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How to Play Hearts

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Hearts Variations

Basic Hearts Strategy

Though it’s a straightforward game, hearts involves quite a bit of strategy. Following a few basic strategic guidelines for general hearts play and for shooting the moon will ensure that you avoid common beginner’s errors and will give you a much better shot at winning the game.

General Tips for Playing Hearts

The tactics described below will help you avoid mistakes and lower your score.

Organize Your Hand

As soon as you receive all of your cards, arrange them by suit and by rank. Put all your hearts together from lowest to highest, then do the same for every other suit. Doing so will make it easier to decide which cards to pass and whether you should try to shoot the moon. While organizing your hand, though, be careful that you don’t inadvertently give astute opponents any information about your hand.

Pass Strategically

In deciding which cards to pass to opponents, keep the following principles in mind:

Discard high hearts: Cards such as the and are liabilities, since if someone leads with a heart and you’re forced to play a high heart, you’re likely to win the trick and the points. Always pass these cards if possible.
Discard excess hearts: Even if you don’t have any high hearts, having too many hearts can be detrimental. If you end up winning the lead at any time during the round and have a lot of hearts, you may be stuck winning most of the tricks. In general, if more than a quarter of your cards are hearts, you have too many hearts.
Discard high spades: The , , and are very dangerous cards. The is dangerous because the player who holds it often ends up winning it, and it’s worth 13 points. The and are dangerous because if you’re forced to play them, whoever is holding the will likely play it (since the and will win the trick), and you’ll end up with the 13 points.
Create voids in clubs and diamonds: A void is a suit in which you have no cards. Having a void in clubs or diamonds is desirable because you won’t be able to follow suit if clubs or diamonds is led. Instead, you’ll be able to play a heart or the without fear of winning the trick. Having only one club or diamond is almost as good as having a void.

The cards that you pass are important not just because they allow you to get rid of your bad cards. When you pass three cards to another player, it means that you know at least a bit about that player’s hand. Remember that the cards you pass—and the player you passed them to—can help you decide which cards to play later in the round.

Pay Attention to Which Cards Are Played

If you pay attention to which cards have been played, you’ll have a better sense of which cards all of the players are holding and therefore which cards you should play. For instance, if you’re holding the

, and the

and

have both been played, then you know that if you lead with the

, you’ll win that trick.

If you find it difficult to keep track of all of the cards that have been played, try keeping track of the most important cards, which are:

Hearts: Keeping a count of the number of hearts played can help you decide which card to play. For example, if you know that your opponents must have at least six hearts among them, leading a low or middle heart is probably a safe play because one of the other players will likely hold and have to play a higher heart, meaning that they’ll win the trick. If you know that the only hearts left are in your hand, however, then leading any heart is guaranteed to leave you stuck with points.
Queen of spades: You can help yourself avoid the by remembering whether it’s been played, and who has it if you passed it to them. For example, if you know that the player to your left has the , it would be unwise to lead the or . In contrast, if you knew that the had already been played, it would be safer to play the or .

Play Danger Cards Safely

Though you get to pass your worst cards (such as high hearts or spades) to an opponent, one of your opponents will also pass his or her danger cards to you. Knowing how to play these danger cards safely—meaning without winning points—is essential to winning at hearts.

Using Voids to Play Danger Cards

If you have a void in the led suit, it’s a perfect time to play the

, your highest heart, or your highest spade. Since you’re not following the led suit, you can’t win the trick or the points in the trick.

Using Position to Play Danger Cards

If you must follow suit, use your knowledge of the cards played and your opponents’ cards to play safely. For example, take the following scenario:

You passed the to the player to your right.
The player across from you led .
The player to your right then played .

If you’re holding either the

, you can safely play them, since you know that the only player going after you in that trick doesn’t hold the

Shooting the Moon

Successfully shooting the moon can win the game for you, but trying and failing to shoot the moon can lose the game for you. For this reason, you should generally only shoot the moon if your hand gives you a very good shot at making it. You can also use a few other strategies to help boost your chances.

Hand Requirements for Trying to Shoot the Moon

You should try to shoot the moon only if your hand contains at least:

The and . Never try to shoot the moon without them.
The and (or at least half of your cards are hearts). It is possible, but difficult, to shoot the moon without these cards.
The and , or the . Again, never try to shoot the moon without them.
Aces and kings in other suits. Even though diamonds and clubs aren’t worth points, you’ll need to take the lead when either of these suits is led.

Passing Cards

If you’re aiming to shoot the moon, rather than pass hearts and high cards, hold on to them. Instead, pass low clubs and low diamonds.

Taking Points

The strategy for shooting the moon is the opposite of the strategy for regular play. Rather than avoid points, your goal is to win every point. But there’s one very specific guideline you should follow when playing a trick that contains the

or a heart:

Always play the lowest card possible that will still win the trick. If you’re playing early in a trick, or leading a trick, it’ll be hard to know which card is the strongest, so you may have to play one of your highest. But if you’re playing last in a trick, be particularly careful not to waste a high card.

The goal is to win all the points in the current trick while preserving your high cards so that you’ll be as likely as possible to win the cards in future tricks as well.

Discarding Cards

Discard your low cards in tricks that have no points, saving your high cards for more valuable tricks.

Acknowledgments & Disclaimer

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How to Play Hearts

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Hearts Variations

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