Play tips

Once the bidding closes, every trick counts. These tips are for the card play, whichever team you are on. The rules themselves — following suit, which card wins, when the game ends — are on the rules page.

Count the points

There are 56 points in play, and the game ends the moment it is decided: when the bidding team reaches its target, or when the points still out are no longer enough for it. So keep a running count. If your team bid 31, the other team only needs 26 to defeat it; if they are at 20 with two Jacks still to fall, every trick matters. Knowing the count tells you when to cash your high cards and when a trick is not worth fighting for.

Count the trumps

Each suit has twelve cards at six or eight players (Jack, Nine, Ace, Ten, King and Queen, twice each) and eight at four players. Keep track of how many trumps have been played and who has shown out of trumps. When the opponents have none left, your remaining trumps and your side-suit winners are safe.

Draw trumps when you hold them

The bidding team usually holds most of the trumps. Leading trumps early pulls the opponents' trumps out before they can cut your Aces and Tens in the side suits. Leading a trump Jack is safe: as the first card of the trick nothing can beat it, not even the other trump Jack. Stop once the opponents are out; there is no need to spend more of your own.

Remember that every card exists twice

With two decks, two identical cards can meet in one trick, and the one played first wins. If an opponent has already played the spade Jack to a trick, your own spade Jack cannot beat it. When both Jacks of a suit have been played, the Nines become the top cards, then the Aces — keep track of which "master" cards are left.

Feed points to your partner

When a partner's card is sure to win the trick — the highest trump still out, or a top card no one can cut — add your points to it: a Ten, an Ace, or a Nine you cannot use better. When the other team is sure to win, play your lowest card, a King or a Queen, and keep your points for later. A Nine thrown under an opponent's Jack is two points handed over.

Use your voids

If you have no cards of the suit that is led, you may play any card — a trump to win the trick, or a worthless card to keep your trumps. A suit you are empty in is a suit you can cut. Telling your partners about it in the bidding (a Noes call) lets them lead that suit for you to trump.

Lead to your partner's strength

The bids tell you which suits your partners are strong in. Leading a partner's suit lets them win with their high cards, and leading through the opponents' strength — so that the player who bid it must play before your partner — makes their high cards easier to beat.

Defending a contract

When the other team holds the bid, your aim is to stop them before they reach the target. Win the tricks with points in them, cut their long suits once you can, and do not give them a cheap trick by leading into a suit their bidder named. A contract that fails pays your team more than a made one would have paid them.

Remember the bids

The whole bidding is a description of the hands. Before playing, recall who claimed which Jacks, who called Noes in a suit, and who passed when they could have supported a partner. Most of the hidden cards can be placed from the bidding alone, and the play confirms or corrects the picture trick by trick.

Learn from your games

On this site every finished match has a written log — every bid, every trick and every hand — and a replay on the board, which you can watch from any player's chair. Watching a game again with all the hands showing is one of the quickest ways to see where a contract was won or lost. At a live table, the BOT can also suggest a card and explain why.

For the bidding, see the bidding guide; to get started on the site, see how to get started.