Wills Tips and Tricks to Spades Here are some tips and tricks on Spades that i go by. Most of yall that are reading this are like "Duh... I know this" , but some people are new to spades and I would like to share some simple rules that I go by when playing spades.
1. NEVER go nil with 4 spades.*** The only time that I go nil with 4 spades is if my team is down by ALOT of point and my partner bids 5 or more.***The reason for this logic is that it is really easy to get set in spades. If you have 4 spades, the other 3 players have 9 combined. If the other team is dumping spades, it is really easy to get stuck as the only person with spades.
2. NEVER count your queens. Most people thats commons sense, but for people new to spades they might not know this. The logic behind this is queens do not usually fly. Someone is out of the suit by the time the queen is played.....it might be your partner but do you want to risk it?
3. Count Kings as maybes if you have like 5 of that suit. More than likely someone is out and with my luck it usually isn't my partner.
4. On ten bids dump high and trump high!!! try to avoid bags as much as possible. Any way you look at it 4 bags is not worth a set. Usually I start with queen of a suit and work my way down. Another key to avoiding bags is if you are the last person to throw and your partner has a trick with like a 7 of clubs, trump it really high.
5. Try to keep one trick in reserve. If you look at your hand and you see 4 maybe 5 tricks, bid 4. You never know what your partner is counting. This way you cover your butt and if your partner runs into any trouble, you can cover theirs. You might get a few more bags that way but I think its worth it to get a bag than to be set.

Now these are only some hints and tips. I am not a spades god, but with these pointers should help you win a few more games. I go by these rules and I have won my fair share ; )