Ella (sits left of shuffler Nancy) begins the bid.  She has four fives she could call trump, but she doesn't have the double-five (a ten-count). Still, she can afford to lose the trick with the double-five. She bids 30. She can lose the double-five on the first trick and one of her deuces on another trick with no count.

The bid rotates clockwise to Steve who has a good helping hand (three doubles).  He has four fours for trumps, plus two doubles. However, he doesn’t have the six-four or the four-ace count dominoes to his trumps, and he can’t count on both of those coming in on the first trick. But he could hope for his partner either to have the six-four or the double-trey and still bid 31. At the very least, this bid shows his partner that he has some good dominoes that might help her bid. This hand is good helping hand, a good setting hand, and a decent but not great bidding hand. In this case, unbeknownst to Steve, his partner (Nancy) has the other three trumps if he called fours as trump. If Nancy/Steve played their dominos wisely, they shouldn't have any problem taking all 42 points.

Will is strong in treys and sixes, and can consider raising the bid. If he gets the bid, he could call either treys or sixes as trumps. In this case, treys will be a safer trump since he is unlikely to take in the six/four () trump in the first trick. He will get in his treys, lead out the ace-blank off and hope to sneak by his five-deuce off by his partner either having the double-ace or double-five, or even by an opponent making a poor lead. If he figures on losing the five-deuce, then he can’t bid at all. But if he figures on sneaking it by, he can bid 35, or at least 34. He bids 35, because his last six should walk underneath the double-six. Plus, his partner bid 30, so she hopefully has something to help him with.

Nancy (last bidder) is strong in aces.  However she is likely to lose at least two tricks and cannot reasonably raise a 35 bid. A good bid on this hand would be exactly 35. She would get in her trumps and lead out the four-trey off. Then she would plan on losing the trey-deuce before taking the rest of the tricks. A raised bid would be too risky, so she passes.

Will wins the bid and declares treys trump. Here’s how it plays out:

Trick	Will (Bid 35)	Nancy (Passed)	Ella (Bid 30)	Steve (Bid 31)	W/E	N/S
#1	Takes trick				1	0
#2	Takes trick				11	0
#3		Takes trick			0	1
#4	Takes trick				11	0
#5	Takes trick				1	0
#6	Takes trick				1	0
#7				Sets Will	0	16
Domino Led	.	.	.	Totals:	25 (Bid 35)	17 (Set 25)

Will goes set because he never had a chance to sneak his five-off through, and his partner had neither the double-ace nor the double-five. But if Nancy had led any other domino but the six-four on trick #4, then Will would have made his bid. Even though Nancy and Steve didn't get the six-four on that trick for themselves, Will was unable to throw away his five-deuce off. That is what set him. Interestingly, his partner Ella would have gone set on her 30 bid as well.

If Steve had gotten the bid, he would have easily made it as he and his partner would have won all the tricks, thanks to their having all seven trumps between them. Also, if Nancy had in fact raised the bid to 36, she would have made it, thanks to her partner's double-four. In fact, together they would have gotten all the tricks and 42 points.