What is your goal when you're forced to take a row when you play the lowest card?

[CameronHamill]

Hi Members,

I'm just wondering, aside from the obvious of minimizing the number of Bull Heads you receive, what is your goal when you're forced to take a row when you play the lowest card (undercut)?

Are you looking to 'direct' Bull Heads to other particular players? Or are you looking to set up your next lot of cards to play!

My first instinct is always to take the row with the least amount of Bull Heads.

If all 4 rows have one starting card and are worth 1 Bull Head each which number do you look for?

I'm interested in the very specific strategy of 'directing Bull Heads' or how to think about which row I should collect.

Can I please ask any members for how that approach this specific scenario of 'the undercut' or let's say the art of the undercut (assuming there's a clear strategy here).

[rashellie7]

Use your best judgement. If I’m low on points and it’s towards the end of the game, then I prioritize eating the least bull heads. If I see that eating a different row would cause another player to get rid of a troublesome row, I’d probably take it even if it meant more points, especially if it suits my remaining hand better that way. Or if I have a lot of lower number cards that I want to get rid of, starting another lower number row would help me get rid of those lower cards easier instead of taking a new row each time.

[Dayvit78]

I would like at this a bit strategically:

First of all, is there a chance one of the other players may also have to take a low row and my card might be higher than theirs. In which case, they would take it and I follow and not lose any points. Let's say there are two rows - one with a 10 and one with a 70. In my hand I have a 8 and a 60. If I think one of the other players has a 6 and a 65, well then I'm going 8, right?

Second of all, based on my knowledge of the players, what they are likely to do. Sometimes they all go as high as possible. So let's say I know I will take a low row, and they will all get a high row. Then I want to take the low row that let's the high players take the most points. So let's use the previous example with a 10-100, a 70-80 and now there's another row 12-55. In this case, I might take the 70-80 so the other players who thought they would take it high by playing 90s, instead get the 12-55 row and I don't have to worry about that anymore.

I feel it's complicated to explain here, but just make sure you're not the only one to take points.

[Murrur]

It depends on the game situation and what's left in your hand.

Some possible scenarios:
- take the one with least bulls to lose least amount of points
- take a row so someone else has to take expensive row (that might otherwise come to you)
- if you know a row is coming to you (e.g. you have 104 and row ends in 103), you might take it earlier and hope to got less bulls overall with your other cards
- take the row with highest ending card to force players with high cards in hand take the rows
- take a row so that the cards are split, so the forced low/high card situation changes
- if you have very small cards in your hand, you might take a row, so that e.g. 55 is highest card, and it forces other players to play low cards too
- and the opposite forcing other players to play high cards
- take expensive row, so that your closest competitor has to take even more expensive row improving your ranking/position in final scores