Spades Plus Scoring: Points, Bags, Nil and Blind Nil
Every Spades Plus scoring rule with the arithmetic behind it: the true cost of a bag, the break-even that makes a Nil correct, and why Blind Nil rarely pays.
Most players know the scoring table. Very few have done the arithmetic, and the arithmetic is where the free points are. This page gives the four formulas, then turns them into three numbers you can actually use at the table: the true cost of a bag, the break-even probability for a Nil, and the size of the deficit that justifies a Blind Nil. These are the values the app uses today, documented unofficially by players — if an update changes them, the formulas below still show you how to re-derive the answers. If you want the rules these formulas are applied to first, read Spades Plus rules .
Combined bid made: bid × 10 + 1 per overtrick: Overtricks are the bags. Combined bid missed: −(bid × 10): No credit for how close you came. Nil made / broken: +100 / −100: Scored separately from your partner. Blind Nil made / broken: +200 / −200: Declared before looking at your hand. Ten bags accumulated: −100: Counter resets; the excess carries over
Notice the asymmetry that defines the game: making a bid of 4 is worth 40, missing it costs 40, and there is no middle outcome. Spades Plus rewards accuracy, not optimism.
A bag pays 1 point, which makes overtricks look harmless. They are not. Over a full cycle of ten bags you bank 10 points and then pay 100, so the cycle is worth −90 across ten overtricks:
True cost of a bag ≈ 9 points. (100 − 10) ÷ 10 = 9. A bag is therefore worth almost as much damage as a trick is worth points. Underbidding by one trick twice per hand costs you roughly 18 points of long-run value per hand — more than the 10 you gained by "safe" bidding.
Two practical rules fall out of this. First, bid your hand honestly rather than conservatively: a chronic one-trick underbid is not safety, it is a slow leak. Second, once your team is on eight or nine bags, treat every remaining overtrick as an emergency — dump winners on tricks you cannot avoid losing, and stop covering your partner with high cards unless it changes the contract. Bag management turns that into a hand-by-hand habit, and the scoring cheat sheet has the whole table in one place.
Compare bidding Nil against the boring alternative: bidding 1 and making it, worth 10 points plus a possible bag. Let p be the probability your Nil survives.
Expected value of Nil: p × 100 − (1 − p) × 100 = 200p − 100 . Value of bidding 1 and making it: 10 (plus bag value). Nil is better when: 200p − 100 10, i.e. p 55%
So a Nil needs better than a 55% survival rate to beat a safe bid of 1 — and a bid of 1 is rarely the alternative in practice, because the hand that tempts you into Nil usually has no winners at all. If your realistic alternative is a bid of 2 that will probably be set, the hurdle drops sharply: Nil only has to beat −20, which needs p 40% . Picking the hands that actually survive that often is what Nil and Blind Nil is for.
Nil when you hold no ace, no spade above the 8, and at least four cards of 5 or lower.. Nil when your partner has bid strongly and can cover you by taking tricks early.. Nil when your alternative is a bid of 2 or 3 that you expect to miss anyway.. Track which suits have not been led yet — an unled suit is where Nils die. Nil with a singleton ace. You will be forced to win it.. Nil with three or more spades, even low ones. You get squeezed late.. Nil when your partner bid 1 — they cannot cover you.. Blind Nil as a "catch-up" move from a deficit you can still outplay.
Blind Nil doubles the value to +200 / −200, so its expected value is 400p − 200. Against a safe alternative of 10 points, Blind Nil needs p 52.5% . A blind Nil cannot be hand-selected, so its survival rate sits far below that — the hand you cannot see is a random 13 cards, and a random hand takes zero tricks only occasionally.
Blind Nil is a variance play, not an equity play. It makes sense in exactly one situation: you are so far behind that a normal hand cannot win, and the match is effectively decided in this deal. Anywhere else it converts a recoverable position into a finished one.
1: You 3, partner 4 (7): 8: +70, 1 bag . 2: You 2, partner 3 (5): 5: +50. 3: You Nil, partner 4: Nil held, partner 4: +100 +40 = +140 . 4: You 4, partner 4 (8): 6: −80 , no bags
Four ordinary hands, net +180. Now change hand 4 to a realistic mistake — bidding the same 8 but taking 9 instead of 6 — and it becomes +80 with one more bag. The difference between a winning session and a losing one is usually two or three bids like that, not a single spectacular play. Audit your own sessions against hand evaluation and you will usually find the leak is in the bid, not the play.
Spedes runs the same four formulas with house-rule numbers, which are noticeably gentler. If you move between the two, re-calibrate these four values:
Nil made / broken: +100 / −100: +75 / −75. Blind Nil made / broken: +200 / −200: +150 / −150. Ten bags: −100 (true bag cost ≈ 9): −50 (true bag cost ≈ 4). Match target: 300–500 by room: 150. Overtrick on Mirror: Standard bag rules: −5 per overtrick, no bag system
The practical translation: Nils are worth relatively more in Spades Plus, so bid them more freely there; bags are twice as punishing, so overtrick discipline matters more there; and the shorter 150-point target on Spedes means a single bad hand is a much larger share of the match. Mirror is the clearest place to feel the last row: there every overtrick is priced the moment it happens, with no bag counter to hide behind.
Drill the arithmetic on a table that scores it for you. Open a free Partnership table on Spedes and watch how one missed bid or one tenth bag swings a 150-point match.
Frequently asked questions
How much is a bag worth in Spades Plus?
One point immediately, but ten bags cost 100 points. Across a full cycle the net is minus 90 for ten overtricks, so the true long-run cost of a bag is about 9 points — close to the 10 points a contracted trick is worth.
When is a Nil bid mathematically correct?
Against the alternative of bidding 1 and making it (10 points), a Nil needs a survival probability above 55%. When your realistic alternative is a bid you expect to miss, the hurdle falls to roughly 40%.
Is Blind Nil ever worth it?
It needs a success rate above about 52%, which a random unseen hand rarely delivers. Treat it as a last-resort variance play when a normal hand cannot win the match, not as a standard weapon.
Do bags carry over after the penalty?
Yes. When your team reaches ten bags you lose 100 points and the counter resets to zero, but any bags beyond ten carry into the next cycle. Taking twelve overtricks in one hand leaves you two bags into the next cycle.
Does a failed Nil affect my partner’s bid?
No. Nil is a separate scoring line. Your partner still scores for their own contract, and the tricks you took do not count towards it — so a broken Nil costs exactly 100, no more.
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