What is Whiz?
In the standard game each player bids the number of tricks they expect to win, from 1 to 13, or nil. In Whiz the choice is much narrower: you either bid exactly the number of spades in your hand, or you bid nil. A player who holds no spades has only one choice, nil.
Nil is scored as usual: 100 points if the nil bidder takes no tricks and minus 100 if they take any, and the tricks they win don't count towards their partner's bid. Blind nil is never offered.
The decision in Whiz is when to go nil. A hand with few spades and low cards in the other suits can try nil and leave the partner to make their spade count alone, while a hand full of high cards is safer bidding its spades and collecting the extra tricks as bags.
Rule changes
| Rule | Standard Spades | Whiz |
|---|---|---|
| Your bid | Standard SpadesAny number of tricks from 1 to 13, or nil. | WhizEither exactly the number of spades in your hand, or nil. |
| Nil | Standard SpadesOne choice among many. | WhizThe only alternative to bidding your spades, and the only bid left when you hold no spades. |
| Blind nil | Standard SpadesOffered when the option is on, worth 200 points or minus 200. | WhizNever offered. |
| Scoring | Standard SpadesPartners' bids are added; 10 points per bid trick when made, 1 point and a bag per extra trick; nil is worth 100 or minus 100. | WhizUnchanged. |
| Other options | Standard SpadesBlind nil, the bags penalty, the target score, jokers, cutthroat and two to four players can be chosen. | WhizWhiz works with all of them except the blind nil option, which it switches off. With jokers, each joker counts as a spade you hold. |
History
Whiz is one of the fixed-bid rule sets that online Spades rooms and apps offer next to the standard game, along with Mirror and Suicide. The descriptions agree on its core: each player bids the exact number of spades they hold or goes nil, and blind bids are not used. No origin for the name or the rule is recorded.
The classic reference descriptions of Spades do not list Whiz.