Rule No. 1. WHEN BIDDING, DON'T BE GREEDY.
Rule No. 2. WHEN BIDDING, DON'T BE GREEDY.
Rule No. 3. WHEN BIDDING, DON'T BE GREEDY.
When in doubt regarding close bids: underbid. It is far better to go up 30 pts. with one bag, then to fall behind by 40 pts. There are so many variables to consider, that sometimes it makes it unwise to count every possible trick in your hand. After falling behind early in the game, some players panic and make ill-advised and very risky bids in an attempt to dig themselves out of the hole. The best solution is to not put yourself in that position in the first place.

- Bags are good! Bags are excessive tricks over your initial bid that one accumulates at the end of each hand. Some spades forums penalize you for getting bags. Not here at Goldtoken. So please take full advantage of this loophole. A lot of bags means NEVER getting set. And no penalties, to boot! Woo-hoo!

- Dealt a lot of high spades? Drain your opponents of their spades! In most spades forums, a player cannot lead with a spade until a spade is finally used (to cut another suit, for example). Not here at Goltoken- a player can START the hand by throwing a spade as the first card! Bwa-ha-ha-ahahaha! By allowing this oversight, a player with a lot of spades can deny his opponents some tricks if his opponents were counting on cutting a suit. Take away their spades at the start of the hand- now your opponents can't cut anything! The tricks they were relying on are now non-existent and their bids, decimated. ha!

-At the start of the hand, refrain from leading with your aces first. Play another suit instead, preferably one you have few cards in so you can possibly cut with a spade later. Keep your opponents off-balanced and guessing who has the aces. For example, if your opponent has the King of Clubs but you have the ace, he will most likely lead with a low club instead of risking his king getting taken (he may have even counted the King as a trick for his bid). If you're the last player for that particular hand, you can capture that trick cheaply with a lower club. This works because no one is sure who has the ace of clubs (except the person who has it) and the other players will not be willing to throw their own high club until the ace is played. It's like getting a free trick. Additionally, if you're the third player and you have the queen of clubs as well as the ace (and you need an extra trick!), play the queen instead of the ace. You have a 66% chance of winning the trick. And here's the kicker - you'll STILL have the Ace of Clubs to use later in the hand. LOL Poor King.