I'm joining a small group that plays chouette once a week for micro cash. Is there anything essentially different than normal BG?

Thanks

When you are in the box and have a choice of good moves, tend to make the play with the least risk of losing the game. It should be obvious that you want to stay in the box, and can only do so with each consecutive win. The same applies to when you are captain, because you don't want to lose that game and be sent back to the beginning of the crew.

In close positions when the box has offered the cube, and you are near the bottom of the crew, you can sometimes make contrary take/drop decisions. If the captain and all of the crew accept the cube and you choose to drop, should the box end up winning then you would move past everyone who accepted and become captain next game. Such contrary cube decisions can have an added edge in bringing you that much closer to getting back to the box. If you are wrong and the box loses, you haven't given up much in terms of your position among the crew.

You don't have to play for beaver if the captain decides to instantly re-double, you can simply accept the box's initial double without affecting your position among the crew. You are however required to go along with the captain's decision on all cube offers. A good captain will show proper etiquette and discuss cube decisions with the crew before taking action.

I think whether you want to be in the box or not really depends on how you see yourself compared to the other players.

If you're clearly the best player, you want to be in the box. There you can maximize the amount of time you're spending playing weaker players and capitalizing on their mistakes.

Otherwise, the box is at a disadvantage compared to the team, since the team members will help each other catch mistakes, while the box is on his own. You can't avoid being in the box, but I wouldn't make any special effort to get there.

Understand the chouette rules.
When you are the box , take all or drop all.

Chouette rules vary extensively from club to club, so you need to tailor what you're doing to the rules of your club. Some clubs force the box, when doubled by several people, to either take all cubes or drop all cubes. Others allow the box to take or drop specific cubes ("I take Joe and Paul, and I drop Jason".)

The most popular variation is to allow the box to specify how many cubes he's taking or dropping (as long as he takes at least half the cubes) and then the team members, in order starting with the captain, decide if their cube was taken or dropped.

So the conversation might go like this:

Five team members all double the box.

Box: I take three cubes.

Captain: I'll play.

Team #2: I'll play.

Team #3: I take a point.

Team #4: I take a point.

Now Team #5 has no choice -- he has to play.

This latter rule (which I prefer) allows for some interesting maneuvering. For instance, you're the captain with four team members, all of whom are LAGs. (Some poker ideas spill over into chouettes.) You're a TAG, and you reach a position where you think it's clearly not a double. However, your four teammates all double! Since the box is somewhat tight, you double as well, knowing that the box probably won't take all five cubes. Sure enough, the box (who knows it's a clear take but is too nitty to take all five cubes) says "I'll take three". You then say "I take a point" and stand up. You netted a point from a position which wasn't a double, a very good result.