When bidding in Spades, count your spades first

By Marya · Updated by Holger in September 2026

Your bid doesn't have to be perfectly accurate. Spades is a team game, and your partner can often make up for small errors in your bid. Besides, you can't be perfectly accurate, because you only know where a quarter of the cards are (your own). So you have to make some educated guesses.

But in some cases you know your cards will take tricks. If you have the Ace of Spades, you can count on it to take 1 trick. If you have the Ace and King of Spades, you'll definitely take 2 tricks, whether you want to or not. In the screenshot below, I have the Ace, King, Queen, and Jack of Spades, so I'll definitely take 4 tricks. If I bid less than 4, that's probably a mistake that will give my team bags.

In the picture below, I'm missing the Queen of Spades. I might play my Jack of Spades to take a trick, and someone could beat it with the Queen. When I bid, I need to think about how likely that is.

When you bid, count the cards that you think will win a trick. Sometimes you know a card will win. Most of the time it's not a sure thing, and you have to weigh the risk of counting that card to take a trick.