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Spades Strategy

Bid what you can count, guard your partner's nil, and treat every bag as a small debt.

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Spades Strategy

Good Spades strategy starts from the scoring: a made bid pays 10 points per trick, an extra trick pays 1, and every tenth extra trick costs your side 100. So bid the tricks you can actually count, stop taking tricks once your side's bid is safe, and keep an eye on both teams' bag counts. Everything below is that idea applied to each stage of the hand.

At the bid

  • Aces are tricks; kings are maybes. Count every ace as one. A king with a small card behind it is worth about half, because somebody's ace may be waiting for it.
  • Count your spades past the third. With four or more, each spade beyond the third is close to a trick once the high spades have been played.
  • Count voids when you have spades to spare. No diamonds and three spades is at least one cut.
  • Underbid by half a trick, not two. Going set costs 10 per trick bid, but a side that always bids one under "to be safe" eventually pays the 100 for its tenth bag. If your honest count is 4, bid 4.
  • Read the bids before yours. Opposite a partner who bid 5, a 1 from you is fine. Opposite a nil, your bid has to carry the side.

The bidding guide has the full count and a chart.

The first few tricks

  • Cash side-suit winners early, before somebody runs out of the suit and cuts them.
  • Lead your long side suit to set it up while the trumps are still in people's hands.
  • Spades can't be led until they're broken, so the first player to run out of a side suit decides when the trumps start coming out. If your side has the spade length, you want that early; if not, keep leading side suits.
  • Watch who stops following. A player who discards on hearts is out of hearts. Don't lead hearts into their spades.

Through the middle of the hand

  • Don't cut your partner's winner. If their king is already taking the trick, your spade is wasted and probably a bag. Our Hard and Expert bots hold their spades back when their partner is already winning.
  • Count the spades to thirteen. When you've seen them all, your side-suit winners can't be cut. Cash them, or duck them, knowing exactly what will happen.
  • Keep a low card for later. One safe small card near the end lets you refuse a trick you don't want.

When a nil is on

A made nil is +100, a broken one −100, and the nil bidder's tricks become team bags. If it's your nil, play the highest card that still loses on every trick and spend your dangerous middle cards early. If it's your partner's, lead your aces so they can drop high cards under them, and cover their card when you play after it. If it's the other side's, lead low and hold your aces back. The nil guide goes through all three.

Once your bid is safe

  • Stop winning. Each extra trick is +1 now and part of a −100 later. Throw your losers.
  • Count both bag totals. A side sitting on eight or nine bags can be pushed over: give them cheap tricks they can't refuse and let the tenth bag cost them 100.
  • Don't treat bags as harmless. Between two sides who bid well, the 100-point penalty is often the difference.

The race to 500

  • Ahead late: bid honestly, avoid bags, and let the other side take the risks.
  • Behind late: a nil is the biggest swing available. A made nil plus a made 4 with one bag is worth 141 in one hand.
  • Mind the floor: in our app a side that falls to −200 loses on the spot, whatever the other side's score.

Habits that lose Spades games

  1. Bidding on face cards instead of counted tricks.
  2. Bidding nil with three spades because the rest of the hand is weak.
  3. Taking extra tricks after the contract is already made.
  4. Cutting a trick your partner was already winning.
  5. Leading a suit an opponent has shown they're out of.

Other Spades pages

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