Passing Strategies
- Analyze the Spade suit. How many Spades do you have that aren't face cards? If the answer is less than three, pass off your royalty.
- Analyze the Heart suit. Each high Heart in your hand represents a potential of four points, so treat Hearts much like you would treat Spades. However, if you have a large run of Hearts ending in the Ace (such as 7 through Ace), then you may be able to shoot the moon. If you have a King or Ace of Spade too, then your chances are good. If possible, pass cards so that you have none of a particular suit
- Analyze the Minor suits. A suit is considered relatively ironclad when you have 6 or 7 of the suit and at least two of them are low cards. The reason for this is because if your opponents have 6 diamonds between them, those cards will likely be used up in two tricks. If you have two or more low cards, your high cards will never be forced.
General Tips
If you have more than 6 cards of one suit including a few low ones, keep them. You'll be able void other suits faster as long as you don't win too many tricks.
Handling the Queen of Spades
If you are dealt the Queen of Spades, choosing whether to pass or hold her can be maddening. It's almost always wise to hold her if you have three or more spades to protect her. If you have to pass the Queen, you at least know who has it. This will come in handy if you have the King or Ace of Spades.
Handling High Cards
If you have a particularly bad hand (one full of high cards), it can be a good idea to play a high card on the first or even second trick in which that suit is led. If you win the first trick, you can choose whichever suit you want to lead and attempt to win the first several tricks of the game by playing high cards. This strategy leaves you less likely to take a trick with hearts in it, and you will be in much better shape later in the game.
Leading Strategies
Situation: You don't have the Queen, King, or Ace of Spades
The safest possible strategy is to lead with Spades constantly to force the Queen out of hiding. Hearts may be broken early because of this, but you're much less likely to get stuck with the Queen. The consequence of not doing this could be that the player with the Queen creates a "void" in another suit and plays the Queen in an unexpected circumstance.
Situation: You have the Queen, King, or Ace of Spades, but no others
You are in danger of taking the Queen. Create a void as quickly as possible by leading suite of which you have very few cards. If someone else then leads that suit, you can drop your bad Spade.
The safest possible strategy is to lead with Spades constantly to force the Queen out of hiding. Hearts may be broken early because of this, but you're much less likely to get stuck with the Queen. The consequence of not doing this could be that the player with the Queen creates a "void" in another suit and plays the Queen in an unexpected circumstance.
Situation: You have the Queen, King, or Ace of Spades, but no others
You are in danger of taking the Queen. Create a void as quickly as possible by leading suite of which you have very few cards. If someone else then leads that suit, you can drop your bad Spade.
Shooting the Moon
The first thing to notice about Shooting the Moon is that it's nearly impossible to do when you have low Hearts in your hand. You will almost certainly lose this Heart to another player. If you have a large straight of Hearts starting from the Ace and going down, you're in good shape. When Hearts are broken, you should be able to lead with your high Hearts, win the Hearts from everyone else's hands, and then play your low Hearts while everyone else is forced to play other suits.