Nil in Spades: When to Bid It, How to Cover

A nil bid says "I will not win a single trick this hand." Make it and your team scores 100 on top of your partner's contract. Miss it and you lose 100. Those are big numbers in a game where a normal bid of 4 is worth 40, so a good nil can swing a game on its own. The full scoring is in the spades rules; this page is about when to try it and how to pull it off.

What a nil hand looks like

A nil hand is short on danger, not short on high cards. The question isn't "are my cards bad?" but "can anyone force me to win a trick?"

Good signs:

• Few spades, all low. 3♠ 5♠ is fine. 3♠ 5♠ 8♠ 9♠ is not: with four spades, you'll probably have to play one late when the others are gone.
• Low cards in every suit you hold. Having 3♣ 4♣ 6♣ lets you duck under almost anything.
• Voids or short suits in side suits. If you're void in diamonds, every diamond trick is a chance to discard a dangerous card.

Warning signs:

• Any joker or the 2♦. In House Rules these are trump and top trump. The Big Joker wins any trick it touches. The Little Joker and 2♦ lose only to cards above them, and nobody is obliged to play those.
• High spades. A♠, K♠ or Q♠ can be pulled out when you're forced to follow a spade lead.
• Lonely high cards. A bare K♥ or A♦ with no small cards in that suit usually wins a trick when you have to follow.
• Long suits with gaps. A♣ 9♣ 5♣ 3♣ has a low card, but eventually the ace has to be played.

Example: nil or not?

Hand A: 4♠ 3♠ · J♥ 7♥ 4♥ 3♥ · 9♦ 6♦ 3♦ · 8♣ 5♣ 4♣ 3♣

Two tiny spades, low cards in every suit, the J♥ has three smaller hearts to hide behind. This is a good nil. The only real risk is being forced to play the J♥ on a late heart lead, and your partner can cover that.

Hand B: 10♠ 7♠ 5♠ 3♠ · A♥ 6♥ · 9♦ 4♦ 3♦ · 7♣ 6♣ 5♣ 4♣

Four spades and an ace with one small escort. The A♥ will likely win the second heart lead, and the four spades mean you'll probably be left holding one. Bid 1 or 2 instead.

Hand C: Little Joker · 8♥ 6♥ 5♥ 3♥ · 7♦ 5♦ 4♦ · 9♣ 7♣ 6♣ 4♣ 3♣

Beautiful side suits, but the Little Joker loses only to the Big Joker. Unless you can dump it on a trick you're void in and someone else is already winning with the Big Joker, it wins. Don't bid nil.

Nil and your partner's bid

At Spades Night, a nil is scored on its own. Your partner's bid becomes the team contract, and board raises it to 4 if it's lower. So nil plus a partner bid of 2 means your partner has to take 4 books alone. Tricks you take on a failed nil don't help: they count as bags instead.

That means nil works best when your partner has a solid hand. With a partner bid of 5 or more, they have the high cards to cover you and make their own contract. With a weak partner, a nil can fail twice: yours breaks and their contract gets set.

Because our bids are secret and simultaneous by default, you can't see your partner's bid before you choose nil. Judge by your own hand: a strong nil hand stands on its own. On a table with sequential bidding, bid nil more freely after your partner has bid 4 or more.

How to cover your partner's nil

When your partner bids nil, you are now two players: yourself and their bodyguard.

Play high over them. If a heart is led and your partner has to follow, play your highest heart so that whatever they drop goes under it. Winning an extra trick here is cheap; their nil is worth 100.

Lead suits they can duck. Lead a suit you're strong in, from the top. If you lead A♦ and then K♦, your partner can shed their diamonds safely under your winners.

Take their danger tricks with trump. If a suit is led where your partner may be forced high, cut it with a spade even if you normally wouldn't.

Pull trump if they hold spades. If your partner kept a couple of low spades, leading your top trump forces the spades out while your partner plays small under yours.

Don't worry about bags on your side. Extra tricks you take while covering are bags. That's usually a fine price for 100 points.

How to set an opponent's nil

Your goal flips: make the nil bidder win one trick.

Lead low. Lead the 3♣ rather than the A♣. A nil bidder holding K♣ 9♣ has to follow, and if nobody plays higher, they're stuck.

Don't take tricks their partner is trying to give away. If the nil's partner leads a high card, let it win. Their job is protecting the nil; your job is to leave them alone with it.

Watch discards. If the nil bidder throws away a high card, that's a card they were worried about. The remaining cards in that suit are the ones to attack.

Lead spades late. Once spades are broken, a low spade lead can force a nil bidder who kept a middle spade.

Blind nil: the comeback bid

A blind nil is a nil bid made before you look at your cards: 200 points if made, minus 200 if not. At Spades Night it is only offered when your team trails by 100 or more, and the offer disappears the moment you peek at your hand.

When to take it:

• You're behind late in a game to 500 or 300 and need a big swing.
• The gap is too wide for ordinary hands to close in the hands left. A blind nil leans hard on your partner's cover, so it's a last-resort swing, not a habit.

When to pass:

• The deficit is small and the game is long. A normal hand can close 100 points.
• It's early in a quick four-hand match and you're down by about 100: one good hand of your own plus a set on the other team can close that gap without the risk.

Blind nil is a gamble by design. Take it when the math says you need a gamble.

Double nil

When both partners bid nil, there's no team contract and board doesn't apply. Each nil is scored on its own, and any tricks the pair takes become bags. It's a rare, high-variance play: you need two genuine nil hands with nobody to cover either. More on the scoring in double nil.

Quick checklist

Before you bid nil:

1. No jokers, no 2♦, no high spades.
2. Three spades or fewer.
3. A low card in every suit you hold.
4. No bare kings or aces.

If all four are true, go for it. Try it now at a table with bots and see how often a clean nil hand comes around.