How to Play Hearts by Tim Ander

Author:Tim Ander [Ander, Tim]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: CRB Publishing
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Leading

There are a few tactics which you can use when it is your turn to lead. The strategy will depend on how far into the round you are. Two things you will think about are flushing and shorting.

After passing, you will have left yourself short or void in a suit. When you come to lead, you should be thinking about going from short to void in a suit, or voiding yourself in another suit. This is especially important if you have the queen of spades as it gives you more opportunity to get rid of the queen without winning a trick. If the game is near the beginning, you can play most cards without fear of taking penalties. This is a good time to get rid of your high cards. The longer the game goes on, the more chance people are short in suits, so your goal should be to lead low at this point and pass the lead on to someone else.

If you do not have the Q, K, and A of spades, but have lots of low spades, then you can flush the queen out. By leading with a low spade, you are forcing others to play spades and eventually someone will play the queen, giving points to someone, but not you. If you do have the queen, then you should be looking for an opportunity to play it against a higher spade, but you should not be leading it unless you are confident the lower spades have been flushed out.

If Hearts have been broken, then it can be useful to lead with a low heart. Someone else will take the trick and the points. If you have the queen of spades and not many lower cards or only higher cards, then you should be trying to void yourself in a suit so that you can play the queen on that suit later. You should be doing the same if you only have spades which are higher than the queen. If all you can play is a higher spade, chances are you will take the queen at some point unless you can get rid of the higher spades.

You should be aware of the cards you have left in your hand and the cards which have been played. If you have a lot of a single suit left and the lead is passed to you, you may be in the awkward situation where you have to play a suit which everyone else is void in. If that is the case, you may take multiple penalty cards at the end of the game without being able to do anything about it.

In the reverse situation, if you are the last to play in a trick, you have a decided advantage. Often you will be able to take the trick if you wish or play a card which does not win the trick. If there comes a time where you will win the trick no matter which card you play, you should always play your highest card.

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