How to bid your spades hand

> Learn some spades bidding tips

In the game of spades bidding is a core element. The bid is what begins play, drives play, and ultimately determines which team wins or loses. Knowing how to bid your spades hand properly is a huge advantage.

There are may different strategies that are touted by spades players who play spades for money. Rather than try to look at all of these we will discuss bidding strategy in general. These spades bidding tips should be useful information to you, giving you the help that you need to assess your starting hand.

Spades Bidding – After the Deal

When you begin a round of spades you will receive 13 cards. After you and your partner have received your hand, you will be allowed to look at the hand and tell your partner how many books you think you can catch. You are not allowed to reveal the cards in your hand, nor are you permitted to go beyond the simple discussion of how many books you think you will catch. Once you and your partner have agreed on a bid, the bid is written down and becomes final.

The first thing that you should do after the deal is to arrange all your cards by suit. This will make it easier for you to see what you have, and it will also lessen the chance that you will play the wrong card at the wrong time.

Many players like to separate their cards into the red-black-red-black sequence. In other words you could arrange them from left to right as follows: hearts, clubs, diamonds, spades. Put the highest cards to the left and arrange them in descending order: ace, king, queen, and so on.

Now that your hand is arranged you can begin the process of assessing how many books that you can catch.

Count All Aces as One Book

Begin your bidding assessment by counting all aces in your hand as one book. You should be able to catch a book with an ace unless you have many cards of the same suit as the ace. If you have more than three cards of a suit in which you hold the ace, consider the ace as a possibility and not as a guarantee. Use discretion when adding it to your bid.

Face Cards

After looking for aces, look at the face cards you have been dealt. Kings of any suit are usually good if you have three or less of the other cards in the suit. Count these as one book. Queens and jacks should be considered as only a possibility for catching a book, depending on the other cards that you have in your hand.

Number Cards

Do not bid on any number cards in your hand. These cards do not catch books frequently enough to be used in a bid.

Bidding Your Spades

The most tricky part of the game of spades is knowing how to bid the spades that you have been dealt. This is crucial to success.

The ace of spades is an automatic book, because nothing else in the deck beats it. If you are fortunate enough to have been dealt a sequence of cards beginning with the ace, count everything in the sequence. For example, if you have the ace, king, and queen of spades you can count this as three guaranteed books.

Spades out of sequence are a little more difficult to bid. You can usually count on the face cards to pull a book, but not always. Any spade below the 10 is a possibility depending on the other cards that you have.

Having No Cards of One Suit

If you have been dealt no cards of one suit, you should be able to bid two books if you have two spades. The reason for this is that you will be able to cut the suit immediately when it is played. This will allow you to kill the ace and king of the suit, or you can throw off a card of another suit if your partner has the suit that you lack.

Putting it All Together With an Example

Let's say that you have been dealt the following hand. We have already arranged the cards by suit:

Ace of Spades
King of Spades
9 of Spades
4 of Spades
No Hearts
Ace of Clubs
10 of Clubs
9 of Clubs
6 of Clubs
2 of Clubs
Ace of Diamonds
7 of Diamonds
2 of Diamonds

This is a moderate spades hand. You can begin your assessment by noting that you have the ace and king of spades. You are guaranteed to catch two books.

Having no hearts will almost always mean that you can use your 9 of spades and 4 of spades to cut hearts as soon as they are played. Count two books here.

You can count the ace of clubs as a maybe because you have five of them. The ace of diamonds should catch you a book.

So:

Two books for the ace and king of spades. Two books for having no hearts. One book for the ace of diamonds and a possibility for the ace of clubs. You should announce to your partner that you have 5 books and one possibility. You and your partner will then need to decide if you will include the possible book in your bid.

This is only one example of how to bid a spades hand. There are many hands that you may receive to start. It is meant to give you an example of the thought process behind making a spades bid.

How to bid your spades hand

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