How to play Hearts well once you know the rules: the decisions that matter, and the habits that win.
The three cards you pass shape your whole hand. The queen of spades is a liability only if you cannot protect it: with four or five spades including low ones, keeping her is often safer than passing her to someone who will know exactly where she went. Short in spades, pass her.
The ace and king of spades are dangerous without low spades to guard them, because they can be forced to take the queen. High hearts and high cards in a short suit are also good passes.
Using the pass to get rid of all your clubs or diamonds means that as soon as someone leads that suit, you can discard freely — the queen of spades, a high heart, whatever hurts most to hold.
Clubs is often the best suit to void, because clubs are led first. You still may not throw a heart or the queen of spades on the very first trick, but the next time clubs are led you can. Passing the two of clubs only hands the opening lead to someone else.
A two or three in a suit lets you slip under a trick rather than winning it. The most valuable cards in Hearts are the low ones, and the player with few of them is the one who ends up taking points.
Get rid of high cards early, while tricks are still clean. An ace played on the second or third round of a suit rarely picks up hearts; the same ace played late often takes a heap.
If you hold low spades and not the queen, lead spades. Every spade lead forces the players with the ace and king to play them or burn a low card, and sooner or later the queen has to fall on someone.
Count the spades as they are played. Once the queen is out, the rest of your spades are safe and you can use them freely.
A player who is taking every trick with hearts in it, and has not yet dumped any, may be going for the moon. Once you suspect it, keep one heart back and win a single trick with it, even if it costs you a few points — that is much cheaper than 26.
Shooting the moon yourself needs long, strong suits, high hearts, and a way to win the queen of spades. Without the ace of hearts and control of at least one side suit, one opponent holding a single heart back can break it.
Near the end of the game, dump points on whoever has the lowest score rather than whoever is easiest to hit. The game ends when someone reaches 100, so a player on 90 is someone you may want to push over the line if your own score is low.
Likewise, when you are winning, taking a few safe points is often better than risking a trick that lands the queen on you.