Bags in spades

What are bags in spades?

A bag, or sandbag, is a trick a side wins beyond what it bid. Bid 4 and take 6 and you have two bags. Each is worth a point when you make your bid, so bid 4 and take 6 scores 42.

The catch is that bags pile up from hand to hand, and when a side reaches 10 it loses 100 points and the count drops back by ten. Without that penalty the safest plan would be to bid low every hand and collect the overtricks. With it, underbidding costs you in the long run.

Sandbagging as a tactic usually means exactly that: bidding low on purpose and taking the overtricks, betting the penalty will not arrive before the game ends. It can also mean taking extra tricks deliberately to set the other side, accepting the bags as the price.

Tables change the numbers. Five bags for minus 50 makes a faster, harsher game, and some tables treat bags as plain points with no penalty. In Score All the bag limit and penalty are settings, the bag count sits beside each side's total on the score sheet, and the penalty comes off automatically when the limit is reached.

Where it applies

Related: Spades scoring · Nil and blind nil

This rule is a switch when you set up a game, so the scoreboard applies it for you. All scoring rules →