However, every game with the exception of Fantan shares the feature that counting distribution of cards and hands is very helpful. The least that should be done is that a player should keep track of the number of cards that have gone by in each suit. Inasmuch, Barbu is similar to other trick-taking games such as Hearts or Bridge. Overall strategy of Barbu centers mostly around the calling of games. These categories represent the difficulty of getting a good hand for the game, not how hard each is to play well.
Medium games are Barbu and Last Two.
Easy games are Trumps and Fantan. The absolute most basic strategy of Barbu is to strive to call hard games as early as possible and to save easy games for the hands which are forced calls. The optimal game to leave for your last call is Fantan, because near the end of the game, players look for any excuse to double dealers who might have been forced to call a game that is grossly unsuitable for the hand dealt. While unsuitable hands for Fantan are not altogether uncommon, hands that can double are much less so, because the rank of the base card is not known until after the bidding. Trumps is also good to keep until the end because hands that can double trumps calls are rare.