Protecting Your Partner in Spades

Spades is an entertaining card game that is played in teams of two. Even though the game can be played among two people, playing with a partner is more common. Protecting your partner in Spades is crucial to a winning strategy. You must learn how to recognize when your partner is strong, when they are weak, and when you need to provide support.

Here is a brief guide to playing with a Spades partner. It does not seek to cover every different scenario, because the team dynamic varies for all players. Some teams are more aggressive, while others play tight. You can adjust the following suggestions to your own style of play.

How to Know the Strength of Your Partner's Hand in Spades

It can be very beneficial if you know what type of hand your spades partner is holding. Is your partner weak or strong? The problem is that the two of you are allowed to communicate strength or weakness in just one regard – the bid.

Generally, you are not allowed to discuss your spades hand beyond telling your partner how many books you think you can catch. Some games are more liberal with this rule and allow for a minimal discussion of possibles and what-ifs. Go beyond this and you will be breaking the rules.

As a rule of thumb there are some tells you can apply. A tell is non-verbal communication by a player at the card table. Here are some of the most common:

• When a player has difficulty assigning a bid to a hand, the player is weak
• When a player bids a high number quickly, the player is strong
• When a player asks their partner to bid first, the player has a hand that can be strong with help

These are just a few examples. There can be hundreds of tells, even thousands. There can be just as many tells as there are people who play the game. Tells are an invaluable source of information, and you can also use them when trying to determine the strength of your opponents. At the end of the day you will need to learn how to interpret your partner's tells and use them.

There is nothing in the rules of spades that prohibits a tell. You can even discuss tells with your partner outside of the game. The two of you may even be able to work together on the development of tells.

Playing Spades With a Strong Partner

Let's assume then that you have made a determination about the strength of your partner's hand. You judge that your partner is strong and has a hand that can catch four or five books. What role should you play in protecting your partner in spades? In this case, your response is simple.

You help a strong player by staying out of their way, watching the board as the cards fall, and feeding the partner opportunities to make plays and take books. For example, in the beginning stages of the spades game you will probably want your strong partner to be in the lead. Look at the board to try and determine which high cards your partner is holding. When you have the chance, lead with the suits that you think your partner can either trump or capture.

This is a good time to briefly address dealing with your own hand if your partner is very strong. You may have made a bid of three books to start, and you soon see that you are unable to catch two of those in the traditional way. If you are able to throw cards that your partner can catch, this is the same thing as pulling them yourself. A book is a book, no matter how you catch it. The point here is that you can come through with your bid even when your partner is doing all the heavy lifting.

You don't want to walk over your strong partner. This means trumping a book that they have taken or will be able to take. The only way to prevent cutting your own partner is to be observant as the cards are played. You have to watch and remember what has been played in order to stay out of the way.

Finally, you need to recognize the suits that your partner lacks early in the round of spades. When you know what your partner does not have, you can play those suits when you lead. You will either catch the book, or your partner will trump the book and take it. Some books can be taken with very low cards this way. Pay attention!

Playing Spades With a Weak Partner

Now, let's look at the opposite side of the equation. What if your partner has indicated that they have a weak starting hand? The best case scenario is that you will have a good hand to offset your partner's poor one. In any case, you will need to step up and catch as many books as possible while keeping the other team away from problem suits.

With a weak spades partner you will want to lead as often as possible. Putting your partner in the lead when they have a weak hand can lead to your opponents catching books. If your partner has applied the same principles that we spoke of in the previous section, they will be attempting to feed you the suits that you can catch or trump.

When Your Spades Partner is In Trouble

There will also be times in a spades game when you will find it necessary to protect a spades partner that is in trouble. This usually happens when the opposite team has your partner in a crossfire of sorts where he or she cannot catch books or trump in to perhaps give you the lead. It can be very frustrating to watch book after book go by as your partner is being hammered.

When you sense that an opposing team is going to try to exploit the weakness of your partner's hand, you need to be a force in every play if possible. This means that you need to be disruptive to the play of the other team. Look for opportunities to play a spade, or try to play cards that will force the other team yo use a spade when they did not expect to do so.

Securing the Lead to Help Your Partner

As a final suggestion, you should be able to recognize when your strong spades partner is out of bullets. When this happens you will need to try and secure the lead. Sometimes all your partner needs is a few good leads to place them back in a position of spades power. They can then resume the dominance that comes from having a strong spades hand.

You will likely be able to secure the lead because your partner knows which cards you need them to play. This can happen if both players on a team have been watching the board and playing with intelligent responses.

Learn how to protect your partner in spades and you will be well on your way to winning the game on a regular basis. Hope you found this visit to Spades for money!