Card Games
Nil bid in spades
In spades, a nil bid is a declaration to take zero tricks during a hand, worth +100 points if successful and −100 if not. The bidder's partner still bids and scores normally for their own tricks.
Key points
- A nil bid commits the player to win no tricks in that hand; the partner bids and scores normally.12
- Some rulesets use 50/100 points instead of 100/200 for nil and blind nil.23
- A team typically wins when it first reaches 500 points.3
Where this term is used
Not the same as
- Spades — the game itself, not a bid within it
- Spades bidding rules — the broader system of bids, not the specific zero-trick bid
Related terms
Card games
Spades bidding rules
How players declare their intended trick count in spades.
Card games
Spades
The trick-taking card game in which nil is a special bid.
Card games
Ace of spades
The highest trump card in spades.
Card games
Rummy rules
A different card game with melding, not trick-taking.
Card games
Cribbage rules
A card game with pegging and scoring, unrelated to spades.
Card games
Euchre rules
A trick-taking game with a different bidding system and trump suit.
Sources
- Spades (card game) en.wikipedia.org Provides the standard definition and point values for nil bids in spades.
- Spades - card game rules pagat.com Confirms the nil bid rules, scoring, and the alternative name 'naught'.
- Spades - regole del gioco di carte - Pagat pagat.com Supports the blind nil scoring and the 500-point game-end target.
Sources are drawn from regulators, universities and published research, and each one is labelled with what it actually is — a preprint is not called a paper. Bookmaker and affiliate pages are never cited here, because a page that sells betting is not a neutral authority on it.