| General Tips |
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| Bidding By Barb |
| 1.Never give up. The cards always change and anything can happen. 2 Do not make mistakes. Making mistakes are the number one reason most people are beat . Taking risky nils, making risky bids, under bidding, bagging, missing sets and getting set etc. These are also the hardest things not to do. Take for example if your team underbids one or two tricks every hand over the coarse of a typical 10-hand game. Your team is likely to take 10 bags and bag back since your team underbid about 10 tricks.Your team is losing 100 points due to bagging back, plus the 100 points for not bidding your tricks. I will also add the number one reason why people lose is pure luck. The odds of your team winning at the start of any given game are only 50%. Difference in skill level between two teams typically only increases a team's chance of winning by 1-5 percent. 2A Do not nil with the Ace third in. You might be able to make it if you are short in a suit, you lead first and your partner's bid is over six. 3 Don't start taking risky nil's until you absolutely have to. For example, your opponent is over 350 and not in bag trouble and you're down by more than 100. 4 Always worry about your bid first. Worry about bagging or setting next. Getting set on a 5 bid is equal to going back on bags. 5 If it is a 12 bid, go for the set. 6 If it is an 11 bid evaluate your hand and who bid what. If you might be able to take one or two extra, think about setting. Watch what your partner takes. If your partner trumps an Ace and/or a King, or over trumps your opponent, you may have a good chance of setting. If one or both of your opponents trump with high spades they are opening themselves up to get set. Watch to see if you or your partner is bagging, if so go for the set. Setting a 5 bid costs your opponents 100 pts; going back on bags costs your team 100 pts (actually only 90 points due to bags being worth 1 point each). 7 When either your team or your opponent's team is sitting at 8 or 9 bags, go for the set. The reason for this is, if you know you are going to go back on bags, you might as well get a set out of it if you can. If you opponents are likely to go back on bags they are more likely to overbid their hands and more likely to sluff their tricks, making them perfect targets of a set. 8 If your Score is over 350 and neither team is in danger of bagging back, go for the set every hand. The reason for this is, the chances of your team taking 8,9 or 10 bags in about 3 hands in extremely unlikely and the same applies to giving your opponents 8,9 or 10 bags. Also, bags count as points. I have won plenty of games because I had the bag advantage on or after the last hand. If you happen to set, you just increased your chances of winning. You will often find that your opponents stay in a sluffing mode to avoid bags, which helps your chance of setting. 9 Be aware of the score and the rules you are playing under. Add up the bids after everyone has bid and figure out the scores if everyone makes their bids. Example of rules: At Mplayer: if a player is set on a nil the tricks that he takes counts towards his partner's bid. At Internet Gaming Zone: The tricks the set nil takes will only count as bags and not as points towards making the nil's partner's bid. 10 Another good example of knowing the score and the rules is when you play nil's are worth 50 points and DN's are worth 100 pts. (Playsite.com follows this rule). If your opponents have a 9 bid and your nil and your partner has a 2 bid. In this case, If everyone makes their bids they get 90 pts and your team gets 70 pts, but if you break your nil and are able to set them, they get -90 pts and your team only gets -30 pts. 11 If your opponent and partner are both nil and your opponents will win if they make the nil. You have to play full set on either the nil or the nil's partner; this may cause your partner to get set. Also remember this if you are ever wanting to go nil on the last hand and your opponent is nil. 12 Be cautious of hands in which you have 9 or more cards, in one or two suits (one or two suited) or 11 or more cards in three suits. With these hands, someone is usually nil. If someone isn't nil, they are usually good hands to set with or be set with. A lot of Aces and Kings get trumped in hands like this, so be careful and don't try anything fancy and get you and your partner's tricks that you bid. |