Championship Hearts Pro v6.40 - User Guide and FAQ

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Playing Online

There are two ways to enjoy the multi-player feature of Championship Hearts Pro. You can either play online via your Internet connection, or you can play on your local area network (LAN).

How to Play Online via the Internet

To play online via your Internet connection, select 'Play ONLINE' from the game's Multiplayer menu. The lobby window will open as you connect to our lobby server. Here you will see a listing of all the games currently being played in the Rec Room. At this point, you may choose to host your own game or join someone else's in-progress game.

Playing a game

Click on the 'Play Now' button on the left-hand side of the screen. The game window will come up, and you will be joined to the first available game in-progress. If there are no games in-progress, you will be hosting your own game and prompted to either change game options, wait for additional players or click on the 'Start Now' button to begin play (see Hosting a Game).

Hosting a game

Click on the 'Host Game' button on the left-hand side of the screen. The game window will come up, and you will be shown the Player Profile dialogue box. Choose the online game options that you wish to play with, and click OK. Your game window shows the other player(s) and the message. You are hosting a new game. Change options, wait for players, or Start Game.' click the 'Start Game' button to begin play.

Joining a game

When you connect to the lobby server, you will see a listing of hosted games, any of which you may join by clicking on the 'Click to join!' button. If the game has already started, a message indicating that the game is in-progress will appear and it will allow you to play once the current game has completed.

How to Play Online via LAN

While most players play in our online Internet lobby, you may also play a private network game with your friends. To do this, select 'Host LAN game' or 'Join LAN game' from the Multiplayer menu. If you are hosting, you will see a window that displays your IP address so you may provide it to the other players. You may start the game or change options while you wait for other players.

If you are joining, you will be prompted to enter the IP address of the host and the position from which you wish to play. You will need to wait for the host to start the game.

Frequently Asked Questions - Championship Hearts Pro

1. What do you mean by shooting the moon or shooting the sun?
   Shooting the Moon (also called 'running the hand' and other colorful names) is when a single player (even if playing partnership) takes every point in a given hand. They do not necessarily have to take every trick, just every trick that contains either a Heart or the Black Lady (the Queen of Spades). If someone succeeds, scoring is handled differently. By default, every player is assessed 26 points for allowing the shooter to successfully take all the points. The shooter takes no points. There is an exception if the shooter would force another player to win by sending another player over the 100-point game limit. When this happens, the game will automatically deduct 26 points from the shooter's score rather than add 26 points to everyone else's score.
   
   Shooting the Sun is an extra bonus for taking all thirteen tricks, even those that do not contain points. Again, the same player must win all the tricks (even if playing partnership). As with the moonshot scoring, the other players are usually charged a penalty for allowing the sunshot to succeed. Sunshots are extremely rare in play and require a very lucky deal.
   
   
2. Why didn't the computer dump their QS at the first chance?
   There are several reasons why a player might hold on to the QS until later:
   
   1.The QS usually cannot be played on the first trick (unless that variation is changed), even if the player is void in Clubs.
   
   2.To avoid dumping the QS on their partner, when playing partnership Hearts.
   
   3.Experts will avoid dumping the QS on the losing player if they are not winning the current trick. This strategy surprises many players, but most experts are focused on damaging the current game winner. Giving the leader the QS will prolong the game and give them and the other players a chance to 'catch up'.
   
   4.Aggressive players may also hold onto it to prevent a moonshot by another player.
   
   
3. The game did not end at 100 points! Why not?
   This is usually because the winner has tied with another player. In the event of a tie, the game continues for another round until the tie is broken. The game not ending at 100 points can also be caused by the endgame score being set to another value in the Scoring Options dialog or by enabling Spot scoring in the Game options dialog.