Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
When do you keep the queen? When do you pass the queen? And what you do with the queen
if she's in your hand. We've already mentioned that the queen is the most important individual
card in the game and often decides the difference between victory and defeat. Now let's look
at holdings with the queen, when we're going to keep her, when we're going to pass her.
If we have the queen dealt to us by herself, singleton, we're certainly going to get rid
of her. There's no hope keeping that card in your hand. It will be driven out on the
lead of spades because there's twelve other spades against you and the ace king probably
have lots of cards with it. One card, not enough, not even close, same problem, you're
not going to survive that suit either because in two leads of spades the queen will be driven
right out. Doesn't matter what the guard card is, it can be a low one, that's even worse.
Three cards, still insufficient, better, but insufficient, even if the suit was evenly
divided, four, three, three, three, surely the person with the four spades will have
enough length to drive it out of you. The only chance you have with this holding is
if the ace of spades is here or here and maybe this person is leading, but we're talking
about managing the queen in your hand when it's dealt to you, not when it's passed to
you. Three guards are a little bit better. This one you have an opportunity to maybe
get rid of it or to dump it on an off suit. You certainly don't have the freedom to be
able to place it at will. However, let's look at this type of hand. We have the queen and
three guards. Those are pretty good guards and you know why, because whoever leads spades,
you have the chance to take the lead and shift suits. So, do you see the difference between
these three, having those three with her or having those three with her? The deuce, three,
four aren't going to stop anything. Any card will just soak them right up. Bigger guards
mean better chances, and of course any four spades, even if you pick the four worst possible
guards you could have. Why is that? Because if you have five spades in your hand that
means for somebody to drive that out of you they have to have five spades. Again in Hearts
the spade suit tends to divide more evenly because people aren't passing spades. So,
managing the queen in your hand, now if the queen is passed to you, if the queen is passed
to you, chances are you were dealt spades, very unusual to be dealt a void in suits in
Hearts. Sure it can happen. You can be void in anything. You can be void in spades, but
why would the queen not likely be passed to you if you didn't have any spades in your
hand? Because that meant that all thirteen spades were out between the three hands. Surely
somebody would've had the queen with three guards on it, I mean with four guards on it,
and would've kept it. So if the queen is passed to you, the same rules apply, if you have
two or three you're mission is going to be to dump her unless it means ending the game
and coming in third place. You're not going to hold this thing. It's too dangerous. You
want to get rid of her at first opportunity and if it happens to hit the guy that's in
third place and he growls at you as he goes into fourth place, what are you supposed to
do, take the queen and go out of the game and again you have a little bit more latitude
if you have additional guards. So again, managing the queen, four guards, good stuff, three
guards, difficult, high guard cards, very good and then you'll have a little bit more
freedom. Sometimes you just have to get rid of her. Oftentimes you can work with another
player and aim for a player. We'll talk about that later.