Hearts

What to Pass in Hearts

Every hand except hold starts with a pass. You look at thirteen cards, pick three, and send them before anyone sees what they are about to receive. Direction rotates each round: left, then right, then across, then hold. Hold is not a fourth pass. Nobody trades. You play the hand you were dealt.

This page is the kitchen-table decision: which three, and why left is not the same as right. It is not the interactive lesson. Walk a first game night if the 2 of clubs still feels new, then the passing cards lesson and practice table with every card visible. Shooting is its own page: shoot the moon.

Pass left, right, across, then hold

Four people. Thirteen cards each. After the deal, everyone except on hold chooses three cards face down. You do not get to take them back after you see the three coming in. That is the whole mechanic.

Pass left. The player on your left gets your three cards.
Pass right. The player on your right gets them.
Pass across. The player opposite you gets them.
Hold. Nobody passes. Play the thirteen you were dealt.

Then the cycle repeats. CardPractice teaches this rotation. Some tables skip hold or add a pass to the dealer. Say it out loud before the first deal. The rest of this page assumes left, right, across, hold.

What the three cards are actually for

You are not "getting rid of points." Hearts you still hold can be ducked. The queen you still hold can be guarded. The three you pass are supposed to do one of three jobs:

Dump a card you cannot control. An unguarded queen of spades. A lonely ace or king of hearts. The ace or king of spades when you do not have the queen and you do not have a pile of low spades either.
Finish a void in clubs or diamonds. One or two cards in a side suit are void bait. Pass them, and the next time that suit is led you can throw a heart or the queen onto someone else's pile. Hearts has no trump. A void is a discard, not a ruff.
Keep a ducking hand. Low clubs, low diamonds, low spades, and at least one low heart. A 2 or 3 is how you lose a trick on purpose after points start falling.

High cards in a long suit can wait. Early in the round they often win clean tricks with no points in them. The ugly pass is the short suit and the unguarded queen, not the ace of clubs sitting in a five-card club pile.

When to keep the queen of spades

The queen is 13 points. That is half the round. Passing her is the default kitchen-table move. Keeping her is a count, not a personality.

Keep the queen of spades when you have four or more spade guards — four other spades, usually low and middle ones, that can sit under the ace and the king when someone leads the suit. Five, six, seven spades including her is the same idea. You can duck. If the ace and king come out, you still have spots left that are not the queen.

Pass her when you have three or fewer other spades. Two low spades is not a guard pile. The first spade lead eats one. The second eats the other. The third is the queen, and you take 13 because you had nothing left to play. Passing her left is the painful version of that deal. Passing her right or across is the ordinary version.

Ace and king of spades without the queen are also a pass, most nights. They win the trick that someone else dumps her on.
Ace or king plus the queen and no length is worse. You will take her yourself. Pass the queen. Keep one high spade only if you have the length to control the suit.
Four-plus guards and the queen is a keep. You are not shooting. You are hiding her until a spade lead that you can duck, or until you are void in something else and can throw her on a club or a diamond.

When not to pass low hearts

A 2, 3, or 4 of hearts looks like a point. It is also the only cheap way to stop a moon. If you pass every heart you were dealt, you cannot bleed one point onto the player who is happily running ace-king-queen. Their moon dumps 26 on you. Your pretty void does not help.

Pass a lonely ace or king of hearts. Those win tricks. They are moon fuel if you send a stack of them to one person. Keep the 2. Keep a 3 if you have one. Keep two low hearts if the hand is fat with them and you are not shooting.

Voiding hearts is not the same as voiding clubs. A club void lets you dump the queen. A heart void lets someone else shoot while you sit there with nothing to throw under their ace.
Do not pass three hearts to the left. You just handed a run to the player who plays after you. One high heart is a discard. A pile is a moon kit.
If you are actually shooting, keep winners and keep the queen if you can control her. Pass side-suit losers. Do not pass the low heart that someone else will use to duck you. That decision lives on shoot the moon, not here.

Left vs right vs across

Play goes clockwise. Same three cards. Opposite jobs, depending who receives them.

Pass left. The player on your left plays immediately after you when you lead. They see your lead, then play. Do not gift them a moon: no stack of high hearts, no ace-king of hearts plus a long heart. Unload the queen left only when you cannot keep her. Prefer a void in clubs or diamonds, and the ace or king of spades if those are the problem. Left is the dangerous seat.

Pass right. You play after them when they lead. Unloading the queen right is the ordinary kitchen-table dump. You will often play last on their spade leads. High trouble cards belong here more than they belong left. Still keep a low heart. Still do not pass a 2 of hearts just to look tidy.

