Strategy

Spades Rules Links

• The Basics
• Strategy
• AI Details

Bidding

1. 1. You want to be as aggressive with bidding as possible without being too risky.
      1. Bidding too high and not making your bid, is a huge blow to your game score.
      2. Timid bidding leaves additional tricks that cost you 9 points, and adding bags that will eventually give a bonus to your opponents.
   2. A "NIL" bid is extremely lucrative, if you can make it. Before bidding, always study your hand for the possibility of a "NIL" bid.
      1. Sometimes, even a hand which looks moderately powerful can be a contender for a "NIL" bid. For example, even if you have the Ace and King of hearts, you might bid "NIL" as long as you also have several low hearts which you can play when hearts are led; you can discard the Ace and King of hearts later in the round, once you're void in other suits.
      2. Look for nil any time you are short in spades (2 or fewer). Being short in any other suit helps a lot, as long as they aren’t too high.
      3. NEVER bid "NIL" if you have the Ace of Spades! The Ace of Spades will always win the trick it's part of. It's a pretty bad idea to bid "NIL" if you have any high spades at all.
      4. Be VERY careful to bid “NIL” when you have 3 or more spades. These will be almost impossible to get rid of, and you’ll almost always end up taking a trick (unless your partner has a VERY strong hand with more spades than you).

Play of the Hand

1. 1. 1. 1. In most cases, don't overplay your partner. If Left plays a Queen of Diamonds, Across plays a King of Diamonds, and Right plays a 2 of Diamonds, don't take the trick with your Ace of Diamonds; let your partner win the trick and save the Ace for a future trick.
         2. If you see that you aren't going to take the trick, play the lowest card you can.
         3. On average, each player will start with 3.33 cards of each suit. So, if you start with only one or two of a suit, you can try to get rid of them early, so that when another player leads, you can use your spades to trump their high cards!
         4. If you have many spades, you can lead them in order to flush out your opponents in Spades. This will give you an opportunity to win tricks at the end of the hand.
         5. If you've already made your team bid, try to avoid taking more tricks to avoid bags. Giving bags to your opponents adds up, and can give you 50 extra points to end the game quicker!
            1. In situation 2a, it would be a good play to take the trick with your Ace of Diamonds, since the high card might take a trick in the future and give you an additional bag
            2. In Example 2b, it would be good to play your highest card. Medium value cards have the tendency of winning undesired tricks at the end of a round.
         6. If your partner bid “NIL”, try to help them! Make sure to play as high as you can, and pay attention to what suits they are out of. If you see they are out of diamonds, and you can lead diamonds, it allows them to discard the Ace or King of hearts, for example.
         7. If one of your opponents bids "NIL", try to force them to take a trick by always playing cards below their cards.
         8. Don't give up, even if you fall far behind the other team. You might be able to set them (keep them from taking the number of tricks they bid) and get right back in it. Also, remember that you can lose the game and still win the tournament. Lasting longer to try to eke out the win is rewarded in the tournament scoring.

Sources

Elite level play at Spades is very hard, with many nuances to its strategy. The AI partners you are playing with/against are beginner-intermediate level players. To consistently crush them, and become great at the game, we recommend studying from external sources, and reading the AI Details/Advanced Strategy section just below.

• How Not to Lose at Spades 
• The Complete Win at Spades by Joseph D. Andrews
• Master Spades by Steve Fleishman 

When studying, the most effective topics to focus on are:

• How to Bid
• How to Lead with various holdings
• How the “table bid” (sum of everyone’s bids) should affect your strategy
• The play of the hand, and how to Ruff/Cross ruff effectively
• How to play NIL aggressively