The Tug Court consists of 7 squares. The cart begins in the center square, and each player has 50 points. You do not gain any more points throughout the game. To win, pull the cart completely off the Court on your side, or have the cart end on your side of the Court when both players have 0 points. You can tell which side is yours by watching which way the cart moves when you win or lose a bid (explained below).
On every turn, each player selects a number of points to bid. Once both players have input their bid, the cart moves toward the side of the person who bid the higher number of points. On a tie, the cart moves nowhere. Regardless of whether you win or lose the bid, the number of points you bid is subtracted from your remaining points. To bid more than 9 points, click the +10 button, then a number one through nine. So, clicking +10 once and then clicking 3 bids 13 points. Clicking +10 three times and then clicking 0 bids 30 points. If you go 5 minutes without making a bid, you are considered to have forfeit. As mentioned above, if you pull the cart completely off the Court, or have the cart on your side of the Court when both players run out of points, you win both the game and the antes (14 wood, usually). If the cart ends exactly in the center, the game is a stalemate, and then ante is lost.
Basic, should-be-obvious strategy in Tug is to try to overbid your opponent by as few points as possible (ideally, you bid 1 more than your opponent), and make sure that when you opponent overbids you, he does it by many points, wasting them in the process.
Note: This strategy guide is based only on my personal experience and play style. The strategies outlined here should not be viewed as a concrete guide, but merely a rough suggestions for certain situations. However, I believe it should be at least marginally useful for new players, playing other new players. For almost every situation, there is no single "right" move. Your goal is to choose the move that he isn't expecting. Try to anticipate what your opponent anticipates you will do... or anticipate what he anticipates you will anticipate he anticipates you to do... and so on. ;-)
Instead of pushing on, at any point during your initial rush you might want to temporarily give up the momentum and bid low. You'll usually want to do this if you expect your opponent to bid high to outbid you, and you've wasted too many points overbidding in the previous turns. Purposely losing a square and forcing them to waste a large amount of points, only to come right back in on them strong and hard, can be particularly damaging psychologically. Watch out if your opponent is expecting this move though, as they'll bid a low amount too, avoiding the point waste.
I'll refer to the player who has the cart on their side as the Aggressor; if they successfully win one more bid, they pull the cart off completely and win. The player who is possibly one bid away from the defeat is the Defender. Unless you're truly telepathic, you want to be the Aggressor.
The Aggressor has three basic options. The first is to bid all your remaining points. Unless your opponent matches or defeats this bid, the game is over, and you've won. However, if they successfully anticipate this, you're out of points, and are screwed. The second is to bid 0 (or some other very low number), in hopes that your opponent bids your maximum amount of points (losing the "coin flip), which will give you an insurmountable point count advantage, with the Court advantage to boot. On the other hand, if they bid a mid-ranged, expecting this (winning the coin flip), you're usually left with a large point disadvantage. The third option is one that many players (including some experienced ones) overlook. This is to bid high, but nowhere near your maximum amount, somewhere in the range of <twice your remaining points>-<opponent's remaining points>. If your opponent bids mid-ranged, thinking you're bidding low to make them waste points, you've overbid them and won. If your opponent bids your remaining amount of points, you and him are roughly tied in point count... except you've got a two-square advantage on him, courtwise.
The only option the Defender has is to correctly guess which of the three possibilities the Aggressor is going to use. This is obviously very difficult, and there's not much you can do except try to get into his head and predict his move. Being stuck in the Defender position is rarely ever a good thing.
You can guarantee a win by bidding 1 each time if you have the advantage in (points + squares) and they do not have 2 points per square they need to pull the trolley off their end. The best they can do is give up a square for a point, or a point for a square, and you maintain your advantage. You can also guarantee a win if you can reach that situation from where you are by making a sequence of higher bids. However, that requires a greater points advantage.
Occasionally, you'll find yourself losing, and your opponent will try to prematurely guarantee his win by using the above method of betting low. It's possible to get yourself out of this hole, as explained in the next section.
Occasionally, your opponent will have too many points for a nickel-and-dime situation to even be possible. Your only hope in this case is if your cart is near your end-square. By overbidding your opponent (as always, hopefully with little-to-no point waste), you can draw the cart to your End Square. Unlike the section earlier, there aren't three possibilities anymore, as the point count on both sides is too low for the mid-range bid option. This is a true "coin" flip, where you must either bet it all, or bet 0. With luck, your opponent will lose the coin flip, and you'll overbid him and win, or underbid him and make him waste enough points to give you a fighting chance. In all honesty, the chances of this working aren't good. I can personally vouch that it's possible however. Dors and Kvin were playing their second game of a Rank 4 match. Kvin had won the first game, and it looked like he was almost certainly going to win the second; the cart was 1 tile from center in Dors's favor, but Kvin has a very large point advantage. Fortunately for Dors, Kvin was playing conservative to try and maintain his near-certain victory. By overbidding, Dors pulled the cart to his end-square, and Kvin lost the coin flip, bidding Dors's remaining points, while Dors bid 0. Even still, Kvin had a substantial lead, and Dors had to bid the cart back to his end-square, where Kvin lost another coin flip, with the same results as before. The point waste from both coin flips combined was just enough to force a tie. (Dors went on to win the next three games, and the match).
Just because the Match is over, and someone's advanced in Rank, doesn't mean the work is done for either player. If you've lost, don't just run off without a word (or a quick complaint), as it gives the impression you can't handle the loss, and are a poor sport. Also don't blame your loss on bad luck. That's a poor excuse, and downright rude, as it belittles your opponent's victory.
If you've won, don't quickly thank the player for the game and then say goodbye, as it shows disrespect to your opponent. Stick around and talk with your fallen foe, either about Tug strategy (but not in a condescending manner), or if they're not up to it, anything else, for at least several minutes. This lets your opponent know that he wasn't just another person you stepped over in your climb for the top, but a worthy opponent. Even if the game was a landslide victory, don't be cocky and arrogant; jerks always get their come-uppance.