Queens And Jacks

This is very important.  Covering your partner, also called a save bid, is detrimental to a good team.  Even though you may feel that your hand has no way of saving the bid, always cover your partner.  My family taught me that your partner may have 1,000 aces and no marriage.  This is actually very unlikely but it can happen.  I never thought I would see it happen, but about a month and a half ago, I did.  I had a three card suit in spades and it contained my only marriage.  I did what I had to do and bid, even though I knew I would go set if I got it.  My partner had 1,000 aces and not a single marriage.  That helped us recover from a distant trailing.

Situations where you should always bid if you have a marriage no matter what:

If when you pass, your partner can be stuck with an undesired bid.
If your partner sends you aces and the person after him (to your right) passes, you should bid.
If your partner sends you a meld bid (especially of 30) and the person to your right passes, you should bid.
If the person to your right opens the bidding with a pass, that means if you pass, and the person to your left passes (I love passing in this seat in this situation), your partner will get the bid no matter what.  If he is going to go set, you might as well protect him in case he has a great hand but no marriage.

Do not be afraid of covering due to fear of going set. 

There are sometimes where I will not cover my P.  These rules are not a science but more of a guess.  If I have a great hand especially a great hand in suits with no marriages, I will take a chance of letting my partner getting the bid dumped on him.  I do this because he just may call the suit where I am strong.  If he calls the suit in the same suit I was going to call, no harm done.  If he has no ring, I would almost rather take the 50 loss and not let the opponents save.  This is not a normal thing I do, I may do it one time in ten games.  It is a thing I have started to do as my strategy and ability to read what people are bidding on from their bids, my hand, and the style the play during the game.