What to Pass in Hearts

Why the three top spades go first

The Queen of spades is worth 13 points, half the points in the deck, so she is the first card to think about. If you hold her with only one or two other spades, you are in trouble: the first time spades are led and you have no low spade left to play, you must play her, and you lose any say in where she lands. Passing her moves that problem to somebody else.

The Ace and King of spades are dangerous for the opposite reason. They win spade tricks, and while the Queen is still unplayed a spade trick is exactly what you do not want to win. Players who hold none of the top three spades will lead low spades on purpose to smoke the Queen out, and your Ace or King is forced to take one of those tricks eventually. So A♠ and K♠ go too, in the same breath as the Queen.

The exception: four or more spades

Low spades are what protect the high ones. If you hold the Queen with three or four small spades beneath her, every spade lead can be answered with a small card, and you decide the trick on which she falls, ideally one that another player is already winning. The same cover makes the Ace and King safe: duck with low spades while the Queen is out, and once she has gone the Ace and King win harmless tricks. With a long spade suit, then, keep the top cards and look elsewhere for your pass. And whatever you hold, never pass a low spade; it is the card doing the guarding.

What else to pass

• High hearts. A♥, K♥ and Q♥ win heart tricks, and every heart trick is at least one point. Once the dangerous spades are dealt with, these are usually the next to go. Keep one high heart only if you want a stopper against a moon and can afford the point it may cost.
• A high card you cannot protect. A lone Ace or a King with one small card beside it in clubs or diamonds will win a trick late in the hand, when hearts are being thrown on every lead. Pass it, or pass the small card beside it and plan to cash the Ace on an early trick while everyone still follows suit.
• Cards that create a void. Passing the last two or three cards of a short suit leaves you void. Being void in clubs or diamonds is most useful: when that suit is led you throw a heart, or the Queen, instead of following. Voiding spades is not worth it, because the small spades are your guard; voiding hearts is rarely possible and gives away the high hearts you would want as stoppers against a moon.

What never to pass

Low cards. A 2, 3 or 4 in a suit is a card you can play under anything, which is how you avoid tricks when the points are flying. Experienced players call these stoppers, and a hand with a low card in every suit is a hand that can duck its way through the dangerous late tricks. Do not strip all your low cards in one suit to make a void if it leaves the rest of the suit high; a void is only good if the suits you still hold are safe.

Left, right or across: what the direction changes

On CardCouch the pass rotates left, right, across and then a hold hand with no pass, which is the common modern rotation; some tables skip the hold hand or pass left every time. The cards you pass are the same kind in every direction, but who receives them matters, because the seats play in a fixed order.

• Passing left. The player on your left plays after you on every trick. They see when you are winning a trick and can drop the Queen on you at leisure, so a Queen passed left can come straight back at the worst moment. Many experienced players consider this the riskiest direction to pass her and are happier passing high hearts and a short suit instead, keeping the Queen when they have the spades to guard her.
• Passing right. The player on your right plays before you. If you pass them the Queen, she is on the table before you commit to a card, so you can see her coming and play under the trick. That makes right the safer direction to pass her.
• Passing across. The player opposite plays after you on some tricks and before you on others, so neither of the two effects above is reliable. The rule of thumb stands.

Whatever the direction, remember that the receiver now knows three of your cards and knows you were trying to get rid of them. Three low cards arriving tells them you may be planning a moon; the Queen arriving tells them you were short in spades.

The hold hand: when you cannot fix the hand

Every fourth hand is the hold hand, also called the no-pass or keeper hand, and you play the thirteen cards you were dealt. Bad hands are bad here because nothing can be done about them before the first trick, so play them with the same ideas you would use after a poor pass:

• Cash high clubs and diamonds early. The first trick carries no points under the common rule CardCouch uses, so your highest club is safe on it, and the next few tricks are the safest time to win with an Ace or King while everyone still follows suit.
• Mind your spades. Holding the Queen with little cover, never lead a low spade. Holding none of the top three, lead low spades to force her out of somebody else's hand.
• Duck once hearts are broken. Play just under the current winner and save your lowest cards for the last tricks, which is where the voids and the points appear.
• Consider the moon. A moon on the hold hand has one small advantage: no pass of low hearts has warned anyone. See the shooting the moon guide before you try.

Passing when you want to shoot the moon

A moon hand needs long high hearts headed by the Ace and King, control of spades including the Queen or the Ace and King above her, a void, and very few low cards. If you are dealt something close to that, the pass is the reverse of the normal one:

• Pass your lowest cards, starting with low hearts. Each low heart you pass is a trick you no longer have to win.
• Then low cards from a short suit, to create a void one trick sooner.
• Keep A♥, K♥ and the spades that guard the Queen. They are the hand.

Make the final decision only after you have seen the three cards you receive. A low card arriving in a suit you cannot control can end the attempt before it starts, and then you simply play the hand normally. And accept the tell: a player who receives three low hearts will often keep a high heart as a stopper.

What the computer players do

On CardCouch the Medium and Hard computer players always pass the Queen of spades when they hold her. The Easy player simply passes its highest cards with no plan, so when you play Easy the Queen may stay where she was dealt and high hearts arrive from any direction. Against Medium and Hard, expect the Queen to move every passing hand, which also means that if you did not receive her, one of the other two players usually did.