Hand Selection
Deciding whether to Take is a difficult skill for new players — memorizing the Power Order of Trumps and the other suits is critical for judging a good hand. A few factors to weigh:
- Your position relative to the Dealer. If the Dealer is to your left, you Come Out first when the Round begins. Coming Out first is powerful — you can often Take with just the Jack and Minnel of Trumps plus an Ace and Ten in another suit, pulling Trumps first and playing your Ace and Ten after.
- Your partner's position relative to the Dealer. If the Dealer is to your partner's left, your partner Comes Out instead. That's valuable too — they can open with Trumps and possibly pull a large Trump out of an opponent's hand. Example: your partner leads the Ten of Trumps; an opponent holding the Ace or Minnel must Go Over with it, and hopefully you hold the Jack of Trumps to take the Lift.
- A hand with only small Trumps (King, Queen, Eight, Seven) is often a poor Take. If the four stronger Trumps (Jack, Minnel, Ace, Ten) land in your opponents' hands, they can make the Round miserable and likely put you Down.
- Taking because you hold a Carry is usually a bad idea — unless it's a Carry of Jacks or Nines (200 or 150 points). Most other Carries are better left for your opponent to Take, since it will likely put them Down instead.
Coming Out with Trumps
When your team has Taken, it's common to Lead Off the Round with Trumps. This strips Trumps from your opponents' hands and lets your team collect Lifts later with Aces, Tens, and Kings without fear of being Trumped.
Counting
Always keep track of how many Trumps have been played — each suit has only 8 cards, so a Round has exactly 8 Trumps. Once you've mastered tracking Trumps, extend the habit to Aces, Tens, and Kings in the other suits.
Pulling Trumps
Leading Off with Trumps when your team has Taken helps clear your opponents' Trumps. Combine this with Counting: if an opponent didn't play a Trump when Trumps were called, they're out. Another tell — if your team leads the Jack of Trumps and an opponent plays Minnel, they likely have no other Trump left; they'd rather play a lesser Trump on your Jack than give up 14 points on the Minnel.
Be careful calling for Trumps again once your partner is out — you'll only be pulling Trumps from your own partner's hand, leaving them nothing to take Lifts with later in the Round.
Dumping Points
Two situations call for Dumping Points — playing a high-value card onto a Lift your team already has secured:
- Your opponents Took, but your partner has played a card that will win the current Lift. Throw a valuable card (like a Ten) to boost your team's total.
- Your opponents Took and have shown Room with plenty of Trumps — you won't win many Lifts this Round. When your partner does win a Lift, dump your valuable card onto it.
Score Awareness
Late in the game, wait for a decent hand before Taking, so you don't Go Down at a critical moment.
Example: you have 960 points, your opponents have 800. If you Take and Go Down in a Room-free Round, the score becomes 960–960 — you've handed your opponents a shot at the win. If instead your opponents Take at 960–800, they'll have a very hard time stopping your team from picking up the last 40 points.
Fishing
Fishing happens when a team is trying to Flag their opponents but doesn't have the cards to Flash outright. They keep playing Trumps or Lift-winning cards, hoping their opponents haven't saved the right card to pull the final Lift and dodge the Flag.
Signaling for a Suit
If your opponent plays a suit — say Hearts — and looks likely to win the Lift, and you don't hold Hearts and don't need to Trump because your opponent already has the Lift, you can play another suit (say Clubs) to signal your partner to lead that suit next time. You'd typically signal this way when you're holding Lift-winning cards in that suit, like an Ace, or an Ace and Ten together.
Starting with a Weak Trump
Normally you lead Trumps to strip your opponents' hands. But if the opponent to your right holds a couple of strong Trumps — say King and Minnel — leading the Queen of Trumps instead of the Ten lets them play their King and hold onto Minnel, since the rule says they must Go Over if they can, or Hug if they can't. Leading the Ten instead would have forced a harder choice.
Not Calling Re-bellot
There's really one reason to intentionally skip calling Re-bellot: your team Took, but your opponents have dominated the Round and taken most of the Lifts. If you're likely to Go Down, skipping the call saves 20 points from being added to your opponents' score. It's a tough call — those 20 points might otherwise have helped you avoid Going Down — and it's best left to players confident in their card counting and memory.
Remembering Room
Room is declared and shown at the start of each Round — make a habit of remembering what your partner and opponents showed. That information stays valuable for the rest of the Round.