Saturday, May 17, 2008

500 Soapbox

Got something you want to say? Click on the "Post a Comment" link at the bottom of the main post and feel free to comment here on any topic at all - 500 or otherwise. In the same way feel free to comment on any posts in this blog.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Newbies, arguably the most fundamental heuristic in 500 is leading back trumps when your partner has

a) won the call
b) you win an early trick in the hand and not all the trumps have been played out.

Lately I've copped a bit of shit from a few newbie members when pointing this out....members who are otherwise great to play and seemingly not too sensitive. There are some occasions not to bleed trumps, admittedly, but to not play out trumps is wrong wrong wrong for many reasons.

Anonymous said...

Im glad you mentioned this.Ive seen some stupid tactics used lately and have been shafted by many partners who dont understand the basics of eliminating opponents trumps and keeping your suits unexposed till you want to play them.

If you are mising Joker and right bower say, a high percentage of players lead a couple of low leads because they dont want to blead their ace and left bower. They end up losing 2 low leads and then their bower and ace later. If you expose your weakness first and force out joker and right bower
with ace and left bower in2 tricks, you have controll back and suck up the rest of trumps so they cant trump you with them.The other reaction by some to this situation is to not lead trumps at all and little trumps fly around everwhere winning tricks the would not win if you led it out.

Another Dumb thing some people who might have a couple of loose cards after kitty
lead them as first lead and lose tricks before even leading trumps.
Players must realise they have a partner and those cards are often discarded on your partners tricks.

There is also a wide practice of leading out all aces at the begimnning of a hand.
This is ok if your the minor part and you only have a few trumps but have led a bower or joker. Before giving the lead back you lead an ace your Part doesnt know you have. If you are the player leading out the trumps you should not lead your aces out till trumps are led because people will keep that suit.You wait till people discard then you will make the low cards in your ace suit because people might discard the k & q but would have kept them if you led the ace out early and they knew your suit.

Standard play is if you want joker out ,lead right bower dont lead the 4,5,6 or 7 etc like ive often seen happen and the opposition wins a trick on a queen or something.If you want high lead high is good rule.

Anonymous said...

"count them and get them out"

This is a golden rule in 500. 13 red trumps and 12 black. Count them as they fall, you don't have to watch the cards too closely, you'll know what's left if you count.

Bleed all trumps first, as best you are able to. DO NOT BLEED YOUR PARTNER OF TRUMPS IF THE OPPOSITION ARE DRY. Look for a way to cross trump. This will maximise your tricks.

Remember the advantages of No Trumps. The suits are shorter. 11 red and 10 black (not counting Joker). Means you should be able to do the math if you have a gap in a decent run. You'll get a good guide whether you need to use Joker to bleed a nuisance card.

Anonymous said...

The rotating 4-some system was established to both reduce incidents of cheating and provide the most level playing field for all players. To abuse this system, by milking 2 relatively easy wins from a member/non-member team and then running away when it's your turn to partner the non is too lame - even for me. I respect my own ability (real or imagined) too much, to pull such a stunt.

This is ELO manipulation - that is increasing your odds of winning by any means other than you own ability in a fair game played on a level playing field.

For the record, I'm not against ELO manipulation. If someone wants to voluntarily give their ELO to other members, that's their business. But our mystery member is quite vocal on the evils of ELO manipulation.

You can't have your cake and eat it too.

Enough innuendo.

It is Daffy.

The 1st time it happened, I wrote it off as bad luck.

The 2nd time it happened, I became suspicious.

The 3rd time it happened, a pattern had been established.

After posting this message, other members correctly guessed the culprit (in-room chat) and told me they had similar experiences.

Stacking the teams is like stacking the deck. Just plain unfair.

Geoff said...

Daffers in non-memberland?!! It must have been a rabbit wearing a duck mask LOL

For the record I avoid non-memberland because of the very stunts Grumma is eluding too in another topical thread. The place is crawling with undressed members, albeit most with nicer agendas than others. I do play there with my good mate Gus, an undressed member, and very occasionally when invited to partner other members. I don't partner non-members without a credit reference and a CV.

Cherie-bye

PS: I thought I "won" ELO off members in 2 handers - but if you want to call it "fleecing" I'll play along with your fantasy. Come dressed as Little Bo Peep and bring a few shorn sheep next time and I'll dress up as the Big Bad Duck - could be fun ;))