Spades Tips and Strategies

Spades Column of the Month - May 2003

By Joe Andrews, author of The Complete Win At Spades; copyright, 2001 by The U.S. Playing Card Company and Bonus Books, Inc.

The Play of the Hand: Discussion and Quiz
Previous columns have emphasized the importance of accurate bidding and defensive technique. An important part of any Spades player's arsenal is the ability to assess the hand after the bidding is over, and to proceed with a logical plan. Three factors that dictate the course of action for each hand are:

Let's look at four interesting hands:

Hand A:
You are sitting in the South seat and pick up this collection:

A K
A 10 5 3 2
K Q
10 6 5 2

The score, in a close game, is: East/West (the opponents): 449, and North/South (your side): 424. The bidding proceeds as follows:

West
2

North
1

East
4

South (you)
4

With a routine eleven bid on the table, you immediately note that E/W are threatening to win the game if they make their bid on the nose! However, there are two bags to disperse. Maybe your team can drop a bag on the opponents!

West opens with the deuce of diamonds, as partner plays the seven, and East inserts the Ace. He returns a diamond, and your King wins. You exit with the six of clubs, and West pops up with the Ace, and leads a third round of diamonds with the five. Partner, who was dealt the J, 10, 9 of diamonds, is winning this trick with his nine spot, as East drops the six. You are now void in diamonds. What is your best line of play, and why?

Hand B:
Once again, you are South. (FYI, it is much easier to lay out these columns in this fashion!) You gather up this collection:

A K J
K Q 10
6 4 3 2
K 6 2

It is another close game, and the score is N/S: 441 and E/W: 445. The bidding proceeds as follows:

West
3

North
2

East
3

South (you)
5

It does not require a degree in applied mathematics to realize that you must bid five in last position in order to try and win the game. Your hand certainly has the values, barring absolutely horrible placement of high cards.

West opens with the King of diamonds, with all following, low. Next comes the Ace of dimes, which also "walks". Finally, West tries the Queen of dimes, and partner trumps with the EIGHT of spades, as East drops the diamond Jack. Partner now leads the Jack of clubs. East hesitates for a few seconds, and plays a low club. What is your best line of play and why?

Hand C:
Here is the third hand. Yes, you are South. Your deal:

It is a new game, first hand. The bidding is as follows:

West
3

North
2

East
2

South (you)
6

Normally, a bid by the last seat player that pushes the total to thirteen is very risky. Here, you have the "Classic" 5-5 power hand: five good trump, and a powerful five card side suit. The lack of a void is immaterial. West takes the A-K of clubs, with everyone following. Now he tries the King of hearts (from K-Q). When partner plays low, and East signals with Jack, it is obvious that the heart suit strength is divided between East and West. West plows on with the Queen of hearts, as partner plays the seven, and East drops the three. What is your next move, and game plan?

Hand D:
We wrap it up for the month with the last hand. As usual, you are South. You gather up this group of cards:

Q J 9 8
A K 3 2
10 9 7 4 3
VOID

Bids of 4, 1, and 5 roll around to South, who decides to bid 3 in last position. (I rarely endorse pushing the bid to 13, as bad "breaks" can occur. The only exception to this general philosophy is a scoring scenario forcing a higher bid).

According to the explanation, North and South are held to ZERO tricks, as BOTH are set! How could this happen?

More than one hundred entries were received, and less than one third (31% to be exact) of the participants solved both puzzles correctly. The theme for both hands is the "crossruff." As in Bridge and Whist, side or plain suits winners tend to evaporate when voids come into play. When constructing the E/W hands, all that is required for each side is to be void in the opposite red suit. Once this pattern is established, any one of thousands of possible layouts will work. The other essential piece is that the North player must never hold more than one trump, and obviously not the Ace. (In puzzle #2, the low trump must not be the Queen, as well.) Finally, the spade suit must be reasonably balanced between East and West (5 - 5 or 6 - 5 works best). Here is a neat solution from "dwood":

The Wonder of Nil
Assume the following hands for East, West and North. Other hands are possible, but these will work.

