Tips & tricks

Keeping count is everything

Almost every hand ends with a declaration. If you don’t keep your points in your head, you declare too late or not at all. This is how 4,000 hands between the network and the search bot ended:

• Count your points after every trick. Remember pending melds too: the 20 or 40 only count from your first trick.
• Count your opponent’s points. If they need only a few more, don’t hand them a trick with an ace or ten.
• Track the aces and tens. There are only eight of them, and they carry 84 of the 120 points. Once you know which have fallen, you know which cards still stand.

Lead cheap while the stock is open

While cards are still drawn, your opponent does not have to follow suit or win the trick. If you lead an ace, they can take it with their smallest trump. So the rule of thumb is: lead a card that is worth little, is not a trump and does not belong to a possible pair.

The network breaks this rule more often than the search bots: it leads an ace or ten in 36% of its leads, the search bot in 30%. The reason: a ten whose ace has already been played can only be taken with a trump, and every trump the opponent spends on it is missing later. Leading a high card is good when it stands, meaning no higher card of its suit is left in play.

Don’t take every trick

The biggest difference between the network and the search bot: the network more often leaves a trick it could take. It wins only 76% of those, the search bot 85%. While the stock is open:

• If the trick holds few points, it is not worth a trump. Throw a nine or a jack.
• If there is an ace or ten in the trick, it is worth a small trump.
• If you can win in the same suit, say a ten with the ace, do it: points without spending a trump.
• If your opponent needs only a few points, take the trick even if it is expensive. Otherwise they declare 66 next.
• If you want the lead to meld a pair or exchange the nine, a small trick is worth taking too.

Trumps are the most valuable cards in the second part of the hand. Spend them early on small tricks and you have none left after the stock closes.

Pairs and melds

A meld is worth as much as two good tricks. So treat king and queen as a unit:

• Don’t break up a pair. A queen whose king may still come is worth more than its 3 points.
• Win a trick early. Without a trick the meld stays pending, and it cannot take you to 66.
• Meld before you close. After closing no more melds are allowed.
• Lead the queen, keep the king. The king is the stronger card.

The trump nine

The trump nine is worth nothing, but swapped for the face-up trump card it often turns into an ace or a ten. Exchange it as soon as you may. Only when the face-up card is small itself is it hardly worth it.

An example from the network’s training: diamonds are trumps, the ace of diamonds lies face up. The hand holds the king, queen, jack and nine of diamonds.

The network hesitates between “meld 40” and “exchange the nine first”, almost fifty-fifty. Both are right: whoever exchanges first can still meld on the next lead, and then holds the ace of trumps as well. More on the bot page.

When to close

Closing is the sharpest weapon in the game. The network and the search bot both close in a good third of their hands (35% and 37%) and win afterwards more than 90% of the time. So they do it often, but only when it is safe. On average 5 to 6 cards are left in the stock when they close.

Close when:

• you can surely collect the missing points with your cards, even though your opponent must follow suit and head the trick. High trumps and standing aces count most for this.
• your opponent has not won a trick yet: then success often earns you 3 game points, because they stay Schwarz. But careful, if you fail they also get 3.
• your opponent is close to 66 and you want to stop them drawing good cards.

Don’t close hoping for luck. A failed close always costs at least 2 game points, more than most lost hands.

The endgame

Once the stock is empty and you have kept count, you know your opponent’s hand exactly: it is the cards that were neither played nor are in your hand. From here Sixty-Six is arithmetic, and the bots calculate it exactly.

• Draw trumps first. If you hold the highest trumps, lead them until your opponent has none. After that your aces and tens stand.
• Watch for voids. If your opponent does not follow suit, they have none of that suit left. This also applies after a close, while the stock is not yet empty.
• Remember the last trick. If nobody closed, it is worth 10 points. That decides close hands.

The training aid “Show played cards” shows which cards have already fallen. It is a good way to practise.

The match

Do you play differently at 6 to 5? One version of the network got the match score as input and was trained to win matches rather than collect points. In matches against the normal network it did not win more often. The simple advice: play every hand for as many game points as possible. The rest follows.

Practising with the bot

• Hint: the button shows which move the network would choose, how sure it is, and why, when a rule of thumb agrees.
• Evaluation chart: shows after each move how the network rates the position and grades your moves. At the end of the hand you see your biggest mistakes.
• Bot plays with open cards: you see the bot’s hand and learn why it plays the way it does.
• Levels: start with Medium. If you win more than half of your matches against Strong and Neural over time, you play really well.

Practise now Look up the rules