r/spades

As the title suggests I am looking for partners for live no bot games in a competitive environment, I used to play a ton in my youth and want to get back into the mix. I tried to find something on Discord but haven't had any luck. Looking to find competitive partners and opponents with a light social aspect. Please DM or message me here with any suggestions.

Sitting to the right of a nil and trying to set it is one of my favorite parts of the game. But one approach that I see other players (my partners) utilize that I do not understand at all is throwing aces early. It’s very frustrating. When I bid nil and see an ace, I consider it a gift. I used to chalk it up to my partners not knowing what they were doing, but I was recently playing on the karman app on a flight against the CPU on highest difficulty and my robot partner was throwing aces. So is there an actual strategy here or are they just prioritizing getting their books vs setting the nil?

I’ve been developing a competitive 1v1 spades format based around hidden information, reads, psychology, and deduction.

The way it works:

Full 52-card deck dealt into 4 hands

Players use opposite hands

2 side hands become hidden discard piles

Nil allowed

Heavy emphasis on memory, pressure, and reading opponents

Some unique rules:

Spades only break naturally

Hidden discard hands

Severe renege punishments

Competitive nil scoring (+125/-125)

Bags still matter heavily

I’m considering building:

a browser-based version,

ranked matchmaking,

tournaments,

and streamer mode so viewers can’t cheat by seeing hidden info.

I also want to stream challenge matches like:
“$20 if you beat me in 1v1 spades.”

I know a lot of people only think of spades as casual/team play, but high-level 1v1 actually gets insanely psychological and competitive.

Would any of you actually play or watch something like this competitively?

I genuinely want feedback from real spades players.

I currently play on Spades+ around 2300-2500. Sometimes I get matched with a higher ranked player and they start spamming me with the “No Way”. I have no idea if I missed something, or if they are just being toxic because I’m not playing how they think I ought to be. I know I have certainly been frustrated by players making mistakes that are obvious to me.

Are there any platforms that allow for a post game rundown to talk about how the game went?

I got tired of doing the bid/trick/bag math by hand every game night, so I built scoringspades.com. It handles bids, bags + 10-bag penalty, nil, blind nil and shows score-aware tips while you play (which you can toggle off).

There is no account to create, no fees, and no tracking beyond basic analytics so I can see how people are using it. If you "add to home screen" it works offline. Open source (MIT) at github.com/turnepf/ScoringSpades so you can roll your own if you want.

I'd appreciate your feedback!

This may come off as just salty and whining but I'm okay with that. My household loves to play spades but I've since moved away and haven't been able to play as much so I've been playing on Spades+. When I was growing up, we didn't use nil, and now when I go on Spades+ it's something I have to work around. I knew it was always a game mechanic, we just didn't use it. I feel like once it comes into play, the game becomes a whole lot more about playing around the nil than the actual strategy of the game which is so much more fun and interesting. I don't think I'd mind it as much if it didn't reward 100 points, which makes it kind of stupid to not go for in a lot of scenarios. When I play Spades+ at least half of the games have a nil bid and it's like not playing the same game. I know the old advice "make them win a book" but it's not that easy in practice for me and I feel like it ruins the game experience. What do you guys think?

Turning 32 next month and after 31 years of not learning or being willing to learn how to play, I played this weekend. I have the basics (House Rules were, Joker, Joker, Deuce, Deuce) but get caught up on the more intricate tricks of the game.

Anyone recommend a good online/mobile game to play with bots and/or real people so I can brush up on my skills?