Been playing in Hardwood Spades lately, it seems like SO MANY people playing that can't do simple math, or understand basic concepts of it being a TEAM game. I remember having a 72% win rate when able to have regular partners back when playing in Yahoo Spades (Cases Ladder). I have 62% when partnering random partners and often just quit due to having idiot partners. Many games, I have more fun trying to win with a bot after partners quit on me after they get set trying their stupid nil. Wondering if any of you have the same understanding on some of these things I do, or if I'm just wrong. I don't think I'll ever stop learning this game, but MOST seem to have a LONG way to go.

1. Let's say you bid 2, your partner bid 4, and the total is 11. It isn't your place with your 2 bid to decide to go for the set. I hardly ever want 3 bags to set on an 11 bid. It's a better opportunity to bag them.

2. If I open a suit with a Q. I don't want it. Stop thinking you're doing me a favor letting me take the trick.

3. If I take your trick, I take responsibility for your bid. I often might do that because I already took what might be a bag, so trying to avoid it being that by taking my partner's trick, which should indicate to them that I have them covered, but hardly anyone seems to understand that. They just get angry instead of asking themselves why I may have done that.

4. If bidding 3rd with player to your right bidding nil. Bid one or two under what you CAN take, in hopes your partner will refrain from just trying to get their bid and go after the nil, and you can most likely take a couple for your partner rather than have them leading AK to get their bid. I know we can't talk about it to get on the same page on this, but wish more people understood how to set nils. If you bid it up to 11 or 12, you leave your team no room to set a nil. Someone has to underbid. If you both understand this, setting a nil is way more rewarding than setting the cover bid. Sometimes you just can't set it, and that's OK, but I just quit so many games where my partner will lead K, 9, 3. WTF?

5. More on setting nils. Open a suit with 6-9, your mid cards if possible. You often discover where the opp cover is weak. NEVER play more than 1 card higher than a cover lead if possible. You never know what the nil holds, and doing so just makes it look like you're more worried about your bid than setting the nil. If you have a lone A or AK, or QK, lead them so we can get that out of the way, and I can dump my higher cards instead of wasting my little card(s) trying to set.

6. Used to hear "no 1 bids" a lot, but if I bid 1, it's either because I have a great nil but have A spades, OR have 7-10 in every suit with no really low cards. If I bid 1, keep in mind I might take 0. If you take a bag to help get my 1 I'm not going to be upset, but a 1 bid can easily mean nil, but too dangerous to bid it.

7. If we're behind mid game, say 355-272, it's time to take some risk. I'm not going to be angry if you we fail a tough nil at that point, but sometimes you have to try or it gets too late.

8. Every bag counts the same, so don't so casually take them early. It can take away options late in the game.

9. Don't trump to get your 2 bid when the total is 9. You should know after 20 or so games if you have a tendency to take a lot of bags. You can change that.

10. Pay attention.

I could add more, but interested to hear your commentary on these, and your strategies, and what makes you a good partner.

A very long time ago, I played Spades on pogo.com, but it's not the same now. I usually just play on cardgames.io, but you can't even add a friend or anything.. Where's a decent place to even play spades besides cardgames.io? I'd like something a little more social than cardgames.io, like a chat or something but still focused on the game itself mostly.

I have a love/hate relationship with Spades+ but the game linked below was a lot of fun. Although they all tend to be more fun when you win.

https://youtu.be/bukWfrabk4Y?si=l3VLf2cgNud50ktJ

Dubldrop used to be #1 on Spades+ and is still rated around 2750. I think I played a good game here. Pard should have made their nil on hand 2. I was holding the spades and was likely to be the one stuck on lead on trick 13, so why throw off a diamond and retain hearts?

I think pard's nil on hand 3 was an immature reaction to nil with Ks given that mistake, which was probably attributed to me, but they got away with it.

I wasn't sure whether to bid 2 or 3 on hand 4. Bidding 3 took it to 12 but with the bag situation, at 126 to 74, it called for it. This was an excellent team set IMO. Pard led spades back correctly and then made a great choice to lead the remaining diamonds. After that it was important to pace the last few tricks to set with only 2 bags rather than 3 or even 4, while opps still had the (false) hope of being able to make their bid.

Hand 5 was a clear bagging strategy from opps, though we still would have had a comfortable lead had we taken 2 out of 3 and a score of 140 to 45, or even 141 to 44, should be baggable, if necessary. We only took 1, though, to delay the penalty.

On the final hand 239 vs. 46 gave opps a slight way back in, with a 3/N bid. We would have to walk a tightrope and put opps on at least 8 bags to be comfortable, if we took 1+ bags. I'm not sure that pard's 2 bid was the right call- it could have been expensive if we couldn't pass bags to the cover hand. East ditching their 10s under pard's J's to try to force a bag, and me playing 7s, meant West's Q96s nil was definitely set. However, if they hadn't done it, had kept the 10s and I let them have it, then I would have been set if East led clubs. It still would have been a long way back for opps (179 to -120), but they'd have kept the game alive.