castledrawbridge wrote: ↑16 May 2025, 22:43
I found this discussion interesting...
I have often achieved 300+ ELO is this game and occasionally dropped 150 ELO in 4-5 games while keeping good reputation... just the luck of it.
It was previously said "2. Yes, [sacrifice] is a well-known concept. I have no concern about taking a few hearts to avoid a worse situation later. I am not going to play my precious 3 of hearts and leave the K as my only heart." ... in the heart suit I would have no problem sluffing the 3 keeping the king and taking 4 hearts later. Especially since the odds the queen holder doesn't have a heart is very unlikly. That is the whole point of sacrificing with a bit of gambling/guessing. By this comment alone it seems FrankJones you are willing to sacrifice but only in a controlled setting.
Previously as well... "I constantly get passed the Q of spades when I am short on spades. I keep thinking, "If I only have 1 spade, the others should have length in spades. Why are people passing the Q if they have length in the suit?"...
this is because either they are worried and afraid of the queen OR they are deep in spades and are going to make you taker her. Deep spades, pass the queen is nearly always successful in avoiding her. But there is the weird hand that I pass the Queen with the intention of taking her back for a run but with the option of avoiding if I need to. But that should be a different discussion. How do you protect? It is a bit of luck but try to void a suit early or even in your pass or pass high hearts or high cards in the suit you don't have low cards in to balance the final points. But its a gamble to pass high cards... if you are passed the queen you passed well if you aren't passed the queen then sluff your spade early and break hearts as soon as you can to help prevent the run. It can still be competitive if you take the queen and they are taking the rest of the points.
Practice not passing spades expecting others are going to pass you those tough cards.
To a beginner.... this is a game about controlling the queen with your heart
1.
To start don't pass spades unless you have to and pass the queen right if you have her. You want the protection. Be prepared to hold spades. Say I have spades K89 this is risky and there is no problem passing the K, but if I receive the queen 1) another player knows 2) 3 leads of a spade mean I likely take her and the player in the know could force it. It might be better to pass and void another suit. If you keep the K and they pass you the A, this now means at worst you have 4 spades and everyone else has 3 spades, the moment the player to your left leads a spade you have a big advantage in either safely taking the trick moving on or playing under the queen. But if you take the trick with your high card suddenly the odds are very different... 9 spades left and you hold 3 of them, not to mention you have control of the lead.
2.
Don't be scared of the queen. I can't tell you how many games I've played where people just dump her the first moment they can. When you "don't" pass the queen this gives you unique knowledge they other players don't have. When you pass the queen half of the players know where she is. If you have the queen and a little protection. Its okay to make it known. The other players are likely worried about her and you coming out strong is okay because it puts you in more control and they keep cards to protect against the run. Note: passing her right allows you a lot of flexibility in playing the king and ace. Not to mention to communicate to others that the player to your right has it...
3.
Passing a mid range to low heart nearly always prevents a run even if you can't cover, though ideally you can. Additionally early breaking of hearts changes the play and is effective in preventing a run. You are likely to be passed a heart and if not you have more control in the other suits. Players who don't play carefully will give runs away because they are "selfish" in that they only care about what they passed. In truth we care about what everyone passed.
Every hand is a winner and a loser. BUT you can pass a low heart in hopes you sluff your high heart on them, which likely prevents the run. I recognize there is a gamble in it but mathematical stats say that it works most of the time. So many options and combinations...
4.
You don't need to track every card.... but pay attention to royalty and the lowest cards in each suit. You want to know if you have the highest, lowest or last cards of a suit. Therefore follow the rules previously mentioned about counting suits based on no sluff tricks in that suit. This also means that mid-range cards are you most dangerous cards. if you have a 6 of diamonds and you haven't seen lower it is a dangerous card later in the game. I have unfortunately taken the queen when I erroneously played a suit that only I had cards in. On the flip side you can use it to your advantage to stop runs due to 2 players wanting to stop the run as well and suddenly a 6 of clubs becomes your stopper card.
This game is so fun and there are so many combinations and ways to play it. What I have shared above has worked well for me... plus there's a lot more... but find out what works for you. Sometimes I have lost a game because I refuse to keep dropping the queen on one player. But I've learned you can't expect that from others... BUT play with kindness and you will find that "good" players return it back to you. You can't expect others will know your signals either. Me and another player were 3rd and 4th by a huge margin so I passed the queen to them with 2 other spades and played the passed to me ace of spades mid trick, but because of the lack of trust I had the queen dumped immediately on me. There was very little I could do to say hey I am going to give you an opening on the other players, instead I was punished for passing. So on BGA you have to be defensive in your play until you know the players you are playing with. Sometimes its okay to settle for second/third but try to make that rare even though it is still nicer on the ELO.
