This is Part II of my How to Play Double Bid Euchre series which began with How to Play Double Bid Euchre Part I: Basic Gameplay, yesterday and will conclude with How to Play Double Bid Euchre Part III: How to Really Play Double Bid Euchre, tomorrow. Woo.
Strategy:
Bidding: If you are the first person bidding, always give your partner some sort of bid. Even a bid of one is better than passing. You must trust your partner to understand that your bid is a bid of no confidence. A bid of 5 tricks is a good start but really anything is acceptable. Having the first lead is quite important, because you can control the game if you play your cards right. Thus, the higher the bid the greater the chance that you will have first lead. Beware, however, of overbidding. If you go set, you’ve most likely screwed yourself. You can slightly overbid your hand and depend on your partner for the trick. I tend to underbid my hand just so I can bust out a surprise if need be. The way you bid also depends on your partner’s personality. When I play with my uncle, I know he likes to take risks and might overbid by two or three tricks just to get the bid. So by underbidding I ensure that we’ll have a reserve when the time comes.
No-trump bids can swing two ways. If you have a shload of Aces then it is pretty obvious that you bid based on how many you have. You can also bid high suit [although you don’t name the suit]. Here is how. If you’ve got both Aces and both Kings in Diamonds and you’ve got other Diamonds as well, but no good Bower spread you can bid high and if you win the bid lead with your Aces, then lead with your Kings. With a no-trump bid, no one will be able to get in on your Diamond action until you run out of them. It works the same way with a no-trump low bid.
Taking Tricks:
If you are short suited, get out of suit as quickly as possible. Don’t reneg. If you have the lead, start out strong [with the Right Bower] and pay attention to the trump that have been played and who played them. If you can’t lead with a bower toss out an off-suit Ace and hope for the best. If you don’t have any bowers and run out of Aces, throw something low and off-suit, preferably something that will get short-suit you. Watch your partner carefully, the first time they don’t follow suit or don’t trump make sure you note what suit they played. This is most likely a hint that they are strong in that suit. So when you run out of good cards, try to get over to them by playing some trash from that suit. If you can, always trump your opponent’s Ace. If you want to take a trick and the only trump you have is a Right Bower, go ahead and use it. A trick is a trick.
Sitting:
Say your opponent bids high in Clubs and you have quite a few Clubs in your hand. Enough clubs, say, that you were going to bid them yourself. Don’t Bid! Pass! And then when your opponents start the game you can make them go set by taking tricks from under their noses using your Club hand. This is called ‘sitting on’ the opponent. It is oh so fun, and the best way to annihilate a team that doesn’t bid very intelligently.
There is more to write [strategy being an infinite and dynamic thing] but I’m tired of blogging for today.