Hearts: getting rid of the queen, counting spades, and when to shoot the moon
Hearts is often presented as a game of bad luck: you take the queen, you score 13, that’s that. Yet the regular players always end up ahead. What they do differently comes down to three habits, none of which calls for a prodigious memory.
In short
In Hearts, half the points in a hand sit in a single card: the queen of spades (13 points), against 1 per heart. Strategy therefore comes down to three questions: pass or keep the high spades (ace, king, queen) depending on how many low spades you hold, count the spades played to guess who holds the queen, and only play the queen on a trick someone else has already taken. Shooting the moon (all 13 hearts and the queen: 0 for you, 26 for each of the others) is only attempted with a long suit of top hearts.
The pass: three cards that decide the hand
Before play, each player passes three cards (left, then right, then across, then no pass, and the cycle starts again). It is the most important moment of the hand. What to pass, in order:
- The ace and king of spades, if you hold fewer than four spades in all: they are the two cards that “catch” the queen when she is played under them. With four spades or more, keep them: you will have enough low ones to play while the others show their hands.
- The queen of spades, if you hold fewer than three other spades to protect her. With three low spades, keep her: you will be able to dump her at the right moment.
- The high hearts (ace, king, queen): they take heart tricks, and so points.
- The cards that let you create a void: pass the last two or three cards of a short suit so you can discard the first time that suit is led.
What you never pass: the low spades (2 to 10), which are the best protection in the game, and the low hearts, which let you follow without taking.
Counting spades to find out who holds the queen
There are 13 spades. Three matter (ace, king, queen), ten are harmless. From the first round of spades, watch who plays what: a player who puts down a low spade when they could win the trick probably doesn’t hold the queen — or wants you to think so. A player who fails to follow in spades has no spades left at all: they don’t hold the queen, and they will be able to dump their hearts on your tricks.
The classic tactic, when you hold the ace or king of spades with several low ones: draw out the spades. Lead a low spade as soon as you have the lead; the player holding the queen has to follow, and by the third round they often have nothing left but the queen to play. Conversely, if you hold the queen with few low spades, avoid leading spades and pray for a void.
When to play the queen
The queen is played as a discard, that is on a trick in a suit you no longer hold, already taken by someone else. The ideal trick: an ace of diamonds played by an opponent when you have no diamonds left. Never play her under the ace or king of spades if you can avoid it, and don’t give her to your left-hand neighbour at the end of the hand if they are in the lead: hand her to the player best placed to catch you up. The 13 points change hands, but the standings don’t.
Hearts: follow low, and break at the right moment
Hearts cannot be led until one has been discarded (“breaking hearts”). Each heart is worth 1 point: they count for less than the queen, but they add up. Two reflexes: always follow with the lowest card you can, and keep one or two low hearts to the very end so you aren’t forced to take a last trick full of hearts with a king. Breaking hearts deliberately, by discarding a heart on an opponent’s trick, is a good move when you hold a lot of low hearts and the others are keeping their high ones.
Shooting the moon: when to try it, how to stop it
Collecting all 13 hearts and the queen turns the hand on its head: 0 for you, 26 for each of the others. It is tempting and it is rarely playable. Minimum conditions: at least six hearts including the ace, king and queen, the queen of spades (or the certainty of catching her with the ace and king), and winning cards in the other suits to keep the lead. If a single one of these conditions is missing, an opponent will eventually take a heart trick, and you will have collected 20 points for nothing.
In defence, the rule is simple: everyone keeps a high heart (king or queen) as long as one player looks like taking everything. A single heart trick taken by a defender is enough to stop the moon, and it is better to score 3 points than 26. The site’s counter offers the moon automatically when a player enters 13 hearts and the queen, and shares the 26 out to the others.
Going the distance to 100
Each hand puts 26 points into play, or 6.5 per player on average: a game to 100 lasts around fifteen hands with four players. A player at 5 points per hand almost always wins; the point is not to dodge the queen every time, but never to take both (the queen and a handful of hearts). At the end of the game, when an opponent is on 95, everyone plays against them: you save the queen for them and take the hearts yourself if need be. If you play the drop-back-to-50 variant (landing exactly on 100 takes you back to 50), do the maths before giving them the last heart.
Frequently asked questions
Should you pass the queen of spades?
Only if you hold fewer than three other spades to protect her. With three low spades or more, keep her to dump at the right moment.
How many points for shooting the moon?
The player who collects all 13 hearts and the queen scores 0; each of the others scores 26. A few tables prefer to subtract 26 from the shooter’s score: settle it before you play.
Can you lead a heart on the first trick?
No, not until a heart has been discarded on a trick of another suit. On the first trick of the hand, you can generally play neither a heart nor the queen of spades.
How many hands does a game to 100 last?
Around fifteen with four players, since each hand puts 26 points into play, or 6.5 per player on average.
Published on 2 October 2026, updated on 13 October 2026.