On my very first game, I was dealt a wizard on the first trick, and the player ahead of me bid one. I dithered a moment and finally also bid one,
promptly going down in flames. It still rankles. I won that game, though.

you had that coming to you...dirty play is bad karma. That isn't to say I haven't played that way before.

We were playing a quick-3, so the first hand consisted of two cards. The first bidder bid a 2, the 2nd, threatened by the 2 bid, bid a 0, and I,
holding the king of trump and a jester, bid a 1 figuring I could nab one from the 2 bidder. Upon seeing my bid, he futilely lead the 3 of trump, which
was followed by the 6 of trump! Needless to say, I threw the jester, feeding it to the 0 bidder, knowing that i could possibly get them both down...
or at worst bring all 3 of us down. Unfortunately, on the next throw, my king of trump was seized by the 2 bidder's Wizard, knocking us all down to
-10.

Well, you may play with a better class of players than I do sometimes. I've seen this happen a few times.

Perhaps I messed up but here's the scoop. The play was with 2 experienced players in a 3-handed game. On the first deal of 1 card both the other
players bid 1 trick. I had a Wizard and figured that the number 2 bidder had one too so I bid "zero". Needless to say I won the trick. That meant all
3 of us went down in flames. What's the big deal? Well, this was the first time I'd witnessed this sequence of events in 15 years of Wizard play.