The Queen of Spades in Hearts

Why she is worth 13

Hearts is a game you win by scoring as little as possible. Each heart taken in a trick costs 1 point, thirteen hearts in all, and the Queen of Spades costs 13 on her own. That makes her exactly as expensive as the entire heart suit, and it is why the game is sometimes called Black Lady or Black Maria.

The practical effect: a hand where you take four or five hearts is mildly bad. A hand where you take the Queen is a disaster, and a hand where you take the Queen and a few hearts can lose you the whole game. Almost every decision in Hearts is shaped by where the Queen is and who is likely to be forced to play her.

When she can and cannot be played

The first trick of every hand begins with the 2 of clubs, and no points may be played on it: no hearts and no Queen of Spades. If you have no clubs you must discard something else, and CardCouch will only let you throw a heart or the Queen if those are literally the only cards you hold. This protects the player who happens to be void in clubs from an ambush on trick one.

From the second trick on, the Queen is just a spade. You must play her if spades are led and she is your only spade. You may discard her on any trick where you cannot follow suit, which is how she usually changes hands. And you may lead her whenever you like, whether or not hearts have been broken, because the breaking rule applies to hearts only.

On CardCouch, playing the Queen does not break hearts; only a heart played on a trick does. Some rule sets say the Queen breaks hearts as well, so if you learned the game elsewhere, expect this small difference.

Passing the Queen

Each hand begins with a pass of three cards: left, then right, then across, then a hold hand with no pass. The Queen is the first card most players think about.

• Pass her when you are short in spades. With the Queen and one or two other spades, any spade lead may force her out of your hand while a higher spade is still out, and you take her yourself. Pass her.
• Pass the Ace and King of spades too if they are poorly guarded. A bare A♠ or K♠ is the card that wins the trick the Queen is dropped on. Two spades above the Queen with no small spades to hide behind is a worse holding than the Queen herself.
• Keep her with four or more spades. Q♠ with A♠, K♠ and two or three low spades is a comfortable holding: you can follow low spade leads several times, and choose the trick where she falls on an opponent.
• Remember who you are passing to. Passing the Queen left means the player on your left holds her and will try to unload her on the player on their left, which is not you. Passing her across sends her to the player who plays two seats after you, which is fine. Passing right puts her with the player who plays just before you, so you are the natural target if you win spade tricks.

The computer players on CardCouch pass the Queen whenever they hold her, so after a pass towards you, assume she may be coming.

Avoiding her during play

• Do not win spade tricks with the Ace or King while the Queen is out. If spades are led and you hold A♠ K♠ 5♠, play the 5. Only climb once the Queen has been played.
• Create voids early. Lead your short suits on the early tricks so that later, when someone leads that suit, you can throw the Queen instead of following.
• Count spades. There are 13. If you have seen the Queen played, high spades are safe to win with. If you have not, every spade trick you win is a risk.
• Avoid winning late tricks. The Queen tends to come out when someone is void, which is more common in the second half of the hand. Get your Aces and Kings in other suits played early, while the players still have to follow suit.

Smoking her out

If you do not hold the Queen and you have several small spades, lead them. Every spade lead forces the other players to follow, and the player holding a short spade suit with the Queen will run out of safe spades quickly. When they must play her, she falls on whoever won the trick, which will not be you if you led low. Lead the 2♠, then the 3♠, and watch who hesitates.

The tactic backfires if you hold the Ace or King without small spades to lead first, because your own high spade may end up winning the trick she is dropped on. It also fails against a player with five or six spades, who can follow low all day.

Keeping her for a moon

The one time you want the Queen is when you are trying to shoot the moon: take all 13 hearts and the Queen. Succeed and you score 0 while each opponent takes 26. A moon is impossible without her, so a shooter holding the Queen with the Ace and King of spades and a long, strong heart suit has the hardest part covered. Conversely, if an opponent looks to be shooting, taking the Queen yourself, or a single heart, stops the moon at the cost of 13 or 1 point.

For everyone else the rule is simple: she is 13 points, and the whole hand is about making sure they land on somebody else.