Saturday, August 13, 2022

Questionable Cover for a Nil Bid in a Hand of Spades

NOTICE: This post was originally posted on Medium, but has later been moved to the official World Of Card Games blog to consolidate all posts.

Here’s an interesting hand of Spades that was sent to me by a player recently (click this link to view a “replay” of the hand or watch the YouTube video by clicking that video link above).

The player, North, at the bottom of the screen, bid nil. I think it was a pretty good nil, with lots of low cards, and only two low spades.

Their weak suit was hearts: 3, 9, 10, J, and Ace. If an opponent tried to set them with a low hearts card, North could duck once. But if another low hearts card was led, they might have some trouble. It all depends on the distribution of cards… does their teammate, South, have too many low hearts?

Turns out that South has the 7, Queen, and King of hearts. It seems like that could work if played correctly. But if you check what happened using the replayer, or viewing the YouTube video, you’ll see something a little strange.

The second trick was led by the right hand opponent with a low card, the 8 of hearts. North ducked by playing the 3 of hearts, their only card that was lower than the 8. This left them with a handful of pretty dangerous cards: 9, 10, J and ace.

At this point, the nil bidder had safely ducked, and the nil would not be set. South did not have to take this trick. Rather, it was an opportunity for South to discard their low hearts card, the 7. In fact, South did something a bit dangerous, in my view. They took the trick with the queen. This left only two hearts in their hand, the king and 7. They could cover one more hearts trick using the king. Once they did that, they’d be stuck with the lone 7 of hearts. If the opponents led another hearts trick after that, North would most likely be set. So it is a mystery to me why South decided to take this trick instead of using the opportunity to discard their low card.

The person who emailed me was surprised and disturbed when viewing the replayer, too. If you view the entire video, you’ll find out just how the hand played out.

I feel that even slightly risky nils are usually worth the risk in Spades. Sometimes, though, your teammate will make a mistake, and your risk becomes higher than expected! In this case, perhaps South got distracted or misclicked a card.

What do you think? Can you think of a legitimate reason for playing the cards like this? Leave a comment here, if so!