As with most games of its class, the auction is a critical phase of the game.

Especially given that there are no holds—a player can only ever outbid the existing bid, never match it—the ability to recognize whether one can play a certain type of contract given one’s hand is a very important skill.

Hand Evaluation

In general, you should be about 9/10 of the way to a particular bid in order to pick up the talon. Previous players probably will not discard VIIs or hearts; sometimes, the talon can be useful to extend a minor suit that you intend to name as trumps.

Hanging up is only aimed at the success of your own recording when the risk of robbery is low. More common cases are: bidding after a self-robbery, getting an unchanged talon back from someone, or a business worth at least 20 points. It is possible, of course, that an opponent who is playing a wait-and-see game or who has good cards without a talon will reach in, but that is the risk to take. If the taloned hand has 12 or 11 trumps, it is best to lay down the ten of the strong suits, as this is the least likely to be used by the opponents (of course, when calling 20-100, you should not scart two tens, as that would be a clear-cut way to fold).

Parti

Marriages

If the declarer is lacking the K and O of a suit, there’s a 50% chance they’re both held by a single opponent, so a 50% chance that the opponents will have a 20.

Card Points

The declarer can be relatively certain that both cards in a bare A X will go through; with additional cards in the suit, there is an increasing chance of being trumped. The declarer will then need additional trumps and the ability to bleed trumps before getting the A X in safely.

Holding the A

With a singleton A, the declarer can usually count on being able to trump the X. Whichever opponent is holding the X will probably wait to play it until after the A is out; the declarer can lead the A to create a void in that suit, and then wait to trump when the X is led after.

Holding A with one or more additional cards, the declarer can probably not count on being able to take the X, relying on the X having been dealt as a singleton to one of the opponents.

Holding the X

If declarer holds X (x), they will (of course) not be able to count on the A, but there are several ways that they can expect to bring home one of the two of A X in that suit:

• Holding X K, declarer can lead K to force out the A and then lead X as the top card in the suit (the more additional cards declarer holds in that suit, the likelier it is that the A was a singleton and it isn’t safe to lead the X).
• Holding X x, declarer can discard X into the talon. Leading the x, it’s likely that the holder of will withhold the A, in hopes of capturing the X with it. If declarer can easily create a void, they can then trump over the A.
• Holding a singleton X, declarer can discard X with the same effect.

Holding neither A nor X