Good Giving Advice: Flowers for Mom in May

Who was there when you skinned your knees on the sidewalk? When you wanted to brag about an accomplishment? Who watched your every move when you were a helpless child, making sure you were safe and happy every day? Moms are the ones who bring us into the world and help guide us as we grow. They were there to heal our hurts when we fell, and to praise our smallest triumphs. Moms believe in us no matter what, always wishing the best for us. Moms don’t care for us this way because they have to – they only do it for love.

We don’t have to ask why we have a special day to honor Mom. Nor do we ask why mothers are so important. Nothing says, “I love you, Mom,” better than fresh-cut flowers delivered directly to her door. This Mother’s Day, send mom flowers and you can be sure to win her appreciation.

• Flowers & 500:
  A Winning Combination
• Update: Version 7.18
• New Solitaire Cheat!
• Taunt Sounds
• Top Ten Rules: 500
• May Special
• Do You Know?

DO YOU KNOW?

We spent some time this issue on the subject of taunts, a fun interactive feature in our games.

Another custom feature you might enjoy playing around with allows you to increase or decrease how often your opponent taunts you.

Do you know what this feature is and how to get there?

1. Taunt Frequency
   In the Player Preferences Menu
2. Taunt Size
   In the Help Menu
3. SpeedTaunt
   A downloadable plugin
4. Auto-Taunt
   In the Sound Preferences Menu

Please send your answer and your snail mail address to before May  20th. Three winners will be selected at random to receive a free set of DreamQuest playing cards.

Hint: you can find the answer in any Windows Championship Game.

Trust FTD.com, the world’s foremost flower delivery experts, to deliver fresh, beautiful flowers to the special one in your life. We’ll reward you with Championship Five Hundred* game when you order your Mother’s Day flowers from FTD.com! Flower delivery from FTD.com is a premium value, especially with a free game valued at $19.99 as our gift to you. So let your love shine – Mom deserves it and so do you! Order today!

Spades and Euchre enthusiasts and Bridge players will love Championship Five Hundred All-Stars.

Solitaire Cheat!

With the 7.18 upgrade in Solitaire, you can tip the odds and learn better strategies with a new option that reveals the downcards before you commit your play. Find this option in the game Menu under Settings, then select "Player Preferences..." Find "Hint Down Cards:" and select "Yes, Hint"

Now you can see everybody's cards!
Pst! Don't tell Wes or Amber!

	Questie's Corner
	Game mascot Questie wants to share with you some aspects of our games that will make your DreamQuest Software experience more enjoyable.

Taunt Sounds

This month we highlight a lesser known but very cool feature of our All-Star games: the Plugin Manager. Here you can find all sorts of customizable options. Some of you have missed the audible taunts featured in older games. Audible taunts used to be a standard installation feature, but now we allow our Championship All-Stars players to install or disable the taunt sounds through the Setting Menu. To be able to hear your opponents’ sassier remarks, open your game and follow these instructions (requires an internet connection):

1. Start a New Game (or resume playing)
2. Click the “Menu” button
3. Click the “Settings” button
4. Select “Art Settings…”
5. Select “Plugin and Skin Manager”
6. Under “Plugins” scroll down to find and select the option “Sounds – Hi-Fidelity Audio”
   After you click “Yes” the sounds will download. This may take a moment.
7. Click “Apply” and “Close”
8. Click “OK” to exit the MENU

This plugin also makes higher quality sounds available for your game. Some slower computer processors and older sound cards may have difficulty with this option. You can always go back and turn this option off.

Ordered Flowers for Mom from FTD.com?
Got your Championship Five Hundred game?
Here are some no-nonsense tips to set you on the path to your first victory.

Our Top Ten Rules for Five Hundred will help improve your strategy

1. Check that you have ten cards.
2. Sort your hand properly into suit groups.
3. Note the score, and then be sure to bid accordingly.
4. Listen and interpret all bids.
5. If you pick up the kitty, be sure to reject exactly three cards, and:
   • Short suit your hand in one or more suits if possible.
   • Hold cards to lead to partner’s aces.
   • Hold at least one rag to a king in the suit in which your partner holds the ace.
   • Hold at least two rags to a queen in the suit in which your partner holds the ace.
6. If playing with a suit as trumps:
   • Lead trumps first to run your opposition out of them. Only lead to your partners non-trump ace first if you want him to lead a trump back; so you may try a finesse play.
   • Count the number of trumps as they are played.
   • Never lead trumps when only you and your partner hold trump cards.
   • If you know an opponent has one or more trumps left of higher value cards than you hold, do not lead trumps. Let your opponents use them as trumps, and keep yours in reserve.
   • If your partner is out of trumps and you suspect your opponents both have one or more, it will be better to lead a losing trump, since you may get two opposing trumps to fall - at the cost of only one of yours.
7. If your partner leads to your ace, and you hold the king as well, play the king, not the ace. This way he knows you still hold the ace.
8. If you hold the king and queen of the same suit, and the ace has not been played, better to lead the king to make the queen than the queen to make the king. If your partner has the ace and you lead the queen, he may play the ace to take a trick needlessly. If you lead the king, he would not play the ace on that.
9. As a general rule, the second player should play low, and the third player play high.
10. In no-trump calls, lead all your long strong suit first if you have such a suit. This makes discarding difficult for your opponents.