Spades Scoring, Bags, and Nil

Made and missed contracts

If you bid 4 and take at least 4 tricks, you earn 40 points. If you take more, each extra trick earns one point and becomes a bag. For example, bidding 4 and taking 6 scores 42 points and adds two bags.

If you bid 4 and take only 3 tricks, you lose 40 points. The penalty is ten points for every trick you bid, so a higher bid has more upside and more risk.

Why bags matter

A bag is an overtrick: a trick above the number you bid. Bags are useful in the moment because they add a point, but they accumulate across hands. When your running total reaches 10 bags, you lose 100 points and ten bags are removed.

That makes a bid of 3 with five likely winners different from a clean three-trick hand. You may want to bid higher to turn likely extra tricks into contract points instead of bags.

Nil bids

A bid of zero is nil. Take no tricks and you earn 100 points. Take even one trick and you lose 100 points. The tricks you take after a failed nil count as bags, so a broken nil can hurt both your score and your bag total.

Nil is strongest when your hand has few high cards, short suits that you can discard safely, and no unavoidable winner. It is much less safe when you hold high spades or an ace in a short suit.

Reaching 500

After a hand is scored, the game checks the table. The first player who is uniquely highest at 500 or more wins. If two players are tied for the high score, the table deals another hand.

Because every player scores independently, watch the whole score rail. A safe bid can be the right choice when an opponent needs only a small score to reach 500, while a trailing player may need a stronger bid to catch up.

• Made bid: 10 points for each bid trick, plus 1 point for each overtrick.
• Missed bid: minus 10 points for each bid trick.
• Every 10 bags: minus 100 points.
• Nil: plus 100 if made; minus 100 if broken.