Tag Archives: Kitty

Aggressive Bidding Scenario

Rook Hand - High BidHere’s a real game scenario.  We were playing set partner rook the other day as we usually do and my partner and I found ourselves relatively close in score with our competition at 240 pts to 210 pts in the middle of a heated rook game to 500.   During this next had, the bidding was more intense than normal.  Myself and an aggressive bidder to the left of me were pushing the action further and further.  Finally, the bid got to 170 and I needed to bid 175 in order to likely take the kitty and have a chance to win the hand.

Looking at my hand, I was holding:
Greend – 3, 5, 10
Red – 5, 6, 9, 10, 1
Yellow – 5
Black – 10, 11, 14
Rook – Yes

I indeed had a powerhouse hand in set partner rook.  The problem is, my partner had passed early, and my competition had both bid aggressively throughout the entire bidding stage.  That being said, I likely was not going expect any help from my partner.  Also, there was a good possibility that the kitty was not going to have a lot of strength since my opponents were bidding so strong, they likely had many of the good cards out there.

Given the above situation, I chose to take the cautious route and pass the bid to my opponent at 170 knowing I actually did not have a good chance at setting them.  AS it turns out, my opponent chose yellow and proceeded to play the 1 and 14 of trump right away pulling my only yellow.  With my partner having an extremely weak hand this round, we only ended up taking a measly 5 pts and our opponents easily took a strong lead in the overall game.

Looking back on it, I think my decision was correct, however, if by chance the 1 of black or the 14 of red were in the kitty, I might have a decent shot at making my bid.  That is the risk you take when bidding aggressively or not.

Using the Kitty or Nest

One of the major uncertainties with playing rook is dealing with the kitty.  These 5 cards can sometimes make or break your hand.   There is no real way to know whether or not the kitty is going to help or hurt your hand when bidding, this is what makes rook so fun.  There is some significant risk in taking the kitty, especially when you are overbidding your hand.  However, no matter if the kitty is good to you or completely destroys your power hand, there are some strategies to consider when looking to use the kitty.

So once you have one the bid and picked up your kitty, there are a few specific things you are trying to do:

  • Empty out as many colors in your hand as possible.  If you do not have the top cards in a color, it is best not to have any of that color at all so that you have the flexibility to trump the color if an opponent plays point cards in it.  If you cannot only have just trump color in your hand (highly unlikely) then you are basically trying to get a strong two color hand by using the 5 cards from the kitty, your trump suit being the strongest and then your “off suit” being as strong as possible.
  • Placing point cards in the kitty.  It can often be a valuable strategy to place some of the point cards in your hand in the kitty when you are fairly certain you are going to take the last trick and do not have certain ways of protecting the point cards.  For example, 5s are often good to put in the kitty unless you have a lot of that suit.   If you keep a 5 in your hand, you are basically hoping that your partner will be able to take it in some form or another.
    Keeping singleton 14s can also be dangerous and are better served to put in the kitty and keep something else.  Even though a 14 is a top card, if a 1 is played by an opponent, you are giving away 10 or more points instantly.  10s are tricky as well.  It is my opinion that unless you have a lot of the color where your 10 or sometimes 14 are, you are better served putting them in the kitty and keeping something like a 9 or 11 instead.  They are still fairly strong, but if you loose them, you are not giving away extra points.
  • If you have a 1 of an off-suit color, it is often advised to use the strength of the 1 and keep some other cards around it.   For example, if you have a 1 and an 8 of black, it might not be bad to keep both the one and 8 if there are other risky cards to get rid of.   Rather than putting the low 8 in the kitty, you can gamble that your opponent will lead a black with no points and you can sluff your 8 without giving away points.  You also have the option to play the 1 if too many points have been played.
  • If you do not have do not have a clear choice for trump, for example maybe 5 of 3 different suits, it is often best to consider both high cards as well as point cards when choosing the trump color.