North:

6
A Q J 8 7
A 10 8 6
J 9 7

West:

East:

K Q 10 9 5
K 10 9 6
none
K Q 10 8

A J 8 7 4
none
K Q J 9 7
A 6 5

West starts by leading the King of clubs, winning. He then leads a heart, which East ruffs. East returns a diamond, which West ruffs. The next six tricks are a series of cross ruffs by East and West in hearts and diamonds. After the first 9 tricks, everyone has one spade left except South, who has two trump. West then leads the Queen of clubs, winning. Finally he leads the 8 of clubs and East wins with the Ace. East then plays the Ace of spades, felling North's only spade and removing West's last spade. The last trick goes to South who has the only spade remaining. North is set because the team only got the last trick and neither of his red aces survived.

Great Balls of Fire
Can South be held to NO tricks with this collection? Remember he is trying to make his bid with best play.

North:

none
J 10 9 8 4 2
J 10 7 3
Q 10 9

West: Bid 7

East: Bid 0

A Q 9 4 2
7 5 3
none
J 5 4 3 2

10 8 7 6 5 3
none
9 8 5 4 2
A K

South:

K J
A K Q 6
A K Q 6
8 7 6

West starts with a low club, as North tries the nine spot. East then takes the Ace and King of clubs, and then exits with a diamond. West ruffs, and returns a heart for East to ruff. East plays a low spade, and finesses the Queen if South plays low, or takes the King if South rises. Now West plays a low club, and North's Queen is ruffed by East. Another spade is played and West wins, finally removing the two trump honors from South's hand. He then cashes the two good clubs in his hand. East tosses diamonds (North and South discards are immaterial). The rest of the hand is red suit crossruff, ending with East winning the last trump.

I especially liked this solution, rather than the prosaic club finesse on trick one (many suggested that East hold A-K-J of clubs, and that North be "hooked" early in the hand). However, the club finesse line works as well. Mr. Wood's approach is just a bit more elegant.

Finally, for those who thought these were just too "easy" - be on the lookout for some "brainbusters" in future columns! LOL

Quarterly feature article by John Galt
John Galt is the author of How Not to Lose at Spades (Valley Publishing - Boulder Colorado). He has contributed many fine strategy pieces in the past. Here's his latest:

See if you can come up with the best play on this hand in this closely contested game.

West starts trick 1 by leading the Ace of hearts. After your partner and East play the 8 and 5 of hearts, what card should you play?

Score:
Your team (N/S): 436 (6 bags)
Opponents (E/W): 397 (7 bags)

The hand layout and bidding:

North: (1)

?
?
?
?

West: (5)

East: (4)

?
?
?
?

South: (1)

6 2
K 9 3
8 6 5 3
J 7 4 3

If you do not dump your King of hearts under the Ace, you are making a potentially fatal mistake.

If you automatically try to make your bid when getting set would provide your team with a better chance of winning the game, you are playing more by habit than by design. You are failing to take advantage of winning opportunities, and your team is losing more Spades games than it should.

If both teams make their bids on this hand, the score will be: your team: 456 vs. opponents: 487, with two bags to be distributed on this hand.

If the opponents do not get bagged, and soon, they will most likely win the game. They know this, and will be trying to give your team the bags on the hand as much as you will be trying to give the bags to them. Your team's biggest risk is that the opps will not get into serious bag trouble on this hand and go on to win the game on the next hand. Since your team has made the lowest bid possible on this hand (2 tricks), this is a situation in which intentionally setting your own bid would cause your team only minimal damage, while causing critical damage to the other team.

Specifically, if your team can manage to win only one trick on this hand, the score will be: your team: 416, vs. opponents: 390. Not only would this be a fantastic outcome, given the alternative of the opponents being close to 500 with a good chance of winning the game on the next hand, but it would also position your team as the most likely winner of the game.

Further, even though trying to avoid taking tricks, it is still possible that your team will make its bid on the nose. If that did happen, the opponents would wind up with 489 points to your 456, and still be in prime position for getting bagged on the next hand.

This strategy of attempting to sacrifice the team bid for the greater good is frequently overlooked and would never be considered by many players. These are players who have not learned that proper risk/reward management is the key to not losing at Spades. Consequently, they tend to focus on the short term, less critical requirements for winning the current hand, rather than the long term, most critical requirements for winning the game.

Players who have learned this key to the game understand this: when the game score and bid pattern make bagging the opponents more important than making your team's bid, you must say farewell to your bid, and attempt to set yourself now so you can win the game later.

Best of luck and happy Spading!

(Thanks, Jack!)