Score
0
Best
-
Say how many tricks you will take, then take exactly that many. One too few scores nothing — and so does one too many, which is why losing on purpose is half the game.
Seven rounds, and the hand shrinks each time: seven cards, then six, down to one. After the deal one card is turned face up beside the deck and its suit is trump for that round.
First you bid — how many tricks you think you will take with the hand you were dealt. Then you play them out, following suit if you can. Highest trump wins the trick, or if none was played, the highest card of the suit that was led.
Scoring is all or nothing: hit your bid exactly and you get ten points plus one for each trick you took; miss it by one in either direction and you get zero. There is no partial credit, so a bid of nought that you keep is worth more than a bid of three you overshoot.
The dealer is not allowed to bid a number that would make the two bids add up to the number of cards in hand — somebody always has to be wrong. Your score is your total after all seven rounds.
Bid the hand you were dealt, not the hand you wish you had. Count only the cards that win by themselves: the ace and usually the king of a plain suit, and almost every trump above the middle. Middling cards in side suits win far less often than they look like they should, because your rival will simply follow with something bigger or ruff.
Zero is the strongest bid in the game and the most underused. If you hold no trumps and nothing above a jack you can duck every trick deliberately, and that is far easier than winning a precise number. A kept nought pays ten points, the same as a hit bid of nought would in any other round, and it costs you nothing to steer toward it.
Once you have your bid, the whole game becomes counting down. The moment you have taken exactly what you promised, your goal flips: now you are trying to lose every remaining trick, so throw your highest useless cards first while there are still low cards left to duck with later. Players lose far more rounds by being forced to win a trick at the end than by failing to win one.
The rule that the dealer cannot make the bids add up is worth exploiting when you bid first. If you bid a number that leaves an awkward remainder, the dealer is pushed off their natural bid and onto one they do not want. In the short rounds especially — two cards, then one — a first bid of one or nought often forces the dealer into a bid their hand cannot support.