How to Defend Against "Shooting the Moon" in Hearts

Video Transcript

"Now we come to a section or session which has always been kind of an emotional point with me playing hearts, and that is the winkers, or hogs if you will that don't want to take four points to stop the shoot, okay. Let us suppose, that the person who is holding these cards right, has already taken the queen of spades. They're running a side suit and you say to yourself, the side suit meaning clubs or diamonds, you say hmmm, I think I'll just throw that away and now their king, queen is good and they've shot the moon, and all you had to do is sit and wait for them to lead one of these hearts. You would have taken it with the ace, played the deuce or the four, well the four is a little bit of a better play and you've been out of the hand for a lousy four hearts. But, no you wanted to oink it out and throw him the ace, and look what he had, and you don't think that you're going to get the ire and wrath of your opponents. You can count on it, and also variations on a theme. He has only these two, and let's just say he's forced to lead these two, he doesn't want to keep running a side suit. So he pushes these two and you duck them, and now the rest of his hand is good. Then he gets on the moon again. So the perks on the issue is, when is it worth it to stop the moon? Four points is pretty cheap, one point is better if you can arrange that. Eight points is not bad, but I wouldn't stop the moon for twenty points. I would say the cutoff point would be eight points depending on the score. Certainly if you can take four safe points and get out of the hand you've done your job, and no opponent will ever yell at you if you stop somebody else?s move, unless it's theirs."