Basic Strategies for Spades

[screamingmimi04]

The best chance you will have for winning a game of Spades is simply bidding well. A normal deal of the cards will result in one side ending up with 7 books, and the opposing side having 6 books. Of course most dealt hands are not the norm, but will give each player more cards in one suit than is strictly necessary. When first looking at your hand, play out the hand in your head, to account for these overages. You may want to count both an ace and king of a suit (hearts, diamonds, or clubs) but if your hand is loaded with low cards of the suit, chances are not good that the King will survive a second round. Queens and Jacks are good for forcing out opponents trump cards. Remember to only count Aces and Kings if you are not holding more than 4 or 5 cards of the same suit.

Counting the Aces and Kings in non-trump suits and assuming at least one out of 2 Spades in your hand, is a good rule of thumb, for beginning players. As you get more confident, or you notice a pattern of underbidding from the opposition, then you can change your strategy. The more accurate you become at bidding, the faster your points will add up.




When to cut and when to throw off. Mostly in the first few hands, game play will follow a pattern of one player leading off with a high, non-trump card and the rest of the players throwing off their lowest cards in that suit. After a few hands though, strategy comes into play. Players without a card in that suit may 'cut' the hand with a trump and win the hand, or may throw off a non-suit card, allowing their teammate to win that book. This can ultimately decide making final bid or not. If your partner has thrown out a fairly high card, and you've seen no sign of cutting from the opposition, it's best to throw off a non-suit card. This can increase the possibility of cutting the other suit later.
Keep in mind that you only want to trump with the lowest card that will take that hand.




You want to always be aware of the cards already played by your opponents. If one of them has thrown out a fairly high, non-trump card early, you can almost count on the fact that he/she will be cutting that suit soon.