If you bid Blind NIL, the rules are the same as if you bid NIL, except it is a 200- point bonus if you succeed, and a 200-point penalty if you fail. However they do count as a bag towards the team's bag count. If you bid NIL, you will get a 100 point bonus if you succeed in taking zero tricks,īut will incur a 100 point penalty if you fail by taking at least one trick.Īny tricks taken by a NIL bidder do not count towards the number of tricks taken to fulfill the contract made by the partner,Īnd are also not awarded points as unbid tricks. If your team fails to win as many tricks as the team bid, you lose 10 times the value of the bid. This rule is to discourage players from underbidding. If your team makes its bid, then the team gets 10 times the value of the team's bid.Įxtra tricks taken over and above what you bid are called 'bags' (or 'sandbags') and give you one extra point,īut each time your team accumulates 10 such bags you incur a 100 point penalty. In deciding on your bid, it's important to understand the consequences of overbidding and underbidding. In those cases, your team still has a contract (0 + partner's bid), but the one bidding NIL or Blind NIL is the one who must not take any tricks. The exception to this is for NIL or Blind NIL bids. The number of tricks for both players on a team are added together to satisfy the team contract. It doesn't matter which of you actually wins the tricks. Your bid and your partner's bid are added together to reach the 'contract' for your team. Before looking at your cards, you can bid 'Blind NIL' (also called 'Double Nil'), You can't pass! When it's your turn, you have to bid at least one trick or bid NIL (zero tricks).

When it is your turn, you will bid how many you think you can win. The player to the left of the dealer bids first. There is only one round of bidding for each hand. The first team to score 500 points is the winner, or the first team to score a -200 points is the loser, whichever comes first.Īfter looking at your cards, estimate how many tricks you think you can win.Ī trick is one round of cards played one at a time from each player - so there will be a total of 13 tricks in each game. To win points for taking the number of tricks that you and your partner bid. The deal rotates clockwise around the table.Ī standard deck of 52 cards is used (aces high), and each player is dealt 13 cards. Players sitting opposite each other play as a team. To play Spades you need four players (people or bots).

Going nil in spades