almost impossible to win unless you get several wonderful hands passed to you in succession, because the virtual players just play the game so well - too well. My average win rate is 62% in MS Hearts, but in the Android version it's less than 10% - but I see no signs of cheating - just brilliant analytical and strategic play. It stands to reason that if the program plays the game perfectly, it would be impossible to win more than 25% of the time, even if you were a "perfect" player yourself, able to remember every card played.

In MS hearts, yes you get cheating, but also the virtual players are dreadful at actually playing the game. For example there are lots of times when one of the other players could easily stop me shooting the moon when it's obvious that's what I'm doing, but they don't - because they are stupid players. There are lots of other times when I've won when really I wouldnt have done if I were playing a real person with more than two braincells. It could be argued that the MS version is more like real life; people cheat too (although maybe not nearly as much they do in MS Hearts!), and people also don't have the ability to analyse the gameplay like a computer can.

So maybe the cheating is a price worth paying for playing a game with opponents who are fallable? Maybe MS Hearts more closely resembles playing a real game against real people (albeit untrustworthy and stupid ones)? Certainly If MS Hearts improved the gameplaying ability a little bit (just a litte bit - not too much!) , and reduced the cheating quite a lot (but not stop it completely) - you'd have a great faxcimile of a "real" game.

@ DavidB69 - Thank you for your comment.  I have an Android tablet and I will look for that Hearts program.  I would welcome playing against skillful opponents just as long as the deal was fair and by that I mean random and as long as my opponents play as singles and not as a team versus me.  I will reserve comment on that until I see it.  The first time I pass the A or K or Q of Spades and get the others passed to me in return, I am gone.

As for MS Hearts the evidence of cheating is beyond overwhelming.  I think most of the cheating is in the deals which aren't really deals at all but are a fixed apportioning of the cards designed to keep the human player from winning too often.  This is necessary because the AI in the game is so dreadfully stupid. 

As an experiment I reset my MSHearts stats and began to dump games so that I could see what happens when one gets a ridiculous winning percentage.  I made one mistake and my record is 89-1 at this point.  It's a travesty now.  Every hand revolves around I will manage the various combinations of A-K-Q of Spades that appear in my hand.  I've lost interest in it.

Here are some examples of what I consider cheating in the fixed deals:

1. in a game played with real cards you never see the Q Spades and five other Spades in one hand and the other seven Spades all in another.  Many people at Mrs B's have reported this;

2. in a game played with real cards, one player would never be dealt A-K-Q Spades in consecutive hands but recently I got that combo three times in less than a week with MS Hearts;

3. in a game with real cards no one player sees the Q Spades dealt or passed to them in 8 or more consecutive hands.

There are so many other examples: the cutsie when the 2,3,4 & 5 of Hearts are in different hands with the human taking the trick with the 5; the double-cutsie which is the same thing only the human takes 4 more points with the 9 of hearts; the human player takes the Q Spades with a 4 on the second go around of Clubs or Diamonds; etc etc.

A couple months ago I hauled my old computer out of the store room so I could play the XP version of MS Hearts with all cards face-up.  That was when my real education about this game began.  When you can see all the cards, you can see how the deals can't be called random.  With the cards exposed you can sometimes plot your way out of a jam but just as often you can look ahead 5-6 tricks and see how escape is impossible.

Some things I observed make me suspect that the game looks at the cards the human player passes before deciding what the bots will pass.  But I can't prove it.

I recall one game with the cards face up when I had 22 points and the other 3 all had more than 70.  Then after 3 hands in a row in which I took 20+ points in each the game was over and I lost.  I could watch it happening and there was nothing I could do.

Having said that, playing with the cards exposed shows that the game also cheats during the play.  On several occasions I caught the game when it reneged, cards coming out of the wrong hands. 

The AI may be stupid but sometimes it is smart enough to:

1. the 3 bots will gang up on and pound the points to the human even when he already has the high score;
2. one bot will intentionally gobble up points and bust themselves so another will win;
3. one bot will hit 99 and stick there for several hands until the human no longer has the low score
4. two bots will slough off their high cards so that the third will shoot-the-moon and all the human player has are low cards.

Regards.

Good comments.

I also found the Queen was almost always to my left, with the leader of spades to my right.

That happens an astounding percentage of the time.

When the computer shoots the moon, two of them just help.

No human would normally do that.

Yes, it is beyond doubt this program is a very simplistic strategy game with very

few redeeming qualities you could learn from. Why do people do this!!

Hello Again.  Could you please tell me which Android platform Hearts game you are playing?  I have an Android tablet and I installed the AI Factory version of Hearts.  It's garbage just like MS Hearts.  It has non-random deals and the games are mostly 3 against 1.  The program gifted me the first two matches, the bots played so stupidly.  But after that I have been a spectator.  In the eight subsequent matches I have not been dealt a single chance to shoot-the-moon, not in the cards dealt and not in hindsight after seeing what was passed to me.   All I can do is try to not take points.  And that's difficult when the game "deals" you a singleton Q Spades on two hold hands in the same game; when you win the Q Spades with a 4 in the first go-around for a suit twice in a game; when one bot will not attempt to stop another from shooting the moon.

The only A.I. I have seen so far in AI Factory Hearts was when North led out the Ace of Hearts and East sloughed off the King when it could have played a small Heart.  If not for me North would have shot the moon.