In the late stages of a game, bidding strategy becomes even more important than it usually is. When your opponents are threatening to win the game with their bids and you're in fourth seat, it's imperative that you bid accurately and get all the points that your team has coming, as they could be the difference between winning and losing. If your opponents' bids will take their total to 500 (assuming they make it), your correct bid will often not resemble what you really have. You must take these two things into consideration: 1. Point difference--Can you catch them with a high enough bid? Will a Nil be enough? 2. Bag count--Do they have enough that bagging them out is a possibility? First, point difference: If you can bid enough to give your side a higher total than theirs (don't forget 1 point for each bag!), you should do so. This goes for a Nil bid as well, though you should only bid a low-percentage Nil if a numerical bid won't be enough. This way, you need only make your bid to win. Then consider bag count: If you can bid low enough to bag them out and don't have many middle cards that will take bags, you might want to give this a try. Finally, if neither outscoring them nor bagging them out is an option, then your bid should bring the total number of tricks bid up to 14, regardless of your actual hand! Yes, this means that one team must go set, but if they make their bid, they're going to win anyway, so why not bid all the tricks it will take to set them? You might as well get 10 points for each one instead of taking bags. Bid smart, and good luck! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ As you can see, this article touches on several points of bidding. If there is an interest in this kind of article, I would be willing to split it into several articles of appropriate size that could be run in series. Thanks for your time and consideration. Chris

2008-05-19  -  Beginner Bidding Part 1 – Hand Evaluation

2008-04-17  -  Bidding in late stages of Spades

2008-04-17  -  Tips for Partnership Spades

2007-08-20  -  Change of Rules at Spadester.com

2007-07-31  -  Spades getting more popular

2007-07-20  -  Grand Prix World Series of Spades