The Art Of Bidding
Like anything else that involves gamesmanship or strategy, there are a variety of skills one must master. The Spades Game, not unlike it’s predecessors Bridge and Pinnocle require the ability to accurately bid what you believe you will be able to successfully take (or not take as sometimes the case may be), without having too few, or too many “books” or “tricks” as most people refer to. Ahh,… but there’s the rub isn’t it! For in order to accurately bid, you must be able to first of all assess what you hand potentially holds (if anything), and then be able to predict what the others playing may (or may not) have. Bid too boldly, and your adversaries may lie waiting with an ambush. Bid too conservatively, and they’re liable to serve you a few extra tricks/books “On the House”, and get you that way! So what factors should one consider? There are many! First let’s look at where you’re sitting.
Ideally, the best place to be in is in the dealer’s position, as from there you are able to identify what all the others are “stating” they believe they can (or will) do. It stands to reason then, that being the person immediately to the left of the dealer would seemingly be the worst position, as you have nothing to go on (with regards to your bidding), except what you see before you in your hand!
But what else must you consider? In bidding your hand, you must consider whether the type of Spades you’re playing is “Traditional” or “Cutthroat.” This will help you determine the number of tricks/books that are available. In a Traditional game, you can usually consider that if a hand is evenly distributed, you will play each suite evenly 3 times,… and in Cutthroat, you will play each hand 4 times if evenly distributed. This means the Ace, King, and Queen “should” be viable for bidding purposes in Traditional, and add the Jack for bidding purposes in Cutthroat. However, since this is often not the case, you may only wish to consider the Ace and King in Traditional, and then add the Queen for bidding purposes in Cutthroat.
Another factor is when your hand has a void, singleton, doubleton, (or in Cutthroat, you may also wish to consider if you only have three in any suit). If this is the case in any suit except spades, you can usually consider that to be a trick/book, providing you have a spade to play every time that suit is played!
Finally, you must consider where you are in the match you’re playing in. If it is the beginning, you need to ensure that you are able to start off on a positive note if at all possible. This gives you some confidence, and if there’s a setback, you usually feel can rebound from it if the cards go your way. If you’re close to the end of the match, you must be able to bid high enough so that you can do no worse than “tie” your next closest opponent, and if possible, win outright. This requires you to be able to look at what is necessary for you to actually win based on the table’s requirements,… and your score versus your opponents. Remember to take “extra” tricks/books into consideration as well. If you have no hope of winning in this round and time is available to play additional hand(s), you may wish to bid or play in such a way as to hopefully “SET” your opponent, by misleading the number of tricks/books you may be able to get, or by sluffing off tricks/books, so that your opponent takes enough that it keeps them from winning, while continuing to advance your own score.
As you can see, the game of spades online requires some foresight, skill, and yes… the luck of the deal, but as the saying goes: “If you play your cards RIGHT”,…. Anything can happen! Good luck and enjoy your games!