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Prepared games - Belote - Advanced 1 Français

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Contract Belote - Advanced 1

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What to know before reading this page for advanced players

  • You must master all the bids described on the Beginner 1 and Beginner 2 pages.

  • You need to know how to count all the sure tricks of your team and your immediate losers depending on who has the opening lead.

  • You must be able to plan how to cash all your tricks and analyze the communication problems with your partner.

  • You must have a great mind to bid capots and then play them well.
  • To fully understand the bidding, use the tooltips:

    Tooltip of the bidding box

    Tooltip of the bidding box

    Tooltip of the table

    Tooltip of the table

  • In the prepared games accessible below, a short comment on a yellow background will be displayed at the end of each deal, so that you can check that you have chosen the right bid and played the right contract.

    Comment
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Capot bidding

Rebids

  • The declarer is the player who declared the trump suit first. It is often he who is the captain and who decides whether or not to raise up to a capot.

  • If the responder (declarer's partner) has responded to an ace-asking bid, the declarer who renames his suit when the opponent has not overbid makes a rebid.

  • Declarer's rebid indicates that he wants to go further and that he hopes for a capot. It ensures that the master trumps are present in the line as well as the necessary Aces. And it asks the responder about his number of Tens.

  • In response to a rebid, the responder passes without any Tens. He supports the suit by +10 per Ten. Tens must be protected (at least doubleton), and always outside the trump suit.

Games of 4 deals Indications
RebidTens1 Your partner makes a rebid. Show him your number of Tens.
RebidTens2 Open and analyze your partner's response. If a capot is possible,
ask him for his Tens by a rebid.
RebidTens3 A mix of rebids from either you or your partner.

Click a game, then Open or Open with

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Declarer's 170 relay capot

  • Declarer has the strength for a capot but he needs his partner's Aces and isn't sure he can give him the lead once he has drawn the opposing trumps.

  • He is nevertheless sure that his partner will have the lead at some point, because either the latter has the opening lead or he has a trump card that can serve as an entry.

  • Under these conditions, declarer bids the 170 relay capot which asks his partner to bid 250 (or 270 if he has the belote meld) and to cash his Aces as soon as he has the lead.

  • Before cashing his Aces, declarer's partner may however cash a winning trump if he deems it necessary and if this trump card does not cause him to lose the lead.

Games of 4 deals Indications
DecRel170a Your partner bids a 170 relay. Bid a capot and during the card play, cash your Aces as soon as you have the lead.
DecRel170b Your turn to analyze a possible capot but also the problem of giving your partner the lead. Bid the 170 relay and make your capot.
DecRel170c A mix of 170 relays, either from you or your partner.

Click a game, then Open or Open with

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Declarer's 160 relay capot

  • Declarer has the strength for a capot but it is his partner who has the opening lead. To draw trumps, the latter will therefore have to enter declarer's hand.

  • If declarer's partner has some trumps, he will lead a trump and the capot will be made without difficulty. But if he has no trump, he will have to give the lead using a side suit.

  • Now, there is sometimes a very dangerous suit because of the risk of ruff. The situation is common when declarer's partner has declared a suit himself, and declarer is also long in that suit (which his partner does not know).

  • Under these conditions, declarer bids the 160 relay capot which asks his partner to enter his hand using the trump suit in priority, or using a suit not declared by the team.

Games of 4 deals Indications
DecRel160a Your partner bids a 160 relay. Bid a capot and open the lead with a trump, or with a suit not declared by your team.
DecRel160b Your turn to analyze a possible capot but also the dangerous suit to open the lead with. Bid the 160 relay and make your capot.
DecRel160c A mix of 160 relays, either from you or your partner.

Click a game, then Open or Open with

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Responder's 160 relay capot

  • The responder (declarer's partner) has the strength for a capot. He bids it directly if he is sure that declarer will be able to give him the lead. But if he's not sure, the capot looks compromised.

  • However, if he has at least 2 trumps with 9-low (declarer having shown the Jack), or Ace-low (declarer having shown Jack-9), and if the opponents will run out of trumps after two rounds, then there is a possibility of ending drawing trumps in the right hand and making a capot.

