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Spades Strategy: Bidding, Nil, and Bags
Good spades strategy starts with an honest bid: count the tricks your hand will really take, leave out the one you only hope for, and play to make that number. The four bids then tell you whether to hunt for a set or shed spare tricks. Every score below comes from our own game, which pays 100 for a made nil and takes 100 points at every 10 bags.
Bidding: Count Your Tricks
Bid your sure tricks, plus one for each spade beyond your third.
Spades First
The Ace of spades is a certain trick, because it wins every trick it is played to. Then count length. Each spade after your third is worth about a trick, whatever its rank, since small spades win once the other hands run out. Lower spade honors need guards: K-5 or Q-6-3 can survive the early rounds, but a bare Queen usually cannot.
Side Aces and Kings: Count by Suit Length
Count each side Ace as a trick. Some strong players discount one in a suit of seven or more cards, where someone is void before you cash it. Count a side King only in a suit of two to four cards, where it is most of a trick; bare, or in a suit of five or more, it gets ruffed. Queens rarely take a trick.
The Short-Spade Trap
Shade your bid down by half a trick with two spades, and by a full trick with one or none. When you are short, the opponents are more likely than your partner to hold the spade length, and they trump your side honors.
Round the Doubtful Trick Down
With two sure tricks and maybe a third, bid two.
| Team contract | Tricks taken | Hand score |
|---|---|---|
| 9 | 8 | -90 |
| 8 | 8 | +80 |
| 8 | 9 | +81 (1 bag) |
Overbidding by one trick swings the hand 170 points against bidding what you take. Underbidding by one costs 9 points plus a bag. Do not shave sure tricks, though: bidding A-K-Q-J of spades as three only piles up bags. The scoring rules cover every case.
Bidding Position and Your Partner's Bid
The later you bid, the more you know: the dealer hears all three other bids first, and our deal rotates each hand, so you bid from every position in turn.
A partner bid of 1 is weak and may hold no sure trick; the computer never bids below 1, so North's 1 can be an empty hand. Bid as if your partner needs help. Push the table total to 12 or more only with a full extra trick, unless you trail and need the set.
Protect a lead and take chances when you trail. Near the finish, bid only what you need: at 492, a team bid of 2 that takes 3 tricks scores 21 and wins at 513.
Read the Table Total
Add all four bids before the first lead. The total tells you whether to take tricks or shed them.
| Table total | What to do |
|---|---|
| 10 or less | Once your contract is safe, shed spare tricks, but give away no easy early ones. |
| 11 | Take your counted tricks and stay flexible; players split between setting and bagging the opponents. |
| 12 or more | Take every trick you can. With one spare trick at most, the opponents can be set. |
| 14 or more | Someone will be set: 13 tricks cannot cover 14 bids. |
Our computer players ignore the total and the bags, so in solo that switch is yours.
Nil and Blind Nil
Bid nil with three spades or fewer, all low, no Ace of spades, and no short, unguarded side honors.
Against the computer, only you can bid nil. The computer seats never bid it, and all three lead their lowest cards: North will not lead high to cover yours, and the opponents' low leads are the ones that catch a nil built on middle cards. Covering and setting nils come up only online, against people.
What Makes a Good Nil Hand
The Ace of spades rules nil out, and the King is a big risk: your partner holds the Ace only one time in three. Middle spades such as J-8-7 or 9-8-6 are a common trap. Side honors are fine with length. An Ace or King in a suit of four or more, with low cards beside it, is a standard nil holding; A-3-2, a bare King, and a side J-8-7 are not. Voids, singletons, and doubletons give you places to throw high cards away.
A partner bid of 4 or more makes a nil more attractive. With a big lead, bid nil only when it is close to certain.
Covering a Partner's Nil (Online)
Protect the nil before your own bid. A made nil scores 60 for the hand even when you fall one trick short of a bid of 4, so bid lower than your cards suggest, and lead into your partner's void first, then a safe suit, then a long suit of high cards, with lone boss cards last.
When an opponent leads low, play high so your partner can slide under, but keep the only high card in a thin suit: if East leads the 9 of diamonds and you hold Q-3-2, play low and save the Queen for a lower lead.
Setting an Opponent's Nil (Online)
Play low in front of the nil bidder and high after them. Do not lead Aces and Kings against a nil; lead middle cards first and save your lowest. Once the nil is void in a suit, stop leading it and keep the lead away from the nil's partner. When the non-nil bids total about 10 or less, attack the nil; at 12 or more, attack the partner's contract.
Blind Nil as a Comeback
Blind nil is a nil bid before you look at your cards: a comeback for a team far behind. Standard rules usually require a 100-point deficit and add a two-card swap with partner. Our blind nil has neither, and your cards are face up while you bid, so keeping it blind is on your honor. If the other three bid about 10 between them, the high cards are probably in their hands.
Bags and Setting
A bag costs about 9 points net, so a real chance to set the opponents is worth a bag or two. Each overtrick scores 1 point now, but 10 bags cost 100. Setting a 9 contract takes 90 off the opponents in one hand.
