Page 2 - [Spades] Nils and team contract

I thought I explained it already Well, here it goes again:

If you play nil and fail, you get 1 bag for each trick you take, but no points. Your partner must make his bid on his own. Take a look at the above examples again.

Again, (points+1000)%10 is NOT necessarily the number of bags.

sorry, I just never saw it scored that way. I see you updated the URL's to include the score on the first hand. Thanks.

B

Your definition of how you score the nils/bags is clear. BUT it is not how it is done in spades. I have played spades for many years, and the bid is still a team contract. In actual scoring partner bids 5 - takes 4, you bid nil take 1, -100 for busted nil, +50 points for made contract, and 0 bags.

The reason behind this scoring is that if the nil is busted, the team can go for a set without a huge penalty for bags (ie a team bid). You have taken this strategy out of the game, I am glad I read this post because I now have to rewrite game strategy.

PS - I have played in real life tournaments, and I can guarantee it is not scored in the manner you define.

Well, it's an academic question at this point. I think it's fair the way it is - nil is a lot of points...