We talked a little last month about how to approach a spades game before cards are even dealt. We discussed mindset, card distribution, how the game situation affects your mind set before a particular hand, and other things that pertain to overall strategy. Several ideas were offered and explained, but it was decided that if you are winning consistently, then you have found something that works for you. It is impossible to pinpoint a single overall strategy that works for all. There are different personalities that would cause people to approach the game of spades differently. If you are aggressive, you may want to bid and play aggressively. I have done this and found that I bag more than I should. My record is 37 bags in one full game. I bet my partner remembers that. I have also played conservatively and patiently, but found that I lost a lot of games by a close score at the end.
The truth is, you need to master many playing styles and techniques to help you get the most out of different game situations. I think the key is to develop an �overall� style that you would employ on the first hand. For instance, I have an on-line spader friend, who is very good by the way, that will try to set you on an 11 bid, every time. Yes, you know who you are! It is typically known that you always go for the set on a 12 bid. Why would one decide to always go for the set on an 11 bid? Well, I can tell you that there are several reasons why it could work, the simplest being that you and your partner would always know what to do on an 11 bid. How many times have you mis-communicated your intentions to your partner on an 11 bid? Sometimes you�re forced to play a card in a situation that follows established card talk, when indeed it was a forced play not intending to communicate anything. I know I have had to do this on many occasions. There are many more reasons that I can think of, but this is just an example of different mindsets.
Well, that just leads us right into our discussion this month of bidding. Bidding is simply trying to guess the card distribution. There are some techniques that are more �fact� and less �guess�. In some instances, bidding is thought to be more important than it really is. Actually, most hands can yield different results if played properly. It is a rare situation to have a hand that can only yield one result. You can bid 2, 3, or 4 on the same hand, and by employing a different strategy, exactly make each of these bids. Again, the game situation would determine what the proper bid would be. However, bidding can also be underestimated. Sometimes a wrong bid can mean the difference between winning and losing. I can summarize with 3 words, �Bid to win.�
Knowing how to bid your hand is far less important than knowing how to make your bid. It�s the last hand of the game and you are last bidder. After doing the math you determine you need 37 points to win. But, after looking at your hand you see only a 3 bid, no more. I don�t want to talk too much about the obvious, so I will only say that if you don�t bid 4 in this situation, you may as well not even play.
There is a wide range of different bidding styles. Which one is right? Well, they all are, for a particular situation. Since situation has so much to do with a proper bid let�s start our bidding discussion with how to bid on the opening hand. This will keep it somewhat generic and place less emphasis on bagging versus setting. One quick note on bagging versus setting: I always say it is easier to pull 10 or more tricks than it is to bid 10 or more tricks. If you bid 8 and pull 10 it�s 82 points, not a bad hand. If you bid 10 and pull 8, your score is 180 points less than it would have been if you bid 8. Does that make sense? All that is saying is that your first objective is to make your bid, and then you can worry about setting or bagging. If you have to bag 1 or 2 to be sure you make your bid, it is far better than coming up 1 short.
The safest method: Obviously you always bid the A spades. Don�t bid the King of spades unless you have 2 other spades. If you have 5 or less cards of a suit, you are almost assured of winning a trick with the Ace of that suit. If you have 3 in a suit, you win with the King the majority of the time. Never bid Queens, unless it is the Queen of spades and you have 3 other spades. That�s it. Now, it�s not that simple. If this was the only bidding strategy you used, you would rarely get set, but you would rarely win too.
The loosest approach (only use in the right situation): You can bid the King of Spades with only 1 cover card or even as a singleton a fair amount of the time. You can win a trick with an off suit Ace having 7 cards in that suit with favorable distribution. That leaves 2 cards of that suit for everyone else. You can frequently win a trick with a King and 3 other cards of that suit, and sometimes 4, since it�s only required for everyone to have 2 cards of that suit. You can win a trick with the King of an off suit and only one cover card, but don�t bet the farm on it. You can sometimes win a trick with a Queen of a side suit if you have only 2 cover cards. You can win a trick with the Queen or Jack of spades of you have 2 or 3 other spades. Except for the Ace of spades, any of the other combinations here will get you set too often to use consistently.
One of the biggest blunders made when bidding is automatically factoring in �short suits� into your bid. For instance, �Wow! I don�t have any clubs. I can trump the first trip around the table. I can even get 2 tricks there.� Well, that�s all nice and fine, assuming you have 2 trumps of course. But, what is the danger here? What if your partner has the Ace and King of clubs and bid those tricks? Enough said. Don�t do that. Short suits have their purpose, mainly for bagging your opponents, and a short suit can make a nil possible that otherwise would not be. Short suits don�t pull tricks, spades do.
One of the toughest bids you can have to make accurately is the long spades suit. This is another example of where playing technique is more important than bidding accuracy. The key here is the same as with any other bid, do not over bid unless you have to. A fast and simple technique I use sometimes, when bagging or score is not an issue, is to bid 1 trick for every spade over 3 that you have. In other words, if I have the 2,3,4,5,6,7,8 of spades (that makes 7) I would bid 4. 7-3=4. Here there are 6 spades left for the other 3 players. You might get 5 automatically if the distribution is even among the other players, and the hand goes just right. If bags weren�t an issue a 3 bid would be safest. It is possible that someone has 4 spades in this situation.
One last bidding example I want to discuss is the dreaded 1 bid. I hate having to bid 1 as much as the next person. But, look at it with the perspective of saving a set nil. If you and your partner make your bid, your bid alone was worth 110 points. If you ended up not pulling your 1 bid and your partner could not help, then the chances are you will not go set 100 points, the price of a set nil. Bidding nil is strictly determined by game situation. Even if you think you have a �perfect� nil hand, the odds are that there is a weak point somewhere, and good opponents will find it. If you are ahead, you should take fewer risks. I enjoy a good risk too, but I have learned that one bad risk can cost you the entire game. The team that bids and makes the most nils will probably end up winning. But, the opposite is true also, it is very hard to come back from a set nil. One quick note about taking risks: if you bid before your partner you should be extra careful when taking risks. You may bid nil and your partner may have a better nil hand than you. If you bid after your partner, his bid can give you a better gage to measure the possibilities of overcoming risks.
When bidding, just remember that going set is the worst thing that can happen to you in a game of spades. Pay attention, and never, under any circumstance, enter your bid until you�ve seen the results of all the bids before you. Know your playing style, your partner�s abilities, the game situation (score, bags, etc.), and make a bid that will give you the greatest advantage while minimizing the risk of going set. |
