Spades is a bid-and-take card game in which the spade suit always trumps the other three. Before a single card is played, every player predicts how many of the thirteen tricks they will win; the table then plays those tricks, and you score well only when you make what you promised. Overbid and you get "set" for a heavy penalty; underbid and the spare tricks pile up as "bags" that eventually cost you a hundred points. The skill lives in honest counting — valuing your high spades and side-suit aces — and then in timing: knowing when to grab a trick and when to duck under one. This guide covers accurate bidding, the high-risk nil bid, the broken-spades lead rule, following suit and trumping, partnership coordination including how to cover a partner’s nil, and how the variants and scoring change your decisions in Pocket Arcade Spades. Each section gives one concrete habit to practise on your next hand.
Read the full Spades Strategy Guide strategy guide