Situational Bidding is a very important tactic of the spades game, and I suggest everyone to practice it as often as they can. Situational Bidding, simply meaning “Bidding Accordingly”, can vary from many things, such as the score, A Bidding Convention being used (such as adjusting to the table bids), not maximizing a strong hand (7-8 bid for example, underbid one if bidding before your partner to avoid getting set if he has a nil). It’s basically bidding around your opponents/partners bids or bidding according to the score to avoid losing the spades game, instead of just playing every hand and bidding every hand the same, with no conscience of what’s going on. There’s a few spades strategies I can offer you, being as basic as possible, but in my 13+ years at Spades Yahoo!, I’m still learning new things, so I’ll keep it short. A simple tactic, is to bid loose, or underbid your hands when you’re ahead of your opponents by 200-300 points, just to not risk getting set. Your opponents (if they’re any good) are likely to nil more or bid very aggressive when down this much, and by maybe underbidding that one trick, can give you an advantage if they nil, bagwise maybe, and of course are much less likely to get set. Another good tactic, one of my favorites, but takes time, is something I guess I’ll call “Playing the table”. This usually occurs when bidding 3rd or 4th, but can be done in 2nd seat also. Bidding first doesn’t really apply to this strategy, and has nothing to do with it. When I say playing the table, that means adjusting YOUR bid (not a bidding convention) according to the table bids. For example, say your partner bids first (he bids 2),your RHO (Right hand opponent) bids 4, and you are solid 3 bid, with a few possible tricks and a good length suit/a set-worthy hand, Maximize your bid and go for 4 (or maybe even more in some cases, IF you know what you’re doing!) That makes the bids 2 4 4, with your LHO left to bid, who is likely to nil or bid 1. Don’t think that by doing this, you are enabling your LHO to nil, you shouldn’t avoid bids in such a scenario to avoid things like that, because simply, that didn’t make at all the difference. Why do this? Because the strong bid/bids were on your right, giving you an advantage positional wise. “Positional Bidding”, another VERY important topic involving Situational bidding. The main thing you want to understand with positional bidding, are the advantages and points you can gain, simply bidding according to the table bids. If your RHO is first, and bids 5, you are second to bid and have a solid 4/4.5, Bid it to 5 (maybe even 6). When wanting to maximize your bids and tricks, the opponent strong bid is always best on your right side, while I will explain in further articles. So again, don’t try to go all Superman and master all this at once, because it takes lots and lots of time, practice and patients. My suggestion, try some stuff out in a “bot game” or whoever, and watch the hand results, losses/gains etc… Keep in mind, all these things are very carefully be done, and by understanding it, you will understand just how much of a difference it can make. Once understood, I promise you will be a better player.
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