The rules of Heart to Heart

Setup

The app uses a deck of 52 cards, all hearts: 4 copies of each of the 13 ranks, from Ace to King. After shuffling, the first 25 cards form the heart, face up, in 7 rows of 4, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 cards: the two lobes at the top and the tip at the bottom. The next 26 cards form the stock, face down, and the last card is turned face up onto the waste.

Free cards

• Each card in the heart is covered by one or two cards in the row below, which overlap it on the left and right.
• A card is free when all the cards covering it have been removed. Nothing covers the tip: it is the only free card at the start.
• Cards along the edges have only one card below them: they become free sooner.
• All the cards in the heart remain visible: you know in advance which cards you will free. Only the stock is hidden.

Pairs

• A pair: two cards of the same rank. Either two free cards in the heart, or one free card and the top card of the waste.
• Suit does not matter: all the cards are hearts, so only rank counts.
• Both cards are removed from play. An emptied position in the heart stays empty.

An example from the winning game on the Examples page: after a few cards have been turned over, the waste shows a 4♥, matching the tip. Both are removed together on move 10, and the two cards covered by the tip become free.

The stock and waste

• Tapping the stock turns its top card face up onto the waste. Only the top card of the waste is playable.
• When the stock is empty, tapping it returns the entire waste to the stock, face down, in the same order. There is no limit to the number of recycles.
• Each card turned over and each recycle counts as one move.

Tapping the cards

• Tap a first free card (or the waste) to select it. Tapping a second card of the same rank removes the pair.
• Tapping a covered card does nothing (the 10♥ card at position 1 in deal HH1-N-AAAAAAM).
• Tapping the selected card again deselects it.
• If the second card is not of the same rank, nothing is removed and it becomes the selected card: tapping the tip (4♥) and then the waste (A♥) leaves the waste selected.
• With the “Move errors” setting, which is off by default, the app explains: “Must be of the same rank”.
• The “Placement help” setting, which is on by default, outlines free cards that have a partner either free or in the waste; when a card is selected, it dims those that do not match it.

Scoring

Each card removed from the heart adds 10 to the score; the waste card scores nothing. A pair taken from the heart is therefore worth 20, and a pair using the waste is worth 10. A won game removes all 25 cards from the heart: a score of 250, however you achieve it. The timer and number of moves are tracked separately.

The end of the game

• Win: all 25 cards in the heart have been removed, even if cards remain in the stock.
• Dead end: no free card has a possible partner, either free in the heart or in the stock or waste. The app opens the “No more moves possible” window; you can undo or start a new game.

What the app does

• Undo: up to the last 100 moves, including draws; the cards return to their places and the points from the pair are deducted.
• Status bar: time, score, moves and deal code.
• Game code: each deal has a code (such as HH1-N-AAAAAAM) that recreates it exactly.
• No solver: the app does not tell you whether a deal can be won, but announces a dead end when no more pairs are possible.

The app's rules and tradition

Removing cards two at a time, with a card playable only when nothing covers it, and with the help of a stock, is the rule of the Pyramide family. Heart to Heart changes it in three ways: the cards form a heart, pairs are made by matching ranks, and the deck contains only hearts.