Strategies  

Selecting which card to play (phase 1)

The primary purpose of the first phase is to improve your hand with the intent of
winning as many tricks as possible in phase two.  A good phase two hand will have a
fair number of trumps and high cards in the other suits.  A strong long suit may also
be valuable if a number of trumps are played during the first phase and you have
enough high trumps to pull the remainder from the opponent before playing the long
suit
 
Improving your hand means striving to draw better cards into your hand from the
stock than those played, and drawing better cards from the stock than does the
opponent.  Three considerations are therefore important before deciding to take or
lead a potential winner to a trick:
Whether the top stock card is likely to be better or worse than the second unseen stock
 card;
 Whether the top stock card is better or worse than the card you would be playing;
Whether the second unseen stock card is likely to be better or worse than the card you
 would be playing.
 
Selecting which card to play (phase 2)
When phase two commences, an experienced player good at "remembering the cards"
will know exactly which cards the opponent holds.  If you are confident that you have
more trumps than the opponent, and if you have one or more strong other suits, lead
your trumps early to remove all those of the opponent.  Even if you don't win all of
the trump tricks, at least the opponent won't be able to trump back once depleted.
Then you can play strong suit(s).  However, be wary of a situation where the suits are
likely to be evenly sized between you and the opponent, particularly if the opponent
may have stronger cards in those suits.  In such a case, the opponent may win a series
of tricks before you can regain the lead with a higher card or trump.

The strategy for the two variants, in the first stage, is slightly different. In the first variant the
player must balance winning the current trick against the probability of winning future tricks.
In the second variant the player must try to assemble the best possible hand for the
endgame. This is however not as simple as it might appear. Assume hearts is trump and
you begin the foreplay. You have four low hearts in your hand, but also several high-value
spades, and the top card of the deck is the two of clubs. Now despite a "worthless" card to
play for, playing one's highest trump might reveal the trump situation on the opponent's
hand, and you will indeed reduce the numbers of trumps (which is not your strong suit), and
finally, if the opponent plays a lower trump you will know that the opponent may have a
large number of trumps (which is not the case if the opponent needs to play another suit)
finally by "winning" the two of clubs, you will keep the advantage of deciding which suit is
played next. In general it is a good idea to attempt to keep the lead, but not always at any
cost.
Playing a card of same value as the card to play for is often good, when it comes to middle-
value cards, such as 7 to 10, but even more important is to choose the suit wisely. It is also
important remember that when the ace is gone, the king becomes the highest value card,
and if the three top value cards in a suit are gone, then the jack is the highest card in that
suit, etc. Also the lowest cards are important to know, especially when the play is low. The
real "key" is however to know which suit to play, in order also to win lower-value cards,
though not by playing too good a card from you hand. Do not focus so much on a bad card
at the top of the deck, rather think of the suit to play. If the card to play for is one you wish
to have, play a safe card. If the card to play for is a middle-value card, play a slightly higher
card, but just enough high for the opponent to have difficulties to "come in".

When an ace is gone, the king becomes the highest card in the suit, etc. Try to remember
which card is currently the highest in each suit. Count especially trumps. But don't be afraid
to play trump, as long as it is likely your opponent actually also has trump. (If it is in your
interest that the number of trump cards is reduced in the endgame especially) In "low"
games try to build up long suits from the bottom. For example, 2-4-6-8-Q-K-A is a good
sequence to have in a low endgame. Even better is 2-3-5-7-Q-K-A, from which you can
give the lead to the opponent, provided at least one card of the same siut exists on the
opponent's hand. But first play all single high cards as soon as possible. When playing low,
it is very easy to get trapped and having to take all the last ten tricks due to a
miscalculation. The twos are often more important than aces in high or trump games. (And
as soon as a "deuce" vanishes in the foreplay, the three takes its place and so on.)
By counting every suit and the highest known card in every suit one may more easily
determine which card one's opponent has (or close enough), when the endgame begins.
Then you also know the best way to play the endgame cards. With exception of when
playing low, the endgame is close to the playing part of bridge.