Spades is a trick-taking game for four. Every hand you bid how many tricks you’ll win, then play 13 tricks where spades beat every other suit. Make your bid to score, fall short and lose the points — and watch your bags, because too many overtricks cost you. Play every seat for itself, or as two partnerships racing to the target score.
Spades is played in hands. In each hand you first bid — a promise of how many tricks you will win — and then play out 13 tricks. Hit your bid and you score 10 points for every trick you promised; miss it and you lose those points instead. Points carry over from hand to hand, and the first player or team to reach the target score takes the game. In solo you play for yourself against three opponents; in partner mode you and the player sitting across from you share one score and one combined bid.
A normal 52-card deck, dealt out completely — 13 cards to each of the four seats. Cards have no point values of their own; all the points come from your bid.
Within a suit, cards rank from 2 (lowest) up through 10, J, Q, K and A (highest).
Spades are always trump: any spade beats any card of another suit, no matter how high.
Your hand is sorted by suit for you, so you can see at a glance how strong you are in each.
Four players take their seats. In partner mode the two teams sit across from each other: seats 1 and 3 against seats 2 and 4.
A dealer is picked at random for the first hand. Each player receives 13 cards.
After every hand the dealer button moves one seat clockwise, so bidding and the first lead rotate around the table.
Bidding starts with the player to the dealer’s left and goes clockwise, one bid per seat. Look at your hand and bid the number of tricks you expect to win — from 1 to 13. In partner mode your bid and your partner’s add up into one team contract.
Nil: bid 0 to promise you will win no tricks at all. Pull it off and you earn a 100-point bonus; win even one trick and you lose 100 instead.
Blind nil (partner games only): declare nil before looking at your cards for double the stakes — a 200-point bonus if you make it, a 200-point penalty if you don’t. Your partner still plays their own bid.
You have 30 seconds to bid. If time runs out, a bid is placed for you based on your hand.
Once everyone has bid, the player to the dealer’s left leads the first trick. A trick is one card from each seat, and the best card takes it.
The leader plays any card (with one exception for spades — see the next section). The suit of that card is the led suit.
Going clockwise, each player must follow suit if they can — play a card of the led suit.
If you have no card of the led suit, you may play anything: throw off a card you don’t want, or play a spade to trump the trick.
If no spade was played, the highest card of the led suit wins the trick. If one or more spades were played, the highest spade wins.
The winner collects the trick and leads the next one. After 13 tricks the hand is over and it’s scored.
You have 15 seconds to play each card. If time runs out, a legal card is played for you.
Spades are "broken" the first time someone plays a spade on a trick of another suit. Until then, spades can’t be led.
You may not lead a spade until spades have been broken — unless spades are the only cards left in your hand.
Following with a spade when you can’t follow suit is always allowed, even on the very first trick of the hand.
Once broken, spades can be led like any other suit — and the race for the high trumps begins.
When the 13th trick is collected, each player (solo) or team (partner) compares the tricks they won with their contract.
Made your bid: score 10 points for every trick you bid, plus 1 point for each extra trick (an "overtrick", or bag).
Missed your bid ("set"): lose 10 points for every trick you bid. Bid 4 and win only 3 and you’re down 40.
Nil made: +100. Nil failed: −100. Blind nil made: +200. Blind nil failed: −200.
In partner mode, any tricks a nil bidder accidentally wins still count toward their partner’s contract — so they can help make the team bid, or pile on as bags.
In solo mode, the tricks a failed nil bidder wins each count as a bag, worth 1 point apiece.
Every trick you win over your bid is a bag. Bags are worth a point each, but they add up across hands — and that’s the catch.
Collect 10 bags and you lose 100 points. Those 10 bags are cleared and the count starts again.
Tables can set a different bag limit, and in a private room the host picks it (anywhere from 1 to 13). The penalty is always 10 points per bag in the limit.
Underbidding feels safe, but a hand full of bags will cost you. Bid what your cards can actually win.
Scores accumulate from hand to hand until the game ends.
The game ends at the end of a hand when a player or team has reached the target score — 150 by default, though some tables set their own — and holds the lead outright.
It also ends when anyone falls to the losing score (−200 by default), as long as the top isn’t tied.
If the leaders are exactly tied, another hand is played to settle it.
Final positions go by points, with fewer bags breaking ties. Exact ties share a position, and partners always finish together.
Count on your aces and kings in side suits and on your high spades; a long spade suit is worth more than it looks once trumps are broken.
Bid honestly. Overbidding sets you for 10 a trick; chronic underbidding buries you in bags.
Go nil only with low cards and short suits — one stray king can wreck it. In partner mode, let your partner know by bidding nil early so they can cover you.
Create a void: dump a short side suit early so you can trump that suit later.
Keep track of the spades that have been played — knowing the top trump is out lets you lead safely.
When you’ve already made your bid and the partner side is on bags, duck tricks deliberately to hand them the extra bags.
Now that you know the rules, jump into a live table and put them to work.