  • To achieve this, the responder bids the 160 relay capot which asks declarer to play his trumps in a particular way. If he has the opening lead, he must start with his Jack of trumps. If it is his partner who opens the lead with a trump, he must imperatively take with the Jack. And in both cases, after his Jack has won the first trick, he must return a low trump to his partner, even if the opponents have run out of trumps.

Games of 4 deals Indications
ResRel160a Your partner (the responder) bids a 160 relay. Play your Jack of trumps in priority, and return to him with a low trump.
ResRel160b Your turn to analyze a possible capot but also the need to end drawing trumps in your hand. Bid the 160 relay and make your capot.
ResRel160c A mix of 160 relays bid by the responder, either from you or your partner.

Click a game, then Open or Open with

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Practicing your capot bidding

What to know before practicing

  • In your decisions to bid a capot or not, take the opening lead into account. And remember to watch the tooltips because the meaning of certain bids varies depending on the opening lead. Finally, if the opponent is the first to play, try to imagine his various possible opening leads and analyze the problems that may arise from this (immediate loser, loss of entries, ruff of one of partner's tricks, etc.).

  • The prepared games are never counted in your statistics. You can therefore play them and replay them without fear of altering your statistical results.

  • At the end of each deal, you can replay the deal by the Replay deal normally button of the primary toolbar.

    Replay deal Replay deal normally button or shortcut F3.

  • At the end of each prepared games, you can replay the game or only certain deals, using the Return to the prepared game button (bottom right of the screen).

    Return
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Practice games

Games of 8 deals Indications
CapPract1 A mix of deals with a ten-asking rebid, a relay capot or a strong opening leading to a capot. You should soon be able to win them all!
CapPract2
CapPract3

Click a game, then Open or Open with

Settings for practicing random games

Once you are familiar with the relay capots, you need to enable some options if you want to use these conventions in Bel Atout (your partner North will not understand the 160 and 170 bids if the option is not enabled). Here are the rule preferences that you should change before starting a random game:

Rule preferences Button to open the rule preferences (shortcut Ctrl+R).
  • Make sure that the Allow the 170 bid option is checked (Bidding / Contract Belote page).

  • Check the Use relay capots option (Bidding strategy / Contract Belote page).

    Optional

  • You can change the type of risk for capots (Bidding strategy / Contract Belote page).

  • You can add a bonus for a capot bid and made (Scoring / Contract Belote page).

    For more information about these options, read the associated help page. To quickly open this page, use the question mark displayed   ?      X     at the top right of the rule preferences pages. Click once on this question mark   ?   and move the mouse cursor to an option. Click a second time on the chosen option, and the help page for the option will open.

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Use the advantage to improve your capot bidding

If you want to further improve your capot bidding, you can also use the principle of advantage to practice on random deals that are selected to always present in the North-South line a capot with lead direction. Here's what I suggest you do, so that these workouts do not interfere with your general statistics:

  1. Switch user by Ctrl+U. If you usually play as user n°1, switch to n°2 by defining it for example as "Practicing capots".

  2. Set the general preferences and rule preferences of the new user thus defined, according to your playing habits.

  3. If needed, change one of the application colors (table, border, etc.) to easily identify what type of use you are playing with.

  4. By Shift+A, open the window to set the advantage for North-South. Click on the +10 button, and in the list that appears, select Advantage by playing a capot with lead direction.

  5. In the rule preferences on the Scoring page, choose a game played in a fixed number of deals (for example 8), because on the proposed deals, it will almost always be the North-South team that will score points.

  6. Also uncheck the Game is won on the total of scored points box, because winning a game does not really matter if only one team scores points.

  7. In the Preferences menu, check Save statistics, and enable the Compare the bidding and the playing option.

With these settings, you will be in the best possible condition to practice your capot bidding. It is imperative to enable the comparison because your objective will then be to win it, or at least not to lose it. Try it once, and you'll see, it's great fun. Occasionally reset your stats to see if you're making progress. Capots with lead direction are quite rare around a table. If you are ever lucky enough to have the cards to declare them, you'd better be well trained. You have to be ready for the big day!

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