What is Nil in Spades?
Nil is the signature bid of Spades. It turns a weak-looking hand into a chance for a huge swing, but one wrong trick can sink the whole thing.
How a Nil works
When you bid Nil, your goal for the hand flips upside down: instead of winning tricks, you want to lose every single one. Your partner still bids normally and plays to make their own tricks while also trying to shield you. A successful Nil is worth 100 points, and a failed one costs 100, all handled separately from your partner's contract.
What makes a good Nil hand
The ideal Nil hand is full of low cards and short on high ones, especially in spades. Small spades are dangerous because you may be forced to play one when spades are led and get stuck winning a trick. Long low suits are your friend, since you can safely under-play them and dump high cards from other suits when you get the chance.
Playing and defending a Nil
The key skill is ducking: playing just under the current high card so you never win. Your partner covers by winning tricks over you and leading suits where you are safe. Opponents, meanwhile, will try to trap you into a trick you cannot avoid. For an even bigger gamble, look at Blind Nil, and see how variants like Suicide Spades require a Nil every hand. Test your ducking at Partnership Spades.
The fastest way to make this stick is to deal a hand and try it.
Keep reading - related questions
What is Blind Nil in Spades?
Blind Nil is a bolder cousin of the ordinary Nil: you commit to winning zero tricks before you have seen any of your cards. Because you bid blind, the payoff doubles to 200 points for success and minus 200 for failure. It is usually reserved for teams that are far behind and need a dramatic swing to get back in the game.
How do you bid in Spades?
To bid in Spades you look at your 13 cards and estimate how many tricks you can win, then announce that number. Count your near-certain winners first: high spades, aces, and protected kings. Your bid is added to your partner's to set the team's contract, and you can also choose to bid Nil, a promise to win zero tricks.
What is Suicide Spades?
Suicide Spades is a partnership variant with a brutal twist: on every hand, exactly one member of each team must bid Nil. The other partner then bids normally, usually a large number, to carry the side's tricks. This forces constant high-wire play, since a made Nil is a huge boost and a failed one is a heavy loss, every single deal.