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Joe Andrews Articles - 2004 Column of the Month Archive

Joe Andrews, Spades expert and author of the books The Complete Win At Spades and The Complete Win At Hearts, writes regular articles on Spades, providing strategies, tips, advice, and more.

December 2004
The Holiday Challenge is over, and it was challenging indeed!  Find out who won, read Joe’s analysis of each hand, and see how your own solutions stacked up!

November 2004
Joe issues his annual Holiday Challenge. Take a peek and submit your bid on a Baker's Dozen of delightful hands. You could win some great prizes!

October 2004
Learn from the champions' moves and mistakes! Joe breaks down hands from a past Spades Championship and gives post-mortem tips on the recent Grand Prix World Series of Spades.

September 2004
Joe discusses the goals of The Spades Connection group, and then demonstrates a hand from a '99 tournament in which the players attempted to support or thwart a Nil bid.

August 2004
Joe explains some of the finer points on conventions and carding signals for bids and a player opinion from an online Spades forum. He then expands on how to defeat a Nil bid.

July 2004
Joe wraps up his beginner’s series on covering Nil bids, and then shares a short essay from community member David Huang on the pros and cons of the Double Nil option.

June 2004
First, Joe covers the Nil bid (get it?). He then supplies an answer to last month’s quiz.

May 2004
First, Joe hands the column over to John Strichman, who discusses how to lead when you’re in the backseat position and each team has a Nil bid. Then Joe presents a quiz that was suggested to him by Bridge player and card historian George Coffin.

April 2004
This month, Joe rolls out part four of the Beginner’s Korner, where he ponders the strategic, if not the moral and ethical dimensions, of larceny. Should you, or should you not, steal your partner’s winning tricks?

March 2004
Joe continues his Beginner’s Korner feature with an article on a common and irritating newbie mistake: a partner prematurely trumping in second seat.

February 2004
This month, Joe offers a Beginner’s Korner on the Nil bid, and then hands the reins to John Galt Strichman for a tip about covering the lead of the Queen with the King.

January 2004
Joe kicks off the New Year with a newbie-friendly Top 10 (“plus two bonus items”) list of beginner mistakes. Make it your resolution to avoid them. Then he shares a guest contribution for our more experienced audience -- master player Jay Tomlinson examines a to-bag-or-to-set dilemma with “The Pitts Coup.”