Common Terms
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Active suit A suit that more than one player still has cards in.
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Backer Synonym for protection.
Bad hand A hand that contains the queen of spades with little or no protection or just several high cards, but not bad enough to shoot the moon.
Bonus card In some variations of hearts, there are bonus cards that subtract points from your score. An example is omnibus hearts, where the jack of diamonds is worth -10 points.
Breaking hearts Penalty cards, such as hearts, cannot start a trick until they have been played in response to a different suit. Playing a penalty card after a non-penalty card has been lead is called breaking hearts.
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Cover your pass When passing, a player might end up passing a heart to another player. If the receiving player subsequently tries to use that heart to shoot the moon, the original player will be expected to cover their pass. That is, they are expected to play a higher heart in order to win the trick, and prevent the other player from shooting the moon.
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Defensive hand The opposite of a shooting hand. A hand played to win as few points as possible.
Ducking Ducking is the act of playing the highest card in your hand that does not win the current trick. This allows the player to duck any points that end up in the trick.
Dumping Dumping is the act of playing a card of a different suit, when the player is void in the suit that was lead. Especially helpful for getting rid of unwanted cards.
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Exit card A card that is currently low in an active suit, that is lead in order to transfer control to another player.
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Fall As in, getting a card to fall. That is, trying to get a specific card played in order to get rid of it.
Fishing for the queen Fishing for the queen is a tactic used to force someone else to win the queen of spades. It involves leading spades, jack or lower, until the player with the queen runs out of spades and is forced to play it, or until another player is forced to play the king or ace of spades.
Follow A card played in response to a lead card that is of the same suit. That is, it is &ldsquo;following&rdsquo; suit.
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Game A game is a sequence of rounds, ending when one or more players reach or exceed a set score. The typical score is 100 points.
Guard card Guard card is a synonym for protection.
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Holding hand A round where no passing happens.
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Long suit A suit in which the player has seven or more cards.
Low scorer The player with the lowest number of points. That is, the player who is currently winning.
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Minor suit A minor suit is a suit that has no point cards in it, namely clubs and diamonds.
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Omnibus A popular variation of hearts where the jack of diamonds is a bonus card worth -10 points. See variations.
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Painting a trick Painting a trick means playing a penalty card in that trick.
Penalty card Penalty cards are cards that add to the score of the player who wins the trick they are in. In the standard game the penalty cards are all the hearts, worth 1 point each, and the queen of spades, worth 13 points.
Protection Protection is low value cards in a suit where you also have high value cards, particular in hearts and spades. These low value cards protect the player from being forced to win a trick with one of the high value cards.
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Round A round is a sequence of 13 tricks, ending when all cards have been played.
Running it Synonym for shooting the moon.
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Safe hand A safe hand is a hand that contains mostly low cards and no queen of spades.
Shoot the moon Shooting the moon is a winning condition occurring when a player wins all the penalty cards. Instead of the shooting player taking the 26 points, they take 0 points, while the 26 points is added to everyone else’s score. Alternatively, the shooting player can choose to subtract 26 points from their score, while leaving everyone else’s score alone. This is beneficial if adding to someone else’s would cause the game to end, but without the shooting player winning.
In omnibus hearts, sometimes the jack of diamonds is required to be taken in order to shoot the moon.
Shoot the sun Shooting the sun is a common variation to the game of hearts. It adds a winning condition if a player takes all the tricks, not just the ones with points. If a player takes all the tricks, they take no points and everyone else has 52 points added to their score. See variations.
Shooting hand A hand that contains high hearts — including the ace — and other high cards in support. Alternatively, it can be hand with almost all the cards of a given suit. A shooting hand can be used to shoot the moon.
Short suit A suit in which the player has two or fewer cards.
Slam Synonym for shooting the sun.
Smoking out the queen Synonym for fishing for the queen.
Splitting hearts Splitting hearts is playing penalty cards on different opponents in order to spread the points out. This tactic can be used to preemptively prevent someone from shooting the moon.
Stripping As in, stripping down a suit. A technique used when a player has several cards of a given suit. The player will continue to lead the suit to strip down, effectively voiding the other players of that suit. The result is the player’s remaining cards of that suit are rendered harmless as long as the player doesn’t have control.
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Targeting hand A hand is considered a targeting hand if there is protection from the hand’s penalty cards, as well as few cards in one or both of the minor suits. The minor suits can be voided easily, and the protection cards prevent any fishing attempts, meaning the player can be choosey about who he or she inflicts points on. A particularly effective targeting hand contains the queen of spades along with the appropriate low spade protection.
Trick A trick is a sequence of four cards, making up one full rotation of play.
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Void suit Voiding a suit is when a player purposefully eliminates all the cards of a specific suit from their hand. This is done in order to play other cards, namely penalty cards, in response to someone leading that suit. It is an effective tactic for giving away penalty cards.
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