♠️ How to Play Spades
Master the classic partnership trick-taking card game where spades are always trump. Perfect for 4 players who enjoy strategic bidding and teamwork.
Players
Exactly 4 players
Duration
45-75 minutes
Difficulty
Medium
Type
Partnership Trick-Taking
Objective:
Be the first partnership to reach 500 points by making your bid each round.
Teams:
Players sit across from their partners: North/South vs East/West
Key Rules:
- • Spades are always trump
- • Must follow suit if possible
- • Make exactly your bid to score points
- • First team to 500+ wins
Players & Partnerships
Four players sit in a square, with partners sitting across from each other. Teams are North/South vs East/West.
The Deck
Standard 52-card deck. All spades are trump cards.
Deal
Each player receives 13 cards, dealt clockwise starting from dealer's left.
How to Bid
- • Each player bids the number of tricks they expect to take (0-13)
- • Bidding starts with the player to dealer's left
- • Partners' bids are added together for team total
- • No communication between partners during bidding
Nil Bids
A player can bid "Nil" (zero tricks). If successful: +100 points. If failed: -100 points. Partner must try to make team's total bid alone.
Trick-Taking Rules
- Player to dealer's left leads the first trick
- Must follow suit if possible
- If can't follow suit, may play any card (including spades)
- Highest card of the suit led wins, unless trumped by a spade
- Winner of each trick leads the next
🛡️ Spades Rules
- • Cannot lead spades until they've been "broken"
- • Spades are broken when someone plays a spade on a non-spade trick
- • Once broken, spades can be led
- • Spades always trump other suits
Basic Scoring
✅ Made Bid
10 × bid + overtricks (bags)
Example: Bid 6, took 7 = 60 + 1 = 61 points
❌ Failed Bid
-10 × bid (lose points)
Example: Bid 6, took 4 = -60 points
📦 Sandbag Penalty
Every 10 bags = -100 points
Overtricks accumulate across rounds
Special Bids
⭕ Nil Bid
- • Success: +100 points (partner still needs to make team bid)
- • Failure: -100 points
- • Blind Nil (bid before looking): +200/-200 points
Victory Condition: First team to reach 500 or more points at the end of a round wins.
Penalty Loss: If a team reaches -200 points, they lose immediately.
Tie-breaking: If both teams reach 500+ in the same round, the team with the higher score wins.
- Conservative Bidding: Better to underbid slightly than fail your contract.
- Count Spades: Keep track of spades played to judge trump strength.
- Protect Partner: If partner bids Nil, try to take tricks they might be forced into.
- Bag Management: Be careful not to accumulate too many overtricks.
- Communication: Use your plays to signal information to partner.
- • Overbidding with weak hands
- • Leading spades before they're broken
- • Ignoring bag accumulation
- • Not protecting partner's Nil bid
- • Playing too aggressively when ahead