How to Cooperate with Others in Hearts

Video Transcript

"Hearts is basically a game of collusion. Now that doesn't mean that I sit over and I say to this opponent over here, here's what I got you know what to do. No, no, no, no, that's not collusion, that's cheating. It's basically, even though Hearts is an individual's game, you're forming temporary partnerships with the idea of driving the queen out of somebody if it doesn't end the game unless you're going to win, but you're not going to work with a person that doesn't want to help you if he doesn't benefit from it either, but the bottom line is that you're going to work with somebody to get the low man. There is a game, there is a strategy, there is a variation if you will, call that in loose terms of Hearts called Low Man. You will never get anybody upset if you aim for the low man; however, if you've got a hand that's got a hanging queen of spades or what have you, you're going to want to get rid of that at first opportunity unless you end the game. Remember in Hearts the absolute game limit is one hundred points so as long as nobody has reached a hundred points that game is still going. So you want to work with somebody if the person with the high hand is not leading spades because they've got spade problems. Don't drive spades at them. What you want to do is wait, if you possibly can, if you've got enough guards on your queen, to try to get the low man. You wait for them to go up. Maybe this person can lead through them. At the very least, if you work that way and play Low Man Hearts you'll find yourself invited back to an awful lot of Hearts games."