How to play Spades
Spades is a trick-taking game for four players in two partnerships. Here you and Otto, across the table, play against Mabel on your left and June on your right. Each hand you say how many tricks you expect to take, and your side then has to take at least as many as the two of you bid. The first side to 500 points wins.
The deal and the bidding
All 52 cards are dealt, thirteen to each player. Starting with the player to the dealer’s left, each player makes one bid: the number of tricks they expect to take, from none to thirteen. There is only one round of bidding and nobody has to outbid anyone else. Your bid and your partner’s are added together, and that total is your side’s contract.
Use the minus and plus buttons to set your bid, then press the Bid button. The deal passes to the left each hand, so the player who bids and leads first changes too.
Playing a trick
- The player to the dealer’s left leads to the first trick. Play goes clockwise.
- You must follow the suit that was led if you can. If you cannot, you may play any card, including a spade.
- Spades are trumps. A trick with a spade in it is won by the highest spade; otherwise the highest card of the suit led wins. Aces are high.
- The winner of a trick leads the next one.
- A spade cannot be led until a spade has been played on an earlier trick (spades are then “broken”), unless the leader holds nothing but spades.
When it is your turn, the cards you may not play are dimmed. With a mouse, click a card to play it or drag it onto the table. On a touch screen the first tap lifts the card and a second tap plays it. Each name shows the tricks that player has taken over the number bid, such as 2/3.
Scoring
| Result of the hand | Points |
|---|---|
| Your side takes at least the tricks it bid | 10 for each trick bid |
| Each trick taken beyond the bid (an extra trick, or “bag”) | +1 |
| Your side takes fewer tricks than it bid | 10 off for each trick bid |
| Every tenth extra trick, counted across hands | −100 |
| A bid of nil that takes no trick | +100 |
| A bid of nil that takes a trick | −100 |
So a side that bids 7 and takes 8 scores 71, and a side that bids 7 and takes 6 loses 70. Extra tricks look harmless but they add up: the Scores button shows how many each side is carrying.
Bidding nil
A bid of nil (set the bid box below 1) says you will take no tricks at all. It is scored by itself: 100 if you manage it and 100 off if you take even one trick. Your partner’s bid is still a contract for your side, made with your partner’s tricks alone. If a nil fails, the tricks it took count as extra tricks, not towards the contract.
Winning the game
The game ends at the end of a hand when a side has reached 500, or has fallen to −200. The side with the higher score wins. If the scores are level, another hand is played.
Tips for winning more often
- Count sure tricks when you bid: aces, kings with another card beside them, and the ace, king and queen of spades. Add one for each spade beyond your third.
- A suit you hold one card of, or none, is worth a trick if you have spades to trump with.
- Bid what you expect, not what you hope. Failing a bid of 4 costs 40; an extra trick costs almost nothing until the tenth.
- Watch your partner’s number as well as your own. If Otto has already taken his tricks and yours are still to come, the contract depends on you.
- Once your side has made its contract, stop winning tricks you do not need, unless one more would leave the other side short of theirs.
- When your partner bids nil, play your high cards: win tricks so that your partner can play underneath. When an opponent bids nil, lead low cards and let them take the trick.
How good are the computer players?
Mabel, Otto and June all play the same sensible game. They bid from the strength of their own cards, try to win the tricks their side needs, cover a partner’s nil and try to break an opponent’s. They see only what you would see in their seat: their own cards, the bids and the cards already played. Otto does not know your hand, so he cannot rescue a bid that was too high.