Tips barbu

No Hearts and No Barbu (King of Hearts) are generally best bid on hands with many hearts. A hand with long hearts will be short in the other suits, and will thus get more opportunities to discard.

In No King of Hearts, a player who holds the King and is confident of not taking it herself can chose that hand.

The total score for No Tricks is -13 or -8, but this is in effect the smallest contract, as the tricks tend to be spread around. It is therefore a suitable hand to keep to last, as playing it with an unsuitable hand is rarely a total disaster. In playing No Tricks, ingenious sacrifice plays (such as are skillful in ramsch and other negative games) are not appropriate. It is better to keep your head down and avoid each trick as it comes round.

Choose wisefuly the Salade and Anti-Salade because they can be worth a lot, especially the Barbu is worth a lot.

No King of Hearts only scores -12 or -13, but is really a big hand. This is because the penalty all comes in one lump.

In Domino, Aces and Kings are liabilities. A suite of cards, like 3-4-5 can be powerful because you can hold this type (provided you don't have too high cards like Queen, King or Ace in this type).