[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"c\u002Fspades\u002Fadvanced-strategy":3,"x\u002Fspades\u002Fadvanced-strategy":66},{"key":4,"path":5,"canonicalPath":5,"category":6,"kicker":6,"title":7,"seoTitle":-1,"description":8,"intro":9,"practice":-1,"practiceTo":-1,"practiceLabel":-1,"sections":10,"faq":50},"spades--advanced-strategy","\u002Fspades\u002Fadvanced-strategy","Beginner","Advanced Spades Strategy: Trump Control and Setting Opponents","Advanced Spades strategy for partners: keep trump control, use seat position, set the opposing contract and play the last tricks from what you have counted.","Advanced Spades strategy begins where the rules stop being the hard part. Once you can count a bid and follow suit without thinking, the gains come from three places: the order you play your tricks in, the seat you play them from, and the scoreboard. Strong partnerships will spend a whole hand attacking the other side's contract instead of protecting their own, and by trick nine they already know how the last four tricks will go. Here is how they get there.",[11,17,23,29,34,40,45],{"heading":12,"paragraphs":13},"Trump Economy: What Each Spade Is Actually Worth",[14,15,16],"There are thirteen spades and you probably hold three or four of them. Each one has exactly one job: winning a trick that none of your side-suit cards could win. Trumping a heart with the king of spades when the four would have won it just as well is the most common leak in otherwise competent play: same trick, and you have thrown away a card you will badly want near the end of the hand. Ruff with your smallest spade and keep the honours for control.","Length and honours in trumps call for different plans. A holding of A-K-Q-8-5 is a control hand: two rounds of trumps strip most of the ruffing power out of the opposing hands, and after that your side-suit ace can be cashed with far less fear of a ruff. A holding of 8-7-5-3-2 is a ruffing hand. No single card in it frightens anyone, and its value lives entirely in a side-suit void. Play a ruffing hand as if it were a control hand and you will burn your spades on tricks that were never in danger.","Drawing trumps is right when you hold both the top spades and the side-suit winners that become good once trumps are gone. It is wrong when the trumps you are drawing are your own ruffing power. Before you lead a round of spades, weigh what it takes from the opponents against what it takes from you.",{"heading":18,"paragraphs":19},"Seat Position: Who Plays After You",[20,21,22],"When you lead a trick, the opponent on your left plays second, your partner plays third, and the opponent on your right plays last. That last seat gets the final word on everything you lead, so if the player on your right is the dangerous hand - a heavy bidder, or the partner covering a nil - stop feeding them suits they can win cheaply. Switch suits and make them follow instead of choose.","Turn the same idea around and you can arrange it on purpose. Lead a suit in which the opponent on your left is strong, and they must commit a card before your partner decides anything; your partner, sitting third, then covers or ducks with that card already on the table. This is why the same card can be a good lead from one seat and a poor one from another.","In fourth seat the rule is simple and almost nobody follows it consistently: if your partner is already winning the trick, play your lowest card in your least useful suit. If you are taking the trick, take it with the cheapest card that does the job. Every honour you spend one rank too high is a trick you will miss at the end of the hand.",{"heading":24,"paragraphs":25},"Attacking The Contract: How To Set The Other Team",[26,27,28],"Setting the opponents takes fourteen minus their combined bid. If they bid nine, your side needs five of the thirteen tricks, which leaves them on eight and one short. Work that number out during the bidding, not at trick eight, because it changes what you lead from the very first card.","The arithmetic strongly favours hunting sets. Setting a nine-bid costs the other team 90 points in a race to 500, while your own made four-bid is worth 40. That is why experienced partnerships will accept a bag or two, or even a small risk to their own contract, to break a large opposing bid.","In practice, setting a contract is mostly about denying easy tricks. Lead the long suit of the team that bid heavily, so they have to ruff early and spend the spades they were counting as separate winners. Attack the weaker of the two bidders. Hold one high spade back for the last trick they expect to win, and do not cash your side-suit aces early while a heavy trump hand sits behind you, waiting to ruff them.",{"heading":30,"paragraphs":31},"Bag Warfare",[32,33],"Bags are a weapon you can aim. A team sitting on eight bags is two spare tricks away from losing 100 points, and once you can see they will comfortably make their contract, the right play is often to stop fighting and hand them the last few tricks. With their bag column nearly full, ducking a trick you could win is not a mistake. It is a gift with a timer on it.","The reverse does not work. Bidding fewer tricks than your hand is worth only guarantees bags of your own, because the tricks arrive whether you bid them or not. Bid what you expect to take, then shed the surplus in play: duck, refuse marginal ruffs and never overtake your partner.",{"heading":35,"paragraphs":36},"Nil, From Both Sides Of The Table",[37,38,39],"When your partner bids nil, your job changes completely. Take the lead and keep it, and lead your aces early, because a nil hand can safely drop a dangerous queen underneath your ace. Lead the suits where your partner is long, so their middle cards disappear while somebody else's honour is still sitting on top of them. Winning tricks yourself is suddenly worth more than usual - every one you take is a trick your partner cannot be forced to take.","Defending against a nil is the same problem turned inside out. Lead low cards in the suits the nil bidder still has to follow, and do it early, before they have had a chance to void themselves. Avoid suits where they are short: leading one just hands them a free discard of the very card that was going to sink them. Their partner will be trying to grab the lead all hand, so take it away from them and hold on to it.","Blind nil, declared before you look at your cards, is normally worth 200 either way and is usually restricted to a team trailing by 100 or more. Treat it as a scoreboard instrument rather than a strategy: take it when the arithmetic says a normal hand cannot close the gap.",{"heading":41,"paragraphs":42},"The Last Four Tricks Are Decided At Trick Nine",[43,44],"By the ninth trick you should know how many spades are still outstanding and which player holds the long side suit. If the outstanding count is zero, every spade you still hold is a sure winner and nothing you lead can be ruffed: a side-suit card can now lose only to a higher card of its own suit. That is why the count is a strategic tool, not bookkeeping for its own sake.","Plan your exit from the hand before you are forced into it. If you need one more trick and hold the king of spades plus two small hearts, the trick has to come from the spade, so make sure you are not the player left on lead with nothing but hearts to push into an ace. Endgames in Spades are won by whoever knew, three tricks earlier, which card they intended to win with.",{"heading":46,"paragraphs":47},"Bidding And Playing To The Scoreboard",[48,49],"The same hand is worth different bids at different scores. Trailing 430 to 470 with a handful of hands left, a routine four-bid changes nothing; you need a set, a nil or both, and risks you would normally refuse become correct. Leading 470 to 380, everything flips: refuse the speculative nil, take the low-variance line, and let the opponents have their overtricks rather than exposing your own contract.","In the endgame the bag count matters as much as the points. A team on 480 with nine bags is not really on 480, because one careless hand drops them to 380. Check both columns before you bid.",[51,54,57,60,63],{"q":52,"a":53},"When should I draw trumps in Spades?","When you hold length and top spades together, such as A-K-Q-x, plus side-suit winners that become safe once trumps are gone. With a short trump holding, drawing trumps mostly destroys your own ruffing power.",{"q":55,"a":56},"How many tricks do I need to set the opponents?","Fourteen minus their combined bid. If they bid nine, your side needs five of the thirteen tricks, which leaves them on eight and one short of the contract.",{"q":58,"a":59},"Is it worth taking a bag in order to set the other team?","Almost always. A bag earns 1 point now and brings a 100-point penalty one tenth closer, while setting a nine-bid costs the opponents 90 points on the spot.",{"q":61,"a":62},"How do I beat a nil bid?","Lead low cards in suits the nil bidder must still follow, and attack in the first few tricks, before they can create a void. Once they are discarding on your leads, the nil is usually safe.",{"q":64,"a":65},"Should I ever bid fewer tricks than my hand is worth?","No. Underbidding does not stop the tricks arriving; it just turns them into bags. If your team needs fewer tricks, shed them during play by ducking and refusing ruffs.",{"example":67,"sources":68,"related":80},null,[69,75],{"url":70,"title":71,"publisher":72,"note":73,"language":74},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.pagat.com\u002Fauctionwhist\u002Fspades.html","Spades","Pagat, John McLeod","Nil and blind nil, blind nil’s 200 points for a team trailing by 100 or more, and the 100-point penalty for ten bags.","en",{"url":76,"title":77,"publisher":78,"note":79,"language":74},"https:\u002F\u002Fen.wikipedia.org\u002Fwiki\u002FTrick-taking_game","Trick-taking game","Wikipedia","Trumps beating the suit led, ruffing once you are void in a suit, and counting cards to keep track of what is still out.",[81,85,88,91],{"path":82,"title":83,"english":84},"\u002Fspades\u002Fstrategy","Spades: Strategy",false,{"path":86,"title":87,"english":84},"\u002Fspades\u002Fhow-to-count-cards","Counting Cards in Spades",{"path":89,"title":90,"english":84},"\u002Fspades\u002Fhow-to-win","Spades Endgame Strategy: Playing to the Target Score",{"path":92,"title":93,"english":84},"\u002Fspades\u002Fhow-to-bid-in-spades","Spades Bidding Strategy: How to Estimate Your Bid"]