Spades is a four-player trick-taking game played in two partnerships. You sit at the bottom of the table with Rory, your computer partner, opposite you, while the opponents are Alex, to your left, and Sam, to your right.
The rules are the standard partnership game, sometimes called classic Spades, with a race to 500, Nil worth 100 either way, and a 100-point penalty for every ten bags. On a laptop or desktop the fullscreen button at the foot of the side panel turns the whole page into a full-screen card table.
Two partnerships play against each other. Each side adds its two bids into one contract, spades outrank every other suit in every hand, and a side scores only by taking at least the tricks it contracted for, and the first side to reach 500 points wins the game.
| At the table | How it works here |
|---|---|
| Players | Four, in two fixed partnerships, partners facing each other |
| Cards | A standard 52-card deck, all dealt, 13 per player |
| Trump | Spades, in every hand; aces are high in every suit |
| Bidding | One round, any number from 0 to 13; a bid of 0 is Nil |
| Winning | The first partnership on 500 or more |
The deal moves one seat to the left after every hand. Bidding opens with the player on the dealer's left and goes once around the table, so the dealer always bids last and has heard everyone else. There is no pass and no second chance to change a number.
Your side's contract is your bid plus Rory's. A Nil is left out of that sum, so if you bid 4 and Rory bids Nil, the contract is 4 tricks and every one of them has to come from your hand.
The first lead comes from the dealer's left-hand neighbour, and from then on each trick's winner leads. Holding the led suit, you have to follow it. Without it, any card is allowed. A spade will win unless somebody plays a higher spade, and a card of a third suit cannot win at all. The best spade takes the trick, and if there is no spade in it, the top card of the led suit does.
Nothing obliges you to beat what is already on the table. When Sam leads the Q♦ and you hold the A♦ and the 3♦, the 3♦ is a legal play, and so is the ace, so you decide whether the trick is worth your top diamond.
Spades cannot be led until they are broken, which happens the first time anyone plays a spade in a hand, most often by trumping a suit they have run out of. The only exception is a player on lead who holds nothing but spades.
Because there is no undo once a card is face up. All three other players have seen it, and the computer seats cannot be made to forget it. Bids work the same way and stay fixed for the whole hand, so check the led suit, and whether spades are broken, before you click.
A side that makes its contract scores 10 points for each trick in the contract and 1 point for each trick above it. Those extra tricks are called bags (some players say sandbags), and the count follows your side from hand to hand. A side that falls short loses 10 points per contract trick, and no bags are counted for it that hand.
Bags carry a delayed cost, as the moment a partnership's running count reaches ten, it loses 100 points, and any bags beyond ten start the next count. A Nil bidder who takes no tricks earns their side 100, while one who takes even a single trick costs 100. Tricks won by a failed Nil are no help to the partner's contract, yet each one still lands on the team as a bag.
Here is one hand worked through for both sides. You bid 4, Alex 4, Rory 2 and Sam Nil, and you take 5 tricks, Alex 3, Rory 3 and Sam 2.
| Us: you and Rory | Them: Alex and Sam | |
|---|---|---|
| Contract | 4 + 2 = 6 | Alex's 4 (Sam's Nil is not added) |
| Tricks toward it | 5 + 3 = 8, made: +60 | Alex took 3, failed: −40 |
| Bags | 2 overtricks: +2 | Sam's 2 tricks: +2 |
| Nil | — | Sam took tricks: −100 |
| Score for the hand | +62 | −138 |
Now suppose your side came into that hand already holding 8 bags. The two overtricks bring the count to ten, the penalty lands at once, and the same hand scores 60 + 2 − 100 = −38, with your bag count back to 0. A Nil that holds works the other way, so if Rory bids Nil and takes nothing while you bid 5 and take 6, your side scores 100 + 50 + 1 = +151.
Scores can drop below zero. When at least one side has 500 or more after a hand, the higher score wins, even if both sides crossed the line in that hand, while if the two scores are equal, another hand is dealt.
Some house rules you may know are not used here. There is no blind Nil, no early loss for falling to −200, and no bonus for taking all 13 tricks, so a side that bids 3 and 3 and sweeps the hand scores 60 + 7 = 67 and picks up seven bags.
Bid the tricks you can see in your own hand, not the ones you hope your partner will cover. Take ♠ K J 6 2, ♥ A Q 9 5, ♦ 7 3, ♣ A 8 4:
That is three tricks you can count and two or three that might come, so 3 is the bid. Being one under costs a single bag if the extra trick arrives, whereas being one over turns a whole contract negative.
The bids already made tell you more. When you deal, you bid last, after Alex, Rory and Sam. If they have bid 3, 4 and 2 and you add 3, the table total is 12, so at least one trick nobody bid for will end up as a bag for somebody. A total of 14 or more with no Nil at the table means at least one side cannot make its contract.
A hand worth bidding Nil has no aces or kings, short and low spades, and a low card to play under almost anything. ♠ 5 3, ♥ J 8 4 2, ♦ 9 6 3, ♣ 10 7 4 2 qualifies, and its riskiest cards are the J♥ and 10♣, since once the higher cards in those suits are gone, they can end up winning a trick. Get rid of them early, under a trick that somebody else is already winning with a higher heart or club, or throw them away when you are out of the suit that was led.
When Rory bids Nil, where you sit in each trick decides how you help:
When an opponent bids Nil, your seat matters again. Alex, on your left, plays straight after you, before Sam has a chance to cover him, so every low card you lead puts Alex on the spot. A Nil from Sam, on your right, is harder to break with your own leads because Sam plays fourth on those tricks and can see everything before deciding.
There are 13 spades, so once you have counted the A♠, K♠ and Q♠ out of play, your J♠ is the highest trump left.
The opponents' bag count sits beside their score in the side panel. When it reaches 8 or 9, push the tricks you don't need onto them by playing under their winning cards rather than over them, and let them collect the bag that tips them to ten.
Name how many tricks your partnership will take before a card is played, then make the number exactly: spades are always trump, overtricks pile up as bags, and a Nil bid stakes a hundred points on taking none at all.
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