Spades strategy

An ace is close to a trick, a king is most of one, and every spade past the third is usually a trick because the suit runs out for everybody else. Add those up and you have your bid. Most beginners bid a trick too low and spend the game collecting bags.

One overtrick looks like a point in your favour. Ten of them cost a hundred, which is two good hands undone. When your contract is safe and a trick is optional, giving it away is often the right play — and it is the habit that separates a new player from a solid one.

You cannot say anything, so the number has to carry it. A bid of four says you have real strength; a bid of one after a partner has bid five says you are covering them and nothing more. Learn what your partner's numbers mean and the contract stops being two guesses added together.

When your partner bids nil, your job is their hand rather than yours. Take the lead whenever you can, lead your highest cards to strip the suits they are weak in, and never leave them on lead. A covered nil is a hundred points; an uncovered one is a hundred the other way.

Driving the other partnership one trick short costs them ten a trick and gives you nothing directly — but at the right score it is worth more than your own contract. Late in a game, the question is not how many tricks you can take but how few you can leave them.

A partnership sitting on nine bags is one overtrick from losing a hundred points. Feeding them tricks they did not bid for is a legitimate and badly under-used way to win — and it is invisible to anybody only counting their own contract.