A game where I replaced an empty seat at the point the recording started. The options were set to board 3 bid, Nil bids have no overbooks and Blind Nil is set to 200 score deficit. Two points to learn:
* Broken suits with low, medium and high cards do usually become handy in breaking opponent Nil while saving your partner's: being said it's a sacrifice, chances are it might backfire on you, use it only when you are desperate. This strategy gives best results if you are sitting immediately after the two Nil bids.
* Nils do give a lot of points than bidding the number of tricks in your hand. Even though, there is no point in taking risky Nil bids when you are well ahead as good opponents are always keeping an eye in what you are doing. In this recording, if my LHO bid a number, they take the control of the hand and could have a winning scorecard without much risk since I had to take care of my partner's Nil (bagging out is the worst possible scenario and it only will cost something like 30-50 points and they are out of bags). The set Nil cause them to have the lower hand of the game and also sitting with 9 bags which compelled the other player to take another Nil.
The overall lesson: enjoying spades is not all about your skills. It is also equally about maneuvering your opponent's weaknesses to your advantage. Good luck!
Play Spades and other free games at Pogo Games (www.pogo.com).