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Spades Bidding Guide

Bidding is the whole game. The cards only settle what the bidding already decided.

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Almost every Spades game is lost at the bid, not in the play. A made contract pays 10 points per trick bid; a missed one costs the same amount. That 20-point swing on a single trick is larger than anything clever you can do later with the cards. This guide is a method for turning thirteen cards into a number you can actually deliver.

The counting method

Do not look at your hand and guess. Count it in three passes, in this order.

  1. Count your certain tricks. Every ace is one. The A♠ and K♠ are one each. Nothing else is certain.
  2. Count your half-tricks and round down. A king with at least one small card behind it is a half. A queen with two small cards behind it is a half at best. Two halves make one trick — one half on its own makes nothing.
  3. Count your trump length. Every spade beyond your third is very close to a full trick. Because spades are permanently trump, length is what wins the late tricks after the honours have fought each other out.

Then add a trick for a void with trumps to spare — no diamonds and three spades is at least one ruff, a trick your high cards never had to earn. A singleton with four trumps is worth about the same.

Bidding chart

A reference for what a hand is worth once counted. Treat it as a starting number, then adjust for your partner's bid.

What you holdBidNote
0–2 low spades, no aces, no high cardsNilThe shape matters more than the weakness
No aces, 2–3 spades, one bare king1The king may not survive
1 ace, 3 spades2The standard minimum hand
1 ace, 4 spades, or 2 aces and 3 spades3The most common bid at the table
2 aces, 4–5 spades4Add one more if you hold a void
2 aces, A♠, 5 spades5You are carrying the hand
3 aces with 5+ spades including two honours6+Rare. Count it twice before saying it

Bidding with a partner

Your bid and your partner's merge into one team contract. Bid 4 opposite their 3 and any split of seven tricks between you makes it — so the number you say is a contribution, not a personal promise. Three consequences follow:

  • Bid your own hand honestly. Shading your count to "help" corrupts the only information your partner has.
  • Bid after a nil, not before. If your partner has bid nil, your bid must carry the whole hand — and you will spend tricks protecting them rather than cashing winners, so do not stretch.
  • Watch the opponents' total. If all four bids add to more than thirteen the hand is over-bid and somebody is going to be set. If they add to fewer than ten, bags are coming and the tenth one costs 100.

When nil is actually safe

A made nil is +100 and a broken one is −100, so the decision deserves more than a glance. Nil is a question about shape, not about weakness.

  • Your spade holding decides it. Zero to two low spades is nil territory. Three spades, or any spade honour, and you will eventually be forced to win a trump trick through no fault of your own.
  • High cards need escorts. A king with two small cards in the same suit can be ducked under. A bare king cannot.
  • Count your escape cards. You need a low card in every suit. A hand with 2–3–4 in three suits and nothing above a nine is a far better nil than a hand with one ace and twelve rags.
  • Never bid nil to rescue a bad hand. Weak and dangerous are different things. A hand full of unsupported queens and jacks is the worst nil at the table.

Five bidding mistakes that cost games

  1. Bidding on face-card beauty. Three queens is not three tricks. It is often none.
  2. Chronic underbidding "to be safe". Bidding 3 on a 4-count every hand feels prudent and quietly walks your side into the −100 bag penalty.
  3. Forgetting trump length. Five spades is worth about two tricks on its own, whatever else the hand holds. New players routinely miss this and under-bid by two.
  4. Stretching opposite a nil. Your winners are needed as cover, not as contract.
  5. Ignoring the score. At 460 points you need a small honest bid, not a heroic one. Behind by 150 with two hands left, nil is the only bid that closes the gap.

Bidding to the scoreboard

  • Ahead late: bid tight and honest, refuse overtricks, and let the arithmetic run out.
  • Behind late: nil, and a partner bid big enough to matter. One made nil plus a modest contract swings 130 or more in a single hand.
  • Opponents on 8 or 9 bags: bid slightly under your count and feed them cheap tricks they cannot refuse. Their tenth bag is worth 100 points to you.

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