Spades Strategy

1. Bid accurately, not bravely

A made bid of 4 scores 40; a set bid of 6 costs 60. The swing between them is a whole hand's worth of points, so the first skill in Spades is an honest count. A simple method:

• Ace of spades: 1 trick. King of spades: 1 trick if you hold at least one other spade.
• Queen of spades: a likely trick with three or more spades behind it.
• Every spade past your third: about half a trick each — long spades win once the others are drawn.
• Side-suit aces: 1 trick each. Kings: half a trick if the suit isn't too long.
• A void or singleton with a few spades in hand: half a trick to a trick from ruffing.

Add it up and round to the nearest whole number. If you land on a half, round down early in the game and up when you need points to catch up.

2. Count the spades

There are 13 spades in the deck, and knowing how many are left tells you whether your remaining spades are winners or losers. Keep a running count every time a spade hits the table. Once the Ace and King are gone, your Queen is the boss trump; once all the spades above yours are out, every spade you hold is a guaranteed trick — which is exactly when you should lead them to pull the opponents' remaining trump.

Watch who trumps in and who sloughs (discards a non-spade) when they can't follow suit. A player who discards instead of ruffing is either out of spades or saving them for something — both are worth knowing.

3. Manage your bags

Overtricks score a point each, but every 10 bags cost 100. Once your team has made its bid, stop winning tricks: play your lowest card when you can't win anyway, and duck under the current winner when you can. Throw away your dangerous high cards on tricks an opponent has already won — a bare Ace of hearts is a bag waiting to happen. When you are at 8 or 9 bags, treat every extra trick as a 100-point mistake.

The flip side: when the opponents are close to 10 bags, feed them tricks they didn't bid for by playing low and leaving their high cards nowhere to hide.

4. When to bid Nil

A successful Nil is worth 100 points — the biggest single swing in the game. Bid it with a hand that has:

• No aces and no kings, and at most one queen.
• Three or fewer spades, all low (nine or below). Spades are the hardest cards to duck with.
• Length in every side suit, so you always have a lower card to play. A singleton is dangerous: once it's gone you must slough — and if your only sloughs are spades, you win the trick.

Playing a Nil: follow suit with the highest card that still loses, save your lowest cards for late in the hand when the opponents lead low to trap you, and dump high cards the moment you are void.

5. Cover your partner's Nil

When your partner bids Nil, your job changes completely. Play your high cards before your partner plays so they can duck under, win tricks from the front, and lead suits where you hold the top cards. If your partner is currently winning a trick, overtake them with anything you can — losing a trick of your own bid costs 10; a set Nil costs 100.

Against an opponent's Nil, do the opposite: lead low cards, let the Nil bidder win when they are on top, and never trump a trick they are about to take.

6. Play with your partner, not against them

• Don't overtake your partner. If they are winning the trick, play your lowest card — a trick is a trick no matter who takes it.
• Lead your aces early, before opponents go void and can trump them.
• Lead through voids. If your partner is out of a suit and still holds spades, lead that suit and let them ruff. If an opponent is void, avoid it.
• Second hand low, third hand high. Following behind a leader, keep your high cards; playing third, go high enough to win so the last player has to beat a real card.
• Read the bids. A partner who bid 5 has strong cards — let them take the lead. A team that bid 10 between them is stretched, and one well-timed trump can set them.