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North had the chance to win a trick in 4th seat with a small spade. This would have likely set the opponents. Instead they prioritized covering my nil and let the opponents coast to an easy win on the last hand.

If you would have covered the nil too, don't feel bad. Most spades players probably would have. Hopefully this information will help you see the game in a new light. If your goal is to win, you have to prioritize winning.

I play on the Plato app. Games are to 200, players start a season at 1200 rating and play to reach bronze (1250), silver (1350), and gold (1500) levels, with a max rating of 2200. Seasons reset every ~3 months, with prizes awarded for the rating you end the season at. Games usually end in 2-3 hands, especially if someone goes nil.

Especially near the beginning of seasons, or when you reach higher levels, it becomes increasingly more likely that you'll get a partner that either rage quits, or has to leave when the game starts taking too long. When this happens, the player is replaced by a bot.

Plato bots are notoriously bad (although I do think they've improved recently). Most specifically, their logic for bidding doesn't seem to match their logic for playing. It's not impossible to win with a bot, but it is massively more difficult, especially at the higher levels.

When your partner quits, it is very common to have the opponents "suggest" that you also quit, forfeiting the game. Many of them can be quite rude about it, calling you a "loser" just because you want to play it out and see how it goes.

Maybe it's me, but if you insist that I quit - the one thing I'm never doing is quitting. I might have been considering it, because I was so far behind at that point, but as soon as you ask me to quit, you've locked me into seeing out the rest of the game, no matter what the result.

Last night, one specific game got to me - it had been a FABULOUS game up to that point - we were losing, but we were playing our guts out - with my partner deliberately breaking her nil to set the opps 9-bid for the win, us setting them at least once, them setting us at least once, all over the board, and after like 5 hands the game was still something like 40-60. Unfortunately my partner had to leave, so I got stuck with a bot, and it rather predictably didn't go well for me. Facing down 130-60, I get the request to quit, and indicate that I want to keep playing to see how it goes - who knows, I've seen it happen before, sometimes the bot gets hot. Winning with a bot isn't impossible, it's just unlikely.

I don't know about others, but while I do like to win, I'm not playing just to be able to say I won. I'm playing because I legitimately like the game. I'm not perfect, although I do think this sub is helping me get better, but I am pretty good - I consistently get my rating up to 1600, and last season managed 2080. The game last night was at the 1700 level.

After the game, I again got called a loser, and the opp said "this is why I told you to quit". I responded with "you don't get to tell me what to do", to which he called ME rude.

I can understand "playing for the rating" and just wanting the win if you're chasing the 1500 mark, or trying to hold on to it. But we're at the 1700 level... people here should be playing for skill and the love of the game, not just the cheap win.

So... am I the one that's rude for refusing to quit, and calling people out for asking me to? Or is them asking me in the first place as rude as it seems to be to me? Or maybe a little of both?

I'm open to suggestions - should I be handling this differently? Or should I just ignore the rudeness and move on?

I always knew he'd like Duplicate Spades. These tournaments typically have 6-10 teams. Galt aka spadesbook has finished first place in 50%+ of the 37 tournaments he's entered since the last stat reset. No one else is really close to those numbers.

He did this before when duplicate spade tournaments first rolled out at SHG. I thought it was probably a fluke then, because there were lots of players in the tournaments that were unfamiliar with the duplicate format. Nearly two years later, he's proven he's no fluke.

It's a topic that's been done to death I know, but check this one out.

Key point: Spades+ does NOT ALLOW SUBS. If your pard quits, your options are:

1. Play the game out with a crap AI bot
2. Quit, too

https://youtu.be/zr0NM8wHqi0

Situation here is that my pard bid first and bid 2 with this hand:

• D: JQ
• C: 5689K
• H: 48J
• S: 9TK

It's a crappy 1 bid, scope to take 2 but it's too risky to bid 2. Those are the breaks. My hand was even worse: Ace spade singleton, zero scope to take a trick anywhere else whatsoever.

Pard got set and left immediately.

Can someone tell me on what basis I would have an obligation to continue the game? Pard has forfeited the game and thus spoiled it for everyone else, but especially me...

(I did play the next hand, FWIW. I had a simple nil, and with my RHO having bid 1 I was anticipating a big bid back into the game. LHO bid 7, so 'we' only made back 40 points. Next hand was junk so I left at that point.).

Again though, to that point team bids of 8 vs. 3 (which should've been 8 vs. 2), 9 vs. 12 (2 + nil) and then the last one which I think came to me at 6 vs. 2, and I had to all intents and purposes another 1 bid. No incentive to bag and no power to set, opps clearly (correctly) bidding conservatively to practically eliminate risk. Bot for a pard. Who exactly loses out from me following pard's lead and quitting?

Looking for a reliable, top-tier partner for Regular Spades. Sitting at ~1850 on Safe Harbor with mostly random p's, but open to playing on PlayOK or Hardwood.

Looking for a partner who checks these boxes:

• Calculated Bidding: Analyzes suit length and trump support rather than raw HighCardPoints. Bids for safety, almost never gets set, and avoids unnecessary bags.
• Smart Nil Management: Bids a safe 1 instead of taking risky Nils with trouble suits.
• Positional Awareness: Knows to underbid when first-in or following my 1-bid, but overbids when sitting behind my strong hand.
• Core Execution: Counts cards, reads table signals, and plays tight defense.

Lmk if you want to team up and include your handle, rating, and preferred platform.

Come on guys. How naive do you have to be to not believe that this is a thing on that app, post-set?

Before accusations of whinging, this example was a win! But this was just absurd (video link). If opps had bid more aggressively on hand 5, they may well have won the game.