Pass across. You stare at that person all night. They got your rejects. You got theirs. The queen going across is fine. A void going across is fine. You do not have the immediate after-you problem that left has. Treat across like a slightly friendlier right: dump what you cannot control, keep the ducking cards.

Hearts pass direction at a kitchen table
Direction	Who gets your three	What to bias
Left	Plays after you on your leads	Voids and unguarded high spades. Queen only if you must. No pile of high hearts.
Right	You play after them on their leads	Queen, lonely high hearts, short-suit junk. Safest dump seat.
Across	Opposite. You watch them all hand.	Same as right. Dump what you cannot control.
Hold	Nobody. No trade.	Count the queen. Count a moon. Play the thirteen you were dealt.

Hold is different

On hold you cannot fix the deal. If the queen showed up with two little spades, she is yours. If you have seven hearts and the ace-king of spades, you might actually be looking at a moon, and you cannot pass the losers away. Count first. Most hold hands are still a hunt for zero.

First-night hold advice: duck harder. You did not get to throw the ugly cards. Low cards are the whole plan. If a moon is not already in your thirteen, do not start one because the pass was skipped.

Walk through one 13-card pass

You are South. The pass is left. You were dealt:

Spades: queen, 8, 3
Hearts: ace, 7, 2
Diamonds: king, jack, 9
Clubs: ace, 10, 6, 4

Thirteen cards. The queen has two other spades, not four guards. She goes. The ace of hearts is a lonely winner. She goes. The 2 of hearts stays. That is the moon stopper. The king of diamonds is a high card in a three-card side suit. He goes. You are not void yet, but you are one diamond dump away from being able to throw points on a diamond lead.

Pass left: queen of spades, ace of hearts, king of diamonds. Keep the 2 of hearts, the 8 and 3 of spades, and the club length.

What you did not pass: the 2 of hearts, even though it is a point. The 7 of hearts, because two hearts to the left is how moons get built and you already sent the ace. The ace of clubs, because four clubs is a suit you can still duck in.

Same thirteen, pass right or across: the same three are still the pass. You are happier about the queen leaving. You still keep the 2 of hearts.

Same queen with four guards instead — say queen, 10, 8, 6, 4 of spades, and two fewer clubs — you keep the queen and pass ace of hearts, king of diamonds, jack of diamonds. That voids diamonds and keeps the Black Lady behind a real spade pile.

Replay that layout on the hearts practice table with every card visible. The slow version of the pass itself is the passing cards lesson.

After you pass

The 2 of clubs leads. Follow suit. There is no trump. Highest of the led suit wins. You asked the three cards you sent to do a job. Watch whether they did. The player who got your queen will try to dump her. The player who got your ace of hearts may try to run hearts. One low heart in the cards you kept is how that second story ends.

You know enough to pick three. Keep the first-night rules nearby, and the moon page for the hand where you want every ugly card instead of passing it.

Frequently asked questions

What are the best cards to pass in Hearts?

Three cards: the queen of spades if she is short on guards, high cards in a short side suit so you can void it, and a lonely ace or king of hearts. Keep low cards so you can duck. Keep at least one low heart so you can stop a moon. The pass rotates left, right, across, then hold.

Should you pass the queen of spades in Hearts?

Pass her when you have three or fewer other spades. Keep her when you have four or more spade guards — low and middle spades that can sit under the ace and king. An unguarded queen is how you eat 13 in one trick.

Should you pass hearts in Hearts?

Pass a lonely ace or king of hearts. Do not pass a 2, 3, or 4 of hearts just to get rid of a point. That low heart is how you duck someone else's moon. Voiding hearts is a real plan only if you already know you are shooting, which most kitchen-table hands are not.

Is passing left different from passing right in Hearts?

Yes. Play goes clockwise. Pass left and the player who got your three cards plays immediately after you when you lead. Pass right and you play after them. Unload the queen right or across before you unload her left. Do not gift a pile of high hearts to the player on your left.

What happens on a hold hand in Hearts?

Nobody passes. You play the thirteen cards you were dealt. You cannot dump the queen or finish a void. Count whether a moon is already in your hand. If it is not, play for zero as usual.

How many cards do you pass in Hearts?

Three, every round except hold. You choose before you see what you will receive. First-night order of play is on how to play hearts. The slow version of the pass itself is the passing cards lesson.

Practice this with all cards visible on CardPractice.

Sit at a hearts practice table and pass three from a real thirteen. Watch who received the queen, who kept a low heart, and which void actually ate a point. For the slow version of the pass, start the passing cards lesson.