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MISSING TEXT colorful introduction goes here...

The Play
All the cards are dealt out one at a time until everyone has 13 each (in a 4-player game). At this point, the "passing" occurs. Each person takes three cards they feel to be least helpful out of their hand and passes them to the left, thus receiving three cards from their left as well. The 2nd hand, the cards are passed to the right, the 3rd hand across, and the fourth hand is a "keeper" hand. Once this operation has been completed, the person who has the 2C plays that card to start the first hand. When playing, players MUST follow the suit of the previous card played. If they cannot, they are allowed to play and suit they wish, including a dreaded heart or the QS. The one exception to this rule is the very first hand, when no hearts or points are allowed to be played. When someone has the "lead" from having won the previous trick, any suit can be led. Again, there is an exception (A lot of card games are like the English language. No rule is without an exception.) in that hearts or the QS (point cards) cannot be led until they are forced out during a hand by someone being unable to follow suit. Once hearts have been "broken" in this way (hey, don't blame me, I didn't come up with that one, it's standard) they can also be led. Play continues until the cards are gone, the points are tallied, and a new hand is dealt out.

3-player game: While playing Hearts with 3 players seems highly unnatural and possibly even illegal, some people actually enjoy it. At least they say they do. Anyhow, the cards are dealt out 17 to each player, with one card remaining. Some people play that the 2 of diamonds is taken out, but I prefer that the last card remain as a "kitty," face down, and then whomever gets the first heart also takes this surprise card, which must be shown to everyone when it is taken. More often than not this will be something worthless, but on occasion a heart or even the QS comes up, which makes it a bit more interesting to leave it in. In a three-handed game, there is only a left and right pass, and then the hold. As you cannot pass across a triangle, Euclidian mathematical law forbids such a pass from occurring.

The Winner
The game is over when one of the combatants reaches 100 points, at which time the person who has acquired the FEWEST points wins the game. A quick note here on winning and losing Hearts: In the early pre-historic days of FreeVerse software, deep in the heart of South-Central Los Angeles, a debate once raged over the place of those who did NOT go over 100 points yet did not win. Did they also lose? Were they in 2nd or 3rd place? Perhaps only one person out of four was the loser. Now, there was one player in our games who perhaps won a bit more regularly than the rest of us, and at one point, he became fed up with our efforts to squeak our way into his winner's circle if, say, he had 22 and we had 24 points after someone had vaulted over 100. "There is only ONE winner," he said forcefully one day "and if you haven't won, you've lost. Period. The three remaining players, no matter the number of points, are equal losers."

Tips
Without getting too far into it, there are a couple of basic strategies to keep in mind:

As you are trying to avoid taking any points, it is a good thing to have a lot of low cards. Conversely,, it renders you somewhat powerless to control the flow of the game. Although it isn't necessarily good to have a lot of high cards, I have found it to my liking, ESPECIALLY in a game where the JD variation is being used, to keep some high cards if I also have some low cards in the same suit. This allows me to take a trick if I wish it, either to gain the lead for the sake of getting the Jack or some other reason, or to keep someone from taking all the tricks and shooting the moon.

The Hand of Death: This would be the hand that is replete with 8's, 9's, and 10's. The FreeVerse Cookbook and Strategy Guide adds 7's and Jack's to this list, but from personal experience I think you can escape the problem of those, whilst the 8's, 9's, and 10's have caused a world of hurt. You can neither skate under a trick with these cards, nor take a trick you want to take with them. If at all possible, lose these cards when you are deciding which cards to pass. Fast. Unless, of course, you have them in spades, in which case you can use them toÉ.

Bleeding the Queen: if you have a lot of low spades, and do not wish to somehow, based on your other cards, end up eating the 13 points that comes with taking queen, it is often not only good strategy, but good malicious fun as well to force whomever holds the Queen to eventually come out with it by continuing to play spade after spade. An evil laugh like the Count on Sesame Street helps to complete this strategy to full effect. In all seriousness, though, it DOES help not to lose your 8's, 9's, and 10's of spades in such a case. You may take some hearts, but the protection they offer from the big black Maria makes up for it.

Variations
Most of the variations in Hearts center around the scoring. In order of most-utilized, those variations are:

The jack of diamonds is worth Ð10 points

The Jack of Diamonds variation really adds to the back end of a hand, as this is often when the Jack comes out. One reason people play with this strategy is that it often keeps the hand interesting down to the last card. As mentioned below, this strategy also affects the ratio of low to high cards you decide to keep in your hand.

Taking NO tricks during a hand is worth Ð5 points I have never played with variation, but it seems a bit capricious. Taking no tricks whatsoever is more a matter of chance than skill or strategy, based on what sort of cards you were dealt, so I'm not so much in favor of it. Ian strongly disagrees with this statement!

The queen of diamonds is a regular card, worth nothing

I have to say that despite never playing with this strategy either, I find it strangely attractive. For one thing, playing it with the jack of diamonds rule makes for too many negative point opportunities, so that's out. It really seems rather old-school and strictly strategic, like playing poker with absolutely no wild cards, which I also like.

There are also some small variations that have to do with the opening hand. I played with a group of people who contended that the holder of a 2C was punished by having it and being forced to play it as an opener. As the standard rule is that no points can be played on the first hand, this allows everyone to rid themselves, risk-free, of a high club, following the suit of the 2. Not wanting to penalize that person, they decided that the person who HOLDS the 2C must lead the trick, but can play any club (i.e., a king) they wish.

Do you play a different way?
Share your experiences here!