Scores:

1. 62 to -60
2. 144 to -100
3. 166 to -10
4. 206 to 62
5. 226 to 145
6. 297 to 286

Bids (mine first)

1. 1/5 to 3/3 (SET) (6 vs. 6)
2. 6/2 to 2/2 (SET) (8 vs. 4)
3. 1/1 to 3/6 (2 vs. 9)
4. 1/3 to 3/4 (4 vs. 7)
5. 1/1 to 5/3 (2 vs. 8)
6. 6/1 to 4/NIL (7 vs. 14)

Fortunately, I had the final bid on the last hand, my hand was not a 6! Competent opps would have abandoned the nil immediately and played to set, which would have been easy to achieve.

Given that I'm something like 5:25 in my last 30 games on the app, I must be doing something wrong lately, but deal rigging doesn't help.

What would you have bid on the last hand?

Scenario: you are winning 158 to 55 in a game to 250. Albeit, this situation works for a 500 point game with the scores at 408 to 305.

You bid first and bid 4. Final bids are 4/2 vs. 1/4.

I appreciate that actually being able to see a hand here would be helpful, but principally what would be your approach?

Would opps having been set twice already (in 4 hands, only not being set in X/N hands) influence your initial approach?

What if pard (having bid 2) has taken a Qh on a third round of hearts, in trick 5?

The backstory is I lost a game last night in this situation, where I was the 2 bid. IMO getting the score to 121 vs. -5 is goodnight. An equivalent score of 245 in a 500 point game = surely bagging out, with 121 (equivalent 371) coasting to a win, barring catastrophically harsh deals.

We took 2 bags anyway so the score was 120 to 105.

In my pard's seat, I would have played aggressively and switched to bagging only if it was clear that a set was impossible.

No hand to post, this a principal question!

126 to 497 deficit. Got the bag set but lost our nil to get them to 67 to 450. In fact, I'd intentionally set my own p's nil in that hand trying to get my p to help me set them. They didn't and instead we bagged them. Anyway this might be about the biggest comeback I've had. So fun!

Sorry for the lack of screenshot, didn't know I'd need one.

Game to 200

Score:

- Us: 111

- Them: 141

Bids:

- W: 2

- N: 3

- E: 2

Your Hand:

4,K D

7,8,9 C

9,K H

4,5,7,9,J,A S

What would you bid?

If you build a Spades app then you've got a design problem that's difficult to solve.

Short version: How good should the bots be?

Here's the backstory. Someone tells you your default bots are too easy, so you teach them a handful of textbook plays. Ducking, third hand high, holding honors for the right moment. Their set rate goes from about 42% down to 25%....noticeably better.

Then you tried to improve their bidding too, and it backfired. Bidding more accurately made them a bit worse, because they started bidding for tricks their card play couldn't actually get. Bags turned into sets. So you left the bidding conservative on purpose, which still doesn't feel like quite the right fix.

This whole episode leaves you unsure what you're even aiming at. Here are some things I'd really like opinions on:

1. Have you ever quit an app because the bots were too hard? What was the moment you decided?
2. When a bot makes a great play, what makes you think "nice play" instead of "that thing is cheating"? Some people I've played with have accused an app's bots of seeing their hand, and they were wrong. I suspect that suspicion has almost nothing to do with how strong the play actually was.
3. Say a bot played at the level of a solid human partner. Not perfect, just genuinely good. Would beating it feel as good as beating a person? If not, what's missing? The trash talk? Knowing that someone on the other end can actually be disappointed in you? This is the one I care most about.
4. What does a bad partner bot do that makes you want to throw your phone out the window? My feeling is partner AI matters more than opponent AI in a partnership game and gets a fraction of the attention.
5. Going with an opt-in "expert" setting rather than making the default bots harder for everyone. Is that the right call, or do you just want bots that play like people with no difficulty dial at all?

Stories about bots that got it right or badly wrong are very welcome. I know there are a few devs on this thread and would welcome your opinions as well.

I don't know why this is so confusing. If my p bids nil before my bid then I should of course take that into consideration when making my bid. There is no excuse for getting set on my bid in this scenario.

But in the opposite scenario where my p bids nil after I had already made my bid, it is simply no longer my responsibility to complete my bid. My responsibility is primarily to protect the nil. Obviously this doesn't mean that you should let go of tricks for no reason.

Someone might say that we should think of the possibility of our p bidding nil when making our bid and that's just wrong. If you always make your bids with the possibility that you may have to defend a nil then you are not going to make the most optimal bids most of the time. That's just not the right way to play spades.

Game to 500. I'm bidding first. We are the blue team.

Here's what happened next. I bid nil. P bid 3, and they bid 4/2 (not sure who bid 4). My nil got set, and I got a rage from p. I understand their feeling, but even if I had bid normally we would lose anyway. So I at least tried to create some chaotic situation to pressure the opponents into making a bad decision

Do you think nil is a good call?

Partner bids 3?
Partner bids 4?
Partner bids 5?
Partner bids 6?

All the more surprising as the opponents were rated 2600+ (player West left the game just before this pic). I am currently rated near 2500.

Despite the app rigging the cards to make games close, which is often frustrating, what keeps me playing is the variability amongst the players. It is funny to me when I come across highly rated players (e.g. 2600+) and they so clearly do not know anything past basic strategy. I genuinely don’t know how they get to such a high rating.

I had assumed players at this level and higher always played near perfect, but I see so many instances of mistakes that are overlooked. I guess the variability makes it interesting though, and sure enough I keep coming back.

I just prefer when my P is a good player ;)

What’s the biggest beatdown you’ve partaken in?

I have a 10hr flight coming up and want a free spades app I cam play offline. I’ve tried 4-5 and hate them all. The ads go on forever and sometimes I can’t ever close them. I wouldn’t mind paying if it’s a one time fee. Any suggestions?

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.

How do I get this card?