u/Realistic_Ad_3125

A guy reached out to me a few weeks back. He and his friends wanted to know if I could add a couple of their house rules to Spadesinator. These are rules they've been playing with for the last 20 years. So I built them in and it turns out, imo, they're a lot of fun and strategically interesting. I discussed these with u/SpadesQuiz over chat a few days ago but I'm curious whether any of you had run into these before, because I'd never heard of either one and I think they deserve more eyeballs.

Boosted 1

• Every bid of 1 becomes a solo contract. While the rule is on, there's no such thing as an ordinary 1 bid.
• You need exactly one trick. Take 1: +50. Take 0: -50. Take 2 or more: 0 points, and every extra is a bag.
• Overtricks do not help your partner make their bid.

Solo Blind

• Called before you look at your hand. Any number from 1 to 13. (No zero, since a blind zero is just Blind Nil.)
• Hit it exactly: +70. Come up short: -70. Go over: 0 points, and the extras become bags.
• It's an individual bid, not a team one. You don't have to be behind to call it, and your partner bids their own hand as normal. Their tricks don't help you and yours don't help them.

I've been play-tested both and they're genuinely fun, enjoy.

In Spadesinator, Blind 6 is an optional special bid that works as a team bid: you commit to it before seeing your cards, your partner rides on the same bid, and making it scores 120 points (6 × (10 × 2)). That's how I've always played it. My question is whether other people play Blind 6 as an individual bid instead, where you declare Blind 6 for yourself and your partner still makes their own separate bid. I'm wondering how common that is if so.

Related question: do some of you play "Blind X," where you can go blind for any amount up to 13 (for example, Blind 8) rather than being capped at 6?

In a game where Nil is allowed, a Nil bid is 0, you're committing to take no tricks, and your partner bids the minimum (or whatever they think they can make) to cover. My questions are about games without the Nil rule:

1. If Nil isn't in play, can you still bid 0, or is the norm that everyone must bid at least 1?
2. And does anyone play a variant where Nil is available and you can also bid a plain 0...just declaring zero tricks with no bonus or penalty attached, separate from a Nil bid?

I'd like to share my free multiplayer fully-customizable online spades game.

Two updates just landed on Spadesinator (spadesinator.com, FREE, sign in with Google):

Expert difficulty is live. Four AI "sharks": Ace, Vic, Sly, Roz play a noticeably tighter game than the standard bots (real bid estimation off trump length, sharper 2nd/3rd-seat defense). Whole tables of them are seeded in the public lobby if you want to get run over by all four at once.

Your AI opponents talk back now, and they remember you. Mention one by name in table chat and it answers in character, in real time, reacting to the actual hand (your bid, the score, whether your nil just busted). No API key needed, it's free for everyone. The part I like best: each AI persona keeps a running read on how you've treated it across games. Give one of them grief for a few rounds straight and it goes cool and clipped next time you sit down but never actually hostile, just done being nice to you. Be decent and it warms back up. They'll also open with an unprompted line at the start of a game (sometimes calling back to your last match) and send a real win/loss message when it's over.

Both are live now, no waitlist. If you bounced off the AI before, worth another look. I'm genuinely curious how the tone-shifting reads to someone who isn't me.

In near future update the individual AI will gain more play style variation to further differentiate them from each other. It'll be slight but noticeable. Looking forward to that!

...or just play with your human friends, free.

Have a good weekend!

spadesinator.com