Hearts strategy
Rules →Pass your problems, not your protection
High spades above the queen — the ace and the king — are the classic pass, because holding them means you will be forced to take the queen eventually. Low cards in a short suit are the other: they are what lets you duck out of leads you do not want.
Void a suit, but not spades
Having no cards in a suit lets you throw away a heart or the queen whenever it is led, which is the single most useful position in the game. The exception is spades: a void there means you cannot duck a spade lead and the queen becomes far more likely to land on you.
Count the spades above the queen
There are exactly two, the ace and the king. Once both have been played the queen is safe to lead into, and until they have, every spade lead is somebody fishing for it. Knowing which of those two are still out is the difference between leading a spade confidently and gambling thirteen points.
Watch for the moon before it is too late
A player who has taken every heart so far is three tricks from costing you 26 points. The time to take a heart deliberately is while it is still cheap — one point now against twenty-six later. Players lose entire games by ducking correctly for eleven tricks and then having no way out on the twelfth.
The last hand is a different game
When one player is at 94 and you are at 71, the winner is not whoever takes fewest points — it is whoever is not that player when they cross 100. That can mean deliberately feeding points to somebody, or taking a hand yourself to keep the game alive. Play the scoreboard, not the hand.
Shoot only when you hold the ending
A moon attempt needs the last few tricks as much as the first: one heart escaping to another player ends it and hands you 26 points you were trying to give away. The hands worth trying it on are long and solid in one suit with the high spades to control the lead — not the hands that merely start well.