Tips hearts

Shooting the Moon (getting all 26 points):

Only try to shoot the moon if you have the cards to do it. It helps to have high cards, but there's more to it than that. For one, it's good to have a lot of one suit because after a couple rounds of that suit being led, everyone else will run out and you'll be able to lead with that suit without anyone being able to take the lead from you, even if it's a low card. This is also nice because if you fail, you won't have to worry about taking too many more cards because no one will lead with that suit.

If you have any low hearts, and you want to shoot the moon, trade them. Once the trading session is over, if anybody has a higher heart than one of yours, don't try to shoot the moon. The only exception is if you have enough hearts that are higher than anybody else's that everyone is likely to run out before you play your lower hearts.

Stopping Others From Shooting the Moon:

Watch out for people going to shoot the moon. Most times this situation can be avoided by making sure that one of the three cards you pass to the left at the start of a hand is a lower heart card than one you keep in your hand. This way you can always stop a moon by taking a heart trick and just getting 4 points. If you have at least four or five of a certain suit, wait to play your highest one until you've taken points or at least two other players have taken points. If you can play any of that suit without taking points, play the second highest one. That way, you can stop the moon with your highest card without putting yourself in a bad situation.

The First Trick:

Not many options here. If you have the Two of Clubs, you're leading it. Since no points can fall on the first trick, play your highest club. If you are void in clubs, then use the opportunity to trash an otherwise dangerous high card (like an Ace or King of Spades), or try to void yourself in a second suit. More voids mean more opportunities later.

Bleeding Spades:

Generally speaking, after the first trick falls, any player who is not in danger of taking the queen of spades will want to lead spades as much as possible. The main theory behind this is simple: If spades keep being led, the players with the A, K and Q will eventually have to play them. If you're not holding any of those cards, you want to force them into play as soon as possible, so someone else gets stuck with those 13 points. If you fail to bleed spades, the player holding the queen may be able to create a void in another suit (such as clubs or diamonds) and then dump the queen on an off-suit trick. Unless you are holding a near-perfect hand with no high cards likely to win any tricks, your battle plan should probably involve leading spades as much as possible until the queen has fallen on someone else.

Exceptions To Bleeding Spades:

There are exceptions to this. If there is another player with 13 points or less and you don't want the game to end, you don't want to force him to play it if he has it, so first, try to figure out who has it. If the player who is winning has it, then by all means, bleed it, but if the player that's losing has it, try to let him get a void first so he can play it when he's ready. He'll probably try to play it on the player who is winning. Even if you can't figure out who has it, it's probably better not to bleed spades because there's a two out of three chance that it's not the player with the lead, and if that's the case, you want to allow them to give the queen to the player with the lead. There are some ways to figure out who has the queen of spades. First, you can definitely eliminate anyone who plays a non-spade on a round led by a spade. You can also probably eliminate anyone who leads with a spade because they probably wouldn't if they had the queen. Finally, if someone is leading with a high club or diamond and that suit has already been played at least once or twice, that probably means that they either have the queen or they're trying to shoot the moon because otherwise, that would be a risky move.

Defending Spades:

Conversely, if you are stuck with an undefended Q, K or A of spades, you are in danger of taking the queen if spades keep being led. Your goal should be to create a void as soon as possible, by leading suits of which you only have one or two cards. By dumping your only two diamonds, for example, you can hope that someone else leads diamonds and allows you to drop your bad spade. If you are holding the Queen of Spades, another option is to lead your longer suit (clubs or diamonds) and hope someone else is void. Since you hold the Queen of Spades, the worst that will happen is that a few heart points will fall on you. Once this happens, hearts will have been broken, and people may lead hearts instead of spades. If you have few hearts and can dump the queen on a hearts trick, this is ideal.

Hearts:

These are the bad cards. Once you avoid the Queen of Spades, you want to try not to get many of these. Sounds easy, right? Well, it depends what cards you have in your hand. If you have low hearts, you don't have to worry, since you can duck under any hearts lead. If you're holding high hearts, you want to try to dump them on someone else as soon as possible, and not lead hearts.

Voids:

If you can create an early void, by getting rid of all your cards of a single suit, you should almost always do so. Doing this means that the next time that suit is led, you can get rid of your worst card, which is a very powerful position. Likewise, it's important to keep track of other players at the table who have voids, so you don't lead a suit you might get stuck with.

Counting:

While not strictly necessary to play Hearts, you will do a lot better if you can keep track of how many of each suit has been played. This is less difficult than it might sound; until someone reveals a void by dumping an off-suit card, the number of cards played of any suit will be divisible by 4. This is important information to keep track of to avoid playing into other players' voids. For example, if three full rounds of clubs have been played, and you have a club in your hand, it is the last one. Leading it will let everyone else dump cards on you.

Late Game Strategy:

You can't always control who you deal points to without risking taking points yourself, but when you can, you should. If you're winning, you want to target the player who's losing so that the game will end sooner. Otherwise, you want to target the player that's winning. If you have the queen of spades, you want to give it to the player you're targeting, but only if you can do so without too much of a risk of taking it yourself. If you have a lot of spades, you can afford to hang on to the queen until you can give it to your target, but if you don't, just get rid of it while you can unless doing so will cause the game to end. The same is true to a lesser extent with hearts.

Generally, the later in the game you get, the less concerned you should be about letting your opponents shoot the moon. If you only have a few points left, you probably can't stop anyone without taking enough points to lose the game, so leave that to other players who can do so without losing the game. You also shouldn't stop other players from shooting if you are in the lead, you're at least 27 points ahead of the player who is shooting it, and there's at least one other player who has 26 points or less, because in this case, it will cause you to win. If the player who's winning is trying to shoot the moon, it might be a good idea to let him get as far as possible before stopping him because it might be your only hope.