Spades

How to play Spades

Spades is a trick-taking game for four players in two partnerships. Partners sit opposite each other: on screen you are at the bottom, your partner is at the top, and the players on your left and right are the other team. Play moves clockwise, to the left. A standard 52 card deck is dealt out completely, 13 cards each, and cards rank Ace high down to 2. Spades are the permanent trump suit, so any spade beats any heart, diamond or club.

• Starting left of the dealer, each player bids how many tricks they expect to win, from 1 to 13, or bids Nil to promise none.
• Partners' bids are added together to make the team contract. You bid 4 and your partner bids 3, so your team needs at least 7 tricks.
• The player left of the dealer leads the first trick. Everyone must follow the led suit if they can; if not, any card may be played, including a spade to trump.
• The highest spade wins the trick. If no spade was played, the highest card of the led suit wins. The winner leads next.
• All 13 tricks are played, then the hand is scored and the next one is dealt.

Spades rules for beginners: four things to remember

If you know Whist, Bridge, Rung or Court Piece, Spades will feel familiar within a hand or two. Keep these four rules in mind:

• Follow suit whenever you can. The game highlights your legal cards and dims the rest.
• Spades always win. The 2 of spades beats the Ace of any other suit.
• You can't lead a spade until spades are broken.
• Your team only scores if it makes its contract, so bid what your cards can really win.

How bidding works in Spades

Bids go around the table once, and every bid is shown at that player's seat. Each player bids for themselves, but tricks and points are shared: if you bid 2 and take 4 while your partner bids 4 and takes 3, the team bid 6 and took 7, so the contract is made with one extra trick.

A simple way to count a hand: an Ace is usually one trick, a King with at least one smaller card beside it is often a trick, and a Queen needs two guards to have a real chance. In spades, count the top cards and add a trick for each spade beyond the third or fourth. A void or singleton in a side suit can also earn a trick, because you can trump when that suit is led. Then lean slightly low. Falling short costs the whole contract, while one extra trick costs only a bag.

Later bidders know more. If you bid last and the table already totals 11, tricks are scarce and a high bid is risky.

What is a Nil bid in Spades (and Blind Nil)?

A Nil bid is a promise that you personally will win no tricks. Make it and your team scores 100 points on top of your partner's result; take even one trick and your team loses 100. Nil suits a hand of low cards with no high spades and short suits you can throw away. A lone Ace or King is dangerous, because an opponent can lead that suit and force you to win.

A Nil bidder's tricks never count toward the partner's bid. If you bid Nil and your partner bids 5, your partner needs 5 tricks alone, and any trick you take also counts as a bag for your team.

Blind Nil is bid before you look at your cards: it scores 200 points or costs 200. In this game it is an option, on by default, that you can only choose when your team is behind by 100 points or more. There is no card exchange with your partner.

Spades scoring explained: bags and the 10-bag penalty

After all 13 tricks, each team is scored on its combined contract:

• Made: 10 points per trick bid, plus 1 per extra trick. Bid 6, take 8: 62 points.
• Set (fell short): minus 10 per trick bid. Bid 6, take 5: minus 60.
• Nil: plus 100 if made, minus 100 if failed. Blind Nil: plus or minus 200.
• Bags: every extra trick is a bag. Bags carry over between hands, and each time your team reaches 10 you lose 100 points and 10 bags come off the count.

How do you win a game of Spades?

The first team to reach the target wins: 500 points by default, or 300 if you pick the shorter game. If both teams pass the target on the same hand, the higher score wins, and a tie means one more hand. A team that falls to minus 200 or lower loses at once, a mercy rule that ends hopeless games.

Bags are what make Spades more than counting. A team that keeps overtricking can score well every hand and still drop 100 points each time the count rolls over, so careful teams make their contract with as few spare tricks as possible.

When can you lead spades? Breaking spades explained

You can lead a spade once spades are broken, which happens the first time any player plays a spade because they had no card of the led suit. The one exception: if your hand holds only spades, you may lead one at any time.

The rule stops a player with many high spades from drawing everyone's trumps at once and then cashing every Ace and King.

Joker Spades: Big Joker and Little Joker

Joker Spades is a popular variant you can switch on in the options (it is off by default). Two jokers become the two highest spades: the Big Joker beats everything, then the Little Joker, then the Ace of spades. The 2 of hearts and 2 of diamonds are removed, so the deck stays at 52 cards and 13 per hand.

That makes 15 trumps instead of 13, so spade length matters even more. The jokers count as spades for every rule: you follow spades with them, trump with them, and playing one when you can't follow suit breaks spades.

Spades strategy and bidding tips

Strong Spades players are the ones whose bids are accurate and whose partner can trust them. These habits help most:

• Bid sure tricks first (Aces, the King of spades, guarded Kings), then add for spade length.
• Read your partner's bid. A high bid means play your low cards early and keep out of the way; a bid of 1 or 2 means you carry the contract.
• If all four bids total 10 or less, at least three tricks are spare and someone will collect bags. Make sure it is not you.
• Once your contract is safe, duck: play under the winning card to avoid bags.
• When the opponents are short of their contract, take tricks you don't need. Setting them is worth far more than a bag.
• Protect a Nil partner by playing high over the opponents and winning tricks that would land on them.
• Count spades: 13 in the deck, 15 with jokers. Once the high ones are gone, your remaining spades are winners.

Computer levels: Easy, Normal and Hard

When you play alone, your partner and both opponents are computer players. Easy makes simpler choices and more mistakes, which suits learning. Normal plays sensibly and protects its contract. Hard counts every card played, tracks which suits each player is out of, and looks ahead by simulating many possible deals of the unseen cards before choosing a card.

The computers bid like a careful human: they count Aces, protected Kings, spade length and short side suits, adjust for their partner's bid and the total so far, bid Nil with a weak hand, and avoid overtricks when their team is close to 10 bags.

Play Spades online with friends

Open an online room to get a room code and a share link you can send on WhatsApp, copy, or share from your phone. Friends join in the browser with no download and no sign-up, and the computer fills any empty seat, so two, three or four people can play. Quick match seats you with other players online, and computers top up the table if it isn't full after about 20 seconds.

Rooms have quick emoji and text chat plus optional voice chat. You can set the speed to relaxed, normal or fast, review the last trick, and see the round history and score table after every hand. On a touch screen, tap a card once to raise it and again to play; on desktop, click, or use Tab and Enter.

Spades vs Hearts vs Rung (Court Piece)

All three are four player trick-taking games with a must-follow-suit rule. In Spades you play in partnerships, spades are always trump, and you bid your tricks. In Hearts, also on PlayNest, everyone plays alone with no trump and tries to avoid hearts and the Queen of spades, so the lowest score wins. In Rung, known in Pakistan and India as Court Piece, you also have a partner, but one player picks trump from five cards and the first team to seven tricks wins the round, with no bidding.

If you love the partnership feel of Court Piece and want more control over the result, Spades is the natural next game.

Where Spades comes from

Spades belongs to the Whist family, the same family as Bridge. It was developed in the United States in the 1930s and spread widely during the Second World War, when soldiers liked a game that could start quickly and stop at any point. Afterwards it became a fixture on college campuses and at family tables, and later found a large audience online, including the Internet Spades game that came with some versions of Windows. House rules for Nil, bags and jokers still vary from table to table; this version uses the most common modern rules.