Shed Tricks with High Cards
When your contract is safe and no set is on, dump high cards on tricks your side is already winning. Your side takes that trick whatever you play, and a high card spent there cannot win a trick later. Keep low cards as exits. In solo, North trumps whenever it is void in the suit led and holds a spade, even over your winning card, so some bags come from your own side.
Bag the Opponents
Against opponents on 8 or 9 bags, give them safe-looking tricks. If they bid 5 on 8 bags at a table total of 10 and take 3 extra, their hand scores -47: 50 for the contract, 3 for bags, and 100 off.
One Bag from the Finish
You and North sit at 420 with 9 bags and bid 9.
| Tricks taken | Hand score | New total | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| 9 | +90 | 510 | Game won |
| 10 | -9 (90 + 1 - 100) | 411 | Game goes on |
Exactly 9 wins. The tenth trick keeps the game going.
Card Play
Play second hand low and third hand high, and trump only when the trick would otherwise go to the opponents. When you lead, the opponent on your left plays second, your partner third, and the opponent on your right last.
Second Hand Low, Third Hand High
When the player on your right leads and you hold a lone King, Queen, or Jack with small cards, play small. When your partner leads low, play high, even a King into a possible Ace; it drives out the opponents' top cards and promotes your partner's. The exception to second hand low is honor on honor: cover a Jack with the Queen, a Queen with the King.
When to Trump
Trump when an opponent has played the boss card or has topped your partner's lead. Do not trump your partner's winner. When your partner leads the King of hearts on a setting hand, let it win even if you are void; a ruff wastes a spade and can kill the Queen behind it. Keep the small spades that guard K-5 or Q-6-3. When an overtrump is likely, ruff with the Queen rather than the 5, so an overtrump costs them the Ace or King.
The Ace of Spades
Some strong players never save the Ace of spades for the last trick. If the trick in front of you is going to the opponents, win it now. The Ace wins whenever you play it, so holding it back buys only flexibility.
Count to 13 Spades
Start from 13, take off your own spades, then each one played. Hold five, and eight are out. Two ruffs by other players leave six. In a round of spades one of the four cards is yours, so three remain outside your hand, and once they fall every spade you hold is a winner, the 2 included.
Draw Trumps Once Spades Are Broken
Spades cannot be led until one has been played on a trick led in another suit, unless you hold only spades. Once they are broken, lead them when your side holds the trump strength, when your partner bid high, or when the opponents start ruffing, and stop when they are out.
Leads
Cash a side Ace from a long suit early, before anyone can trump it, though some strong players hold Aces back for control when setting. Lead a King only from A-K or K-Q. Never lead a suit both opponents are void in: one ruffs while the other throws away a loser.
Partnership and Signals
Signals matter only between human partners; our computer partner neither sends nor reads them. By custom, partners do not discuss their hands, so your bid and your cards do the talking.
- A King lead shows A-K or K-Q.
- High then low on your partner's lead shows a doubleton; low then high shows three or more.
- A discard shows a void in the suit led, not in the suit discarded.
- A nil bidder drops the highest card that still loses, so the 9 from Q-9 denies the Jack and 10.
Some players also lead a Queen to say they do not want the trick. Terms are defined in the spades glossary.
Beginner Mistakes
- Bidding side honors with no spades. A bid of 4 on side Aces and Kings with a spade void gets ruffed and set.
- Leading Aces against an opponent's nil. Cashing the Ace of clubs and Ace of diamonds lets the nil bidder drop their King and Queen safely.
- Covering from the wrong suit. Leading the Ace from A-3-2, not K-10-8-7, leaves nothing to cover East's low return.
- Ducking third hand. At a table total of 11 or more, your partner leads low, you play low holding the King, and the opponents win cheaply.
- Not counting. Taking a bag with the 7 of clubs because you missed that it was the last club.
- Giving up when far behind. At 63 to 285 in a game to 500, sets and nils can still turn it.
Put these to work at spades, or find more answers in the spades FAQ.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the trick to playing spades?
The trick is accurate bidding. Count the tricks your hand will really take, round a doubtful one down, and play to make that contract. Then read the table total: at 12 or more, take every trick to set the opponents; at 10 or less, shed high cards on tricks your side already wins.
What is the best bidding strategy in Spades?
Count sure tricks and leave out the doubtful one. Score the Ace of spades as a trick, add one for each spade beyond your third, count side Aces, and count a King only in a suit of two to four cards. Bidding 9 and taking 8 costs 90 points.
How to bid in Spades for beginners?
Count one trick for each Ace, one for each spade after your third, and one for a King with one to three cards beside it. Leave out Queens and any doubtful trick. Your bid and your partner's add into one team contract, so bid what you expect to take.
What is the sandbagging rule in spades?
Sandbagging is the penalty for overtricks. Every trick your team takes above its contract is a bag worth 1 point, and bags carry over from hand to hand. When a team reaches 10 bags it loses 100 points and drops 10 bags, so each bag costs about 9 points net over a game.