How to Bid in Spades: A Beginner's Guide to Counting Books

How does bidding work in spades?

Before anyone plays a card, every player looks at their 13 cards and says how many books (tricks) they think they'll win. That number is your bid.

Spades is a partner game. You and your partner sit across from each other, and your two bids add up to your team's contract. If you bid 4 and your partner bids 3, your team needs 7 books. It doesn't matter which of you wins them.

There are 13 books in every hand. Here's what your bid is worth:

• Make it: 10 points for each book you bid, plus 1 point for each extra book. Those extras are called bags.
• Miss it (get set): minus 10 points for each book you bid.
• Every 10 bags your team collects costs 100 points.

So the best bid isn't the biggest number. It's the truest one.

How do you count books in spades?

Go through your hand one suit at a time and count only the books you'd be shocked to lose. These are rules of thumb, not laws, but they'll keep you out of trouble.

• Aces in hearts, diamonds or clubs: count 1 each. They usually win the first time that suit comes around.
• Kings in those suits: count half a book if you have one or two other cards in that suit. A king sitting all alone is a long shot, because the ace can come down on it.
• Queens and lower: don't count them. Be pleasantly surprised instead.
• Ace of spades: count 1. With no jokers in the deck, it's the boss card.
• King of spades: count 1 if you hold at least one other spade.
• Queen of spades: count 1 if you hold at least two other spades.
• Long spades: if you hold 5 or more spades, count 1 more for each spade past the fourth. Once everybody else runs out, those little spades win.

Short suits matter too. If you have no cards in a suit, you can play a spade when that suit is led and win the book. If you have spare spades you didn't already count, you can add one book for that empty suit.

Add it all up. If you land on a half, round down. Your partner can't win books you promised and didn't have.

House-rule variation: jokers. Some tables add a Big Joker and a Little Joker. On Spades Arena's "Big Joker, Little Joker" tables, they count as spades and rank Big Joker, then Little Joker, then the ace of spades. The Big Joker wins any book it's played in, so count it as a sure book. On "Joker, Joker, Deuce" tables, the 2 of spades ranks just under the Little Joker, so that little deuce is a strong card worth counting. When jokers are in, the ace of spades isn't boss anymore, so treat it more like a king.

Example: bidding a real hand

Let's count the hand above together. This is a regular game with no jokers.

• Spades: The ace of spades is 1. The king of spades has three other spades with it, so that's another 1. The 7 and 4 of spades don't count. With only four spades, there are no extras. That's 2.
• Hearts: The ace of hearts is 1. The queen is a maybe, so we skip it. That's 1.
• Diamonds: The king of diamonds has two small diamonds with it, so that's half a book.
• Clubs: 10, 6 and 2. Nothing to see here.

That adds up to 3 and a half. Round down and bid 3. If that king of diamonds wins after all, you take one bag, and one bag won't hurt you.

How do partners' bids work together?

You each bid what's in your own hand, and the two bids add up. If your contract is 7 and your partner wins 5 books while you win 2, you made it. Nobody keeps score of who carried who. (Well, nobody official.)

If your partner has already bid when it's your turn, listen. A big bid from your partner means you don't need to stretch. A small bid means your partner's hand is weak, so play carefully.

It also helps to add up all four bids at the table. If they come to a lot less than 13, there are loose books out there and somebody's collecting bags. If they come to more than 13, somebody is going to get set, so hold on to your good cards.

One thing not to do: bid extra to "help" your partner. Bid your hand, not your hopes.

Is it better to overbid or underbid in spades?

Say your team bids 7.

• You win 6 books: you're set. That's minus 70 points.
• You win 7 books: 70 points. Perfect.
• You win 9 books: 70 points plus 2 bags, so 72 points.

Underbidding by a book or two is much cheaper than getting set, so when you're torn, go low. But don't make a habit of it. Bags pile up, and every 10 of them takes 100 points off your score.

Getting set more than once can also end your night early. Games on Spades Arena go to 250 or 500 points, and a team that falls to minus 200 or below loses right then. Honest bids win games.

What does it mean to bid nil?

You can also bid zero. That's called nil, and it means you're promising to win no books at all.

• Make it: your team gets 100 points.
• Win even one book: your team loses 100 points.

Your partner's bid stands on its own. If you bid nil and win books anyway, those books don't count toward your partner's bid. They count as bags.

A good nil hand has low cards, no aces or kings, and only a few spades, all of them small.

House-rule variation: blind nil. Some families let a player bid nil before looking at their cards. It's usually worth plus 200 if you make it and minus 200 if you don't. Spades Arena doesn't offer blind nil yet.

Ready to try your first bid?

Reading about bidding is one thing. Counting your own cards is where it clicks.

Pull up a chair at a free practice table at spadesarena.com and play the computer. Count your books, make your bid, and see how close you land. Do it a few hands in a row and you'll start to feel a 3 from a 4 before you finish counting.

It's free to play, and nothing you can buy helps you win.