Hearts strategy

Good Hearts strategy comes down to five habits: pass the Queen of Spades and the high spades unless you can hide her, empty a short suit, get rid of high cards early and keep low ones for later, keep track of the Queen and the hearts as they fall, and stop anyone who has taken every point from shooting the moon. Here is each one, with examples.

If you are new to the game, start with how to play Hearts: passing, following suit, breaking hearts and scoring. This page picks up from there.

Passing: what to give away

The three cards you pass are the biggest decision of most hands. Look for, in this order:

The Queen of Spades, unless you hold four or more lower spades to hide behind her.
The Ace and King of Spades, unless you have plenty of low spades. They win the spade trick the Queen is dropped on.
High hearts, which win tricks full of points late in the hand.
High clubs and diamonds, or the last cards of a short suit, so you run out of it early.

Pass the Q♠, the A♠ and the A♥. With only the 6♠ to hide behind, the Queen is a 13-point danger, the A♠ would catch her if someone else drops her on a spade lead, and the A♥ wins a heart trick whenever hearts are led.

This is the pass Hint suggests for this hand. Passing the K♦ instead of the A♥, to leave you with a single diamond, would also be reasonable; what matters most is that the Queen and the top spades go.

When to keep the Queen of Spades

The Queen hurts only the player who wins the trick she falls on. If you hold her with four or more lower spades, you can usually follow every spade lead with a low spade until someone else’s Ace or King wins a trick, and then drop her on a trick you cannot follow. Passing her away instead hands her to a player who might give her straight back.

Keep the Q♠ behind the 2♠, 4♠, 7♠ and 9♠, and pass the K♣, the A♦ and the 10♦: high cards that would only win tricks you do not want. This is Hint’s pass for this hand too.

Remember what you passed. You know exactly where those three cards are, and that tells you a lot: if you passed the Queen to your left, you know who to fear on every spade trick.

Get rid of high cards early

Nobody may play a heart or the Queen of Spades on the first trick, unless they hold nothing else. So the first club trick is a free chance to play your highest club. Early in the hand, other players still have cards in every suit, so tricks rarely carry points; later, as players run out of suits, every trick can collect hearts and the Queen. High cards are cheap to play early and dangerous to keep.

Keep low cards for later

A 2 or a 3 is your way out at the end of a hand, when the remaining tricks are full of points. When the trick is already won by a card above you, play your highest card that still stays under it, and save the low ones.

East’s K♥ is already winning, so you play the J♥ rather than your 4♥. It costs nothing now, and it keeps the 4♥ for a later trick where you will need to stay under.

Empty a suit

Once you have no cards of the suit that was led, you may play anything, and that is when you give away the Queen of Spades or your highest hearts. A suit with only one or two cards is worth emptying: pass those cards, or play them early. A hand with no diamonds at all is a strong hand in Hearts.

Hunting the Queen

If you do not hold the Queen, King or Ace of Spades, lead spades. Each spade lead forces everyone to follow with a spade if they can, and sooner or later whoever holds the Queen has to play her, often on a trick someone else wins. If you hold the Ace or King of spades without the Queen, do the opposite: avoid leading spades, and play those cards when you are out of another suit, or when the Queen has gone.

Keep track of the cards

You do not need to remember every card. Three things are enough:

Has the Queen of Spades been played? Once she is gone, your high spades are safe.
Which players have run out of a suit? They can drop points on any trick of that suit.
Which hearts are still out? If every heart still out is lower than your lowest one, you will win every heart trick you follow, so drop those hearts on other suits while you can.

Shooting the moon

Taking all 26 points, every heart and the Queen of Spades, scores you nothing and gives each other player 26. It is worth trying only with a hand that can win almost every trick it needs to: several top hearts such as the Ace, King and Queen, the Queen of Spades with high spades to protect her, and high cards or a long run in another suit. Decide early, and keep the high cards you would otherwise pass. The risk is real: one heart taken by anyone else ends the attempt, and you may be left with 20 or more points.

Stopping a moon

If one player has taken every point so far and keeps winning tricks, take a heart yourself, even if it costs you a point. One point for you is far better than 26.

North has taken every point so far. East drops the 3♥, and you win the trick with the A♦ instead of playing low. You take 1 point, and North can no longer shoot the moon.

Play to the score

The game ends after the hand in which anyone reaches 100 points, and the lowest total wins. Near the end, that changes what matters. If you are well ahead, play safe and avoid the Queen. If you are behind, a moon may be your only way to catch up. And if another player is close to 100 while you have the lowest score, the sooner they get there, the sooner you win.

Practise with hints

On this site, Hint suggests a card or a pass and says why in one sentence, using only what you could see yourself: your own cards and the cards already played. Try to guess its choice before you press it. The three computer players decide the same way, from their own cards and the cards on the table, never from yours. Start a game of Hearts.