Spades
How to Play Spades
Spades is a four-player trick-taking game for two teams. You deal the whole 52-card pack — 13 each — and each person bids how many tricks they will take. Partners add those bids. Spades are always trump. Make the contract and you score. Take extras and you collect bags. Bid nil and you are trying for zero. First team to 500 wins.
This page is kitchen-table US partnership Spades. Short enough to deal tonight. Not every regional extra. Four people, a deck, paper, 500. Pick it from tonight with 4 players.
What you need
- Four players. Partners sit across from each other, never side by side.
- A standard 52-card deck. No jokers.
- Paper with two running totals and a bag count. Game is 500.
Sit, pick a dealer, agree on the house
Partners sit across and play as a team. Cut for the first deal, or point at someone. After each hand, the deal moves clockwise.
Say these out loud before the first card:
- Bags. Overtricks are +1 each and they pile up. Ten bags in a game is −100, and those ten come off the count.
- Nil is allowed. Bid zero on purpose. Made is +100. Set is −100.
- Spades stay locked until they are broken. You do not lead trump for fun.
- Team floor of 4, if you want it. Some tables require the two bids to add to at least 4. If that is your house, say so. Otherwise any total stands, including two nils.
Deal 13
Shuffle. Deal clockwise until the pack is gone. Each player has 13. There is no kitty and no leftover. If someone has 12, you misdealt. Throw it in and deal again.
Bid, then add the two numbers
Starting left of the dealer, each player speaks once. You name a number of tricks you expect to take, 1 through 13, or you bid nil (zero). There is no pass. You do not name a trump — spades is already trump.
Your bid plus partner's bid is the contract. If you bid 4 and partner bids 3, your side needs 7 tricks. The other side has their own total. Both contracts are live on the same 13 tricks.
Bid a trick you can see. An ace of a side suit is a likely trick. A lone king is a maybe. Spades in your hand are tricks if they are long enough, or if people have to ruff.
Play 13 tricks
Left of the dealer leads the first card. After that, the winner of a trick leads the next. You play until the hands are empty.
- You must follow suit if you have a card of the suit that was led.
- If you cannot follow, you may play any card, including a spade.
- The highest spade in the trick wins. If nobody played a spade, the highest card of the led suit wins.
- You may not lead spades until they are broken, unless spades is all you have left.
Spades are broken the first time someone plays a spade because they could not follow the led suit. After that, anyone may lead a spade. Leading a spade from a hand that still has another suit, before they are broken, is a renege at this table. Throw the hand in and talk, or agree on a penalty before you deal.
Rank in every suit, high to low: ace, king, queen, jack, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2. No bowers. The ace of spades is the strongest card in the pack.
Scoring, in the amount you need tonight
Count tricks for each partnership. Compare that count to the contract.
| What happened | Who scores |
|---|---|
| Makers take at least the bid | 10 per bid trick, plus 1 per bag |
| Makers take fewer than the bid (set) | Minus 10 per bid trick |
| Each overtrick | 1 bag. Bags add up across hands. |
| Ten bags in a game | Minus 100, and those ten bags come off |
| Nil made (0 tricks) | +100, scored next to partner's bid |
| Nil set (any trick) | −100. That trick still counts for the team. |
| A side reaches 500 | That side wins |
Example: you bid 4, partner bid 3, contract 7. You take 8 tricks. You score 70 + 1 bag = 71, and you now have 1 bag on the pad. If you had taken 6, you would be set: −70, and no bags from that hand.
Nil sits beside partner's bid, not inside it. Partner bid 4 and you bid nil: they still need 4 tricks, and you need zero. If you duck every trick, you score +100 and they score their 4-bid (40, plus bags if they ran over). If you take one, you are −100, and that one trick counts toward their 4.
Blind nil, suicide, and Boston are real at some tables. They are not tonight's default. If someone wants them, stop and agree. Otherwise use this page.
Walk through one first-night hand
You are South. Partner sits North. East dealt. You speak first.
Your thirteen cards:
- Ace, king, and 9 of spades
- Ace and 10 of hearts
- King, queen, and 7 of diamonds
- Ace, jack, 8, 5, and 3 of clubs
Two side aces, a diamond king-queen, three spades headed by ace-king. That is a 4-bid you can see, maybe 5 if clubs behave. You bid 4. West bids 3, partner bids 3, East bids 2. Your contract is 7. Theirs is 5.
West, left of the dealer, leads. You will try to cash the aces, ruff a heart if you go void, and save the ace of spades for a trick you cannot duck. Take seven and you score 70, even if the eighth trick is a bag. Take six and you are set for −70.
Night-one habits
- Count spades. There are 13. After two tricks, pause and say how many are out.
- Do not lead spades before they are broken unless that is your whole hand.
- Do not steal a trick your partner is already winning — unless they bid nil, in which case you take it for them.
- Early bags are cheap. Bags 8, 9, and 10 are how you donate 100.
- Bid the sure trick. Fishing for a maybe is how you get set.
You know enough to deal. Keep this page beside the pad. Four people is a tonight pick. There is no Spades trainer on CardPractice yet — this how-to is the product.