There's also a penalty for bidding nil and getting 1 or more tricks. Why would anyone do that though? Well, there's a huge bonus if you can bid nil and succeed. This is basically a player trying NOT to win any tricks. Billy and Sarah's goal is to win at least 5 tricks based on their bids (4+1), Terrance and Beyonce will attempt to win at least 7 (4+3).Īs mentioned previously, a bid of zero is also called a nil bid. A bid of zero or 'nil' is another strategy we'll talk about shortly. But be smart and remember that it's very difficult to get all or even half of the tricks. Bidding then continues clockwise around the table. The first player to bid is the person to the left of the dealer. This is the number of tricks that team has to win in order to get a positive score. The teams then add together the total number of bids. Before each round of Spades begins, each player will bid (or guess) how many tricks they will take. Biddingīidding is simply guessing how many 'tricks' you can take. The dealer will deal out all of the cards so each player will end up with 13 to start. The goal is to accumulate points, and the first to 500 points wins. You are on the same team as the person across from you and the same goes for the other two. In a typical game, there are four players and two team.