Spades Rules and Strategy: Bids and Bags

The rules

1. Deal: thirteen cards each. Partners sit opposite.
2. Bidding: each player bids a number of tricks, or nil (zero). A team's contract is the sum of its two bids.
3. Play: the player to the dealer's left leads any card except a spade. Follow suit if you can; otherwise play any card, including a spade. The highest spade wins the trick, or the highest card of the suit led if no spade was played.
4. Breaking spades: spades may not be led until a spade has been played to a trick, or the leader holds only spades.
5. Scoring a made contract: 10 points per trick bid, plus 1 per extra trick. The extra tricks are bags.
6. Scoring a missed contract: minus 10 per trick bid.
7. Bags: every ten bags a team accumulates costs 100 points.
8. Nil: a player who bids nil and takes no trick earns 100; taking even one trick costs 100. Their partner's bid is scored separately. Blind nil, bid before looking at the cards, is worth 200 either way and can be switched on in the settings.
9. Game end: first team to 500 (300 in the settings); a team at −200 loses.

Bidding your hand

Count tricks as in any trump game, but remember that your partner's bid comes before or after yours, and the two together are what matters.

• Aces in side suits: one trick each, nearly always.
• Kings with at least one card beneath: three quarters of a trick.
• Spades: the ace and king are sure tricks; the queen with two lower spades is likely; beyond four spades in your hand, each extra spade is about a trick.
• Short suits with spades: a void or singleton with three or more spades is a trick by ruffing.
• Queens and jacks in long side suits are not tricks.

Add it up and bid the whole number nearest. Unlike Call Break, the penalty for an extra trick is small (a bag), so bidding exactly is the aim, with a slight lean toward bidding what you can make rather than hoping.

Playing with a partner

• Do not overtake your partner's winning card. If partner's king is winning, play low; your ace is a trick later.
• Lead to partner's strength. If partner bid high, lead your short suits so they can ruff, or lead suits they are likely to hold aces in.
• Draw trumps when your side holds the most spades, so that the opponents cannot ruff your winners. Do not draw trumps when you need to ruff yourself.
• Once the contract is made, stop taking tricks. Every extra is a bag. Throw winners under the opponents' leads if you can.
• When partner bids nil, cover them: play high on every trick to win it ahead of partner, and lead suits in which partner can throw high cards away.
• When an opponent bids nil, set them: lead low cards in suits where the nil bidder may be forced to win, and keep your low cards to duck under theirs.

Bags

Bags look harmless at one point each, until the tenth costs 100. Keep a mental count of your team's bags. With eight bags, play a hand to make the contract exactly, even at the cost of a point or two. If the opponents are near ten bags, give them tricks: ducking a trick you could have won is worth it when it tips them over.

Nil

Bid nil when your hand has no aces or kings, few spades (two or three low ones at most), and low cards in every suit so you can duck. A nil with a singleton king is a gamble; a nil with four spades is a mistake. If you must play a high card, do it on a trick that is already lost to someone else.

Common mistakes

1. Counting honours instead of tricks. A queen in a four-card suit is not a trick.
2. Overtaking partner. Two winners spent on one trick.
3. Taking every trick you can after the contract is made. Bags.
4. Bidding nil with a king. It will be forced out.
5. Forgetting that spades cannot be led until broken. Plan how trumps will come out.

Glossary

• Contract: the team's combined bid.
• Bag: a trick won beyond the contract; ten bags cost 100 points.
• Nil: a bid to win no tricks, worth 100 made and −100 failed.
• Blind nil: nil bid before seeing the cards, worth 200.
• Breaking spades: the first spade played, after which spades may be led.
• Setting: defeating a contract or a nil.