Spades being the highest suit at bridge, a good hand is even better in spades.
The phrase emphasizes that spades (as the highest suit) can outbid the others, and also that spades (as the highest suit) is scored for the most posts of any suit. As in the phrase "doubled and redoubled, in spades".
spades (as the highest suit) is scored for the most posts(points??) of any suit
well, acksherly, spades and hearts are both "major suits", and they score the same, although for bidding purposes spades do outrank hearts.
and for the record, the expression should probably be 'in no trumps', b/c a 'no trumps' bid supercedes (and outscores, as well) *all* of the suits, including spades.
I don't believe that the value of the spade suit in bridge is the answer.
I have this vague remembrance of a card game in which a hand played with spades as trump counts more than any other, but I don't remember anything specific. There is a card game called "Spades" but I don't know if that's the game I'm thinking of.
Incidentally, are you aware of the derivation of "spades" as the name of a suit in cards?
I have an Italian deck of cards, which we use to play Briscola. The Italian deck, like most other European decks, derives from the Tarot deck.
The suits are: Swords (spade, from which we get "spades"); Cups (coppe) which look like a chalice, and which are analagous to our "hearts"; Clubs (bastoni) which look like cudgels, or clubs; and Coins (dinari) which are analagous to our "diamonds". The 3-leaf clover which we call a "club" derives from French decks which used the fleur-de-lys instead of the stick but the name stuck in English in spite of the change in the picture.
All the above are true, but I think there's one more step to be invoked. In gin rummy, if the card turned up after the deal is a spade, all points are doubled. In pinochle, if spades is selected as the trump suit, then all payments (and penalties) are doubled. Thus "that goes double in spades". (Some people play triple in hearts, too, but apparently that never caught on.)
fwiw, OED2 says this: c. fig. in advb. phr. in spades, very much, in abundance, extremely. (Spades is the highest ranking suit in Bridge.) colloq. (chiefly U.S.). 1929 D. Runyon in Hearst's International Oct. 62/2, I always hear the same thing about every bum on Broadway, male and female, including some I know are bums, in spades, right from taw. 1964 Wodehouse Frozen Assets i. 19 ‘It's the law I'm beefing about. You didn't make the law.’ ‘But I administer it.’ ‘I'll say you do. In spades.’ 1972 R. Nixon Diary in Mem. (1978) 619 Anybody who gets to the top in the Communist hierarchy and stays at the top has to have a great deal of political ability and a great deal of toughness. All three of the Soviet leaders have this in spades.
"in spades, right from taw" - now there's an interesting parlay. [the latter comes from shooting marbles]
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-- and then missed the typo!!
