Hearts Rules and Strategy: Dodge the Queen

The rules

1. Deal: thirteen cards each, no trumps.
2. Passing: before each hand you pass three cards: to the left on the first hand, to the right on the second, across on the third, and no pass on the fourth. Then the cycle repeats.
3. The lead: the player holding the two of clubs leads it. On this first trick nobody may play a heart or the queen of spades unless they hold nothing else.
4. Following: follow suit if you can; otherwise play any card. The highest card of the suit led wins the trick, and the winner leads next.
5. Breaking hearts: hearts may not be led until a heart has been played to an earlier trick (or the leader holds nothing but hearts). The queen of spades may be led at any time.
6. Scoring: each heart taken scores 1, the queen of spades 13. If one player takes all 26 points in a hand, they score 0 and every other player scores 26 (shooting the moon).
7. Game end: when a hand ends with any player at 100 or more (50 in the settings), the lowest score wins.

Passing: the most important decision

Three cards decide most hands. The goals of a pass are to get rid of danger and to create a void.

• Pass the queen of spades unless you hold at least three lower spades to protect it (then you can wait for the ace and king to be led out).
• Pass the ace and king of spades if you do not hold the queen: they are the cards that win the trick on which the queen falls.
• Pass high hearts (ace, king, queen) when you have few low hearts to escape with.
• Create a void by passing the two or three cards of a short suit. A void lets you throw hearts and the queen onto other players' tricks.
• Keep low cards in every suit, especially clubs and diamonds, which carry no points; they are your exits.

Do not pass low spades: they protect you if you hold the queen and pull the queen out if you do not.

Playing the hand

• Lead low spades when you do not hold the queen and have more than two spades. Each spade lead forces the queen's holder closer to playing her.
• Never lead a high spade (ace or king) while the queen is out, unless you hold the queen yourself and can follow with her.
• Dump danger on tricks you cannot win. When a suit you lack is led, play the queen of spades or a high heart.
• Duck. When following, play the highest card that still loses the trick, saving low cards for later when the lead is more dangerous.
• Count hearts and spades. Knowing that the queen has gone changes everything; knowing how many hearts are out tells you who can still shoot.
• Late in the hand, take a trick with a low heart if it stops an opponent who has taken every heart so far from shooting the moon. Thirteen points for you beats 26 for everyone.

Shooting the moon

Shooting needs a hand full of high cards in most suits, plus either the queen of spades or the ace and king above her. Do not try it with a hand of middling cards; one trick lost to another player's high card ruins it and leaves you with 20 points. Signs the robots are trying: a player who takes an early heart trick when they could have ducked. Stop them by taking one heart yourself.

Playing against the robots

The Easy robot passes and plays simply; Normal protects the queen and creates voids; Hard counts cards and will try to shoot when a hand allows. Against Hard, keep an eye on the running points: if one robot has every heart so far and the queen, and you hold the lead, lead a heart and take it.

Common mistakes

1. Passing low cards to "clean up" a hand. Low cards are safety; pass danger.
2. Leading a high spade with the queen unaccounted for. It is the quickest way to take 13.
3. Winning the first few tricks of a suit without thinking. You may be the one left holding the suit when hearts are thrown onto it.
4. Forgetting the no-pass hand. Every fourth hand you keep what you are dealt; plan to be more careful that hand.
5. Ignoring a moon attempt until it is too late. Watch who is taking the hearts.

Glossary

• Breaking hearts: the first heart played, after which hearts may be led.
• Ducking: deliberately losing a trick by playing under the current highest card.
• Void: holding no cards of a suit, which lets you discard danger.
• Shooting the moon: taking all thirteen hearts and the queen of spades in one hand.
• The queen: the queen of spades, worth 